Santa Muerte Shrine, Tultitlan, Mexico
Santa Muerte --literally "Holy Death" or "Saint Death"--is the sacred figure of death personified as a woman. She is venerated by an ever growing number of people in Mexico and beyond, and is especially popular with disenfranchised members of society such as criminals, prostitutes, transvestites, homosexuals, prisoners, the very poor, and other people for whom conventional Catholicism has not provided a better or a safer life. The phenomenon is thought to have its roots in a s yncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics. We at Morbid Anatomy have long been fascinated by the phenomenon of Santa Muerte (on which more here ) and, whilst in Mexico last week for the Morbid Anatomy Day of the Dead field trip , we had the very good fortune--thanks to our good friend Dr. Andrew Chesnut --to visit to the epic Santa Muerte shrine in Tultitlan, Mexico. Founded in 2007 by Jonathan Legaria Vargas (aka “Comandante Pantera"...