What prompted your interest in the Santa Muerte phenomena?*
I am a specialist in the religious landscape of Latin America and was conducting research for a book project on the Virgin of Guadalupe when in March 2009 I saw the news that the Mexican army had demolished 40 Santa Muerte altars on the border with Texas and California. I have more than 3 decades of experience in Mexico so I was already familiar with the Mexican folk saint of death but had no idea that she had become religious enemy number one for the then Calderon administration. I saw that very little had been published on Santa Muerte, particularly in English, so I decided to put the Guadalupe book project on hold and write the first book in English on “Saint Death,” which I did. Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint was first published in 2012 and the second edition in 2017.
I am a specialist in the religious landscape of Latin America and was conducting research for a book project on the Virgin of Guadalupe when in March 2009 I saw the news that the Mexican army had demolished 40 Santa Muerte altars on the border with Texas and California. I have more than 3 decades of experience in Mexico so I was already familiar with the Mexican folk saint of death but had no idea that she had become religious enemy number one for the then Calderon administration. I saw that very little had been published on Santa Muerte, particularly in English, so I decided to put the Guadalupe book project on hold and write the first book in English on “Saint Death,” which I did. Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint was first published in 2012 and the second edition in 2017.
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