In 2012 agents unearthed the body of Jesus Martinez, which had been buried in the dirt floor in the bedroom of one of the Meraz daughters. Afterward they arrested all seven family members, who went on to lead the agents to the remains of Rios and also the grave of 55-year-old Cleotilde Romero, one of Meraz's closest friends who had vanished without a trace after they'd had an argument back in 2009. Both of these bodies were buried near the shack where the murderous cult members lived. According to their official report the victims’ throats and wrists had been slashed so that the blood could be collected and spread on a sacrificial altar.
The Sonora Attorney General's Office named Silvia Meraz as the cult leader after she and the rest of the family identified themselves as devotees of the patron Saint of Death, Santa Muerte. Meraz confessed to the media that she was indeed a practitioner of blood magic and that she deeply believed their protector would bring them money and power. Instead she brought misery and suffering down upon all of their heads.
“What can she do for us?” Meraz cried to reporters in between unleashing a string of profanities. “Nothing.”
Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte – more commonly known as Santa Muerte or “Saint Death” – is a female folk saint venerated primarily in Mexico and the United States within Latino communities, despite fierce opposition from the Catholic Church. The origins of her cult have roots that delve far back into the deep history of Mexican folk culture and superstitions, blending indigenous Mesoamerican traditions with newer Catholic beliefs introduced by the Spanish. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the conquerors did their best to bring an end to pagan forms of the worship of death but were never completely able to eradicate it. It simply was too ingrained in the culture to be forgotten. Researchers have recently discovered references dating back to 18th-century Mexico, recorded during the Spanish Inquisition, when a group of indigenous people in central Mexico tied up a skeletal figure they addressed as "Santa Muerte" and threatened it with violence unless it performed miracles and granted their deepest wishes. Unlike Dia de los Muertos – the Day of the Dead – a festive holiday that commemorates death as a natural part of the cycle of life, Santa Muerte is a darker practice more recently popularized by drug lords, cartel hitmen, and other outlaws who worship and make offerings to the personification of death for healing, protection, wealth, glory, and in some cases, the hope of eternal life here on Earth.
Santa Muerte is known by many different names including Señora de las Sombras ("Lady of the Shadows"), Señora Blanca ("White Lady"), Señora Negra ("Black Lady"), Niña Santa ("Holy Girl"), Santa Sebastiana (St. Sebastienne) or Doña Bella Sebastiana ("Our Beautiful Lady Sebastienne") and the most popular one – La Flaquita ("The Skinny Little Lady"). A skeletal female figure most often clad in a long robe and wedding dress, she usually carries a scythe in one hand and a globe in the other. Some practitioners adorn her in garish displays of expensive jewelry or lavish robes in alluring arrays of colors depending on the aspect being worshipped. She may appear forebodingly clad from head to toe in black as well.
No matter how she manifests this increasingly popular folk saint specializes in protecting followers from their enemies and striking down those they wish to harm. By turns jealous and vengeful, the personification of death who does not judge but leads the faithful who properly conduct sacrifices and rituals safely to the afterlife, is rapidly growing a following among the infamous drug cartels of Mexico as well as working-class professionals.
Prior to the 20th century most prayers and other rites to the Death Saint were secretly performed in the privacy of the practitioner’s home. Since the turn of the 21st century worship has become more acceptable and public, especially in Mexico after a shrine was created for Santa Muerte in Mexico City in 2001. The number of believers in Santa Muerte has mushroomed in the past ten years. Authorities now believe as many as eight million people openly worship the folk icon, making Saint Death the second only to Saint Jude, and putting her into direct competition with the country's beloved Virgin of Guadalupe. The meteoric rise in the size of the death cult is believed to be connected to her supposed ability to quickly grant wishes and perform miracles as well as the surge in drug violence.
Among the poor, where her worship has exploded in recent years, which is not surprising since she offers hope for the chance of a better life to those who sing her praises. Worship has been seen to peak during times of economic crisis with many followers being young, female, and disillusioned with the established Catholic Saints ability to deliver them from the miseries of the abject poverty they exist in. But the cult of Santa Muerte is present throughout all the strata of Mexican society, not just urban working-class families, who constitute the majority of devotees. Military and police agents, elected officials, artists, and other affluent members of Mexican society have been identified as secret practitioners in recent years.
In 2001, a devotee named Enriqueta Romero took her life-sized image of Santa Muerte from her home in Mexico City and built a shrine that was visible from the street, shocking her neighbors and drawing people from all over Mexico to come pray and to leave offerings for the Lady of Death. Every year on November 1, thousands of people descend on her rough neighborhood in Tepito to celebrate the adopted holiday, clutching skeletal dolls that depict their protector, who is dressed as a bride and adorned with gold for the celebration. A carnival-like atmosphere pervades Santa Muerte's most important ceremony of the year, with food, music and dancing well into the night as well as sex and drugs.
Still a surprisingly number of worshipers of “the Bony Lady” consider themselves to be devout Catholics, despite praying to a non-canonized folk saint openly repudiated and demonized by the Church. In a country where the dominant religion is Catholicism the rituals and processions of the worship of Saint Death take on a decidedly familiar tone, either in deference or in mockery. Self-appointed priests replace the traditional hierarchy the same way marijuana smoke replaces ceremonial incense. There are temples and shrines as well as other ritualized elements that effectively merge traditional forms of veneration with their local beliefs and customs.
The Church has been unequivocal in its response, stating that devotion to Santa Muerte “is the celebration of devastation and of hell” and that practice should be stomped out with the help of families and communities. Still worship continues to grow among their followers, owing in part to Saint Death's supposed ability to quickly grant wishes and her lack of judgement, the latter being the more likely draw for gang members and outlaws. In a country plagued by drug violence, worship of the malleable and forgiving Saint has at times taken on a more deadly and sinister form – reflecting the violent struggle many of them face on a daily basis for survival. While the vast majority of followers are engaged in benign practices involving nothing more than making offerings and prayers to 'the Skinny One' this nefarious element has taken up their own form of Santa Muerte worship, reimagining the often maligned saint as a darker icon with an unquenchable thirst for blood.
In an interview with the BBC Father Ernesto Caro blames Santa Muerte for the rise in exorcisms, claiming that the practice is “the first step into Satanism” and that drug traffickers and killers routinely offer Flaquita sacrifices. Some cartels insist their members practice their twisted version of Santa Muerte worship, using devotion as a tool to control their foot soldiers and turning gruesome killings into religiously sanctioned offerings to the figure of death herself. One such individual, a cartel hitman charged with disposing of victim’s bodies, came to be exorcised at Caro's church in Monterrey. Believing he was possessed by demons he gleefully divulged how he'd cut up bodies and burned others alive, relishing the sounds of their tortured screams as they died. When asked why he took such delight in the suffering of others the man explained he was a devote follower of Santa Muerte. Father Caro insists this is not an isolated incident but rather is becoming the new norm.
“Santa Muerte is being used by all our drug dealers and those linke
d to these brutal murders,” Caro explained to the BBC. “We’ve found that most of them, if not all, follow Santa Muerte.”
In a country where drug-related violence has swallowed up over 150,000 people in the last decade, including innocent bystanders, the appeal of the dark worship of an amoral deity who offers protection, wealth, status, and power is as intoxicating as the narcotics driving the brutality. Faced with the near certainty of a grisly death at the hands of their enemies, some cartel members have begun offering severed body parts including human heads, rather than the traditional beer or tobacco, hoping to invoke some form of divine intervention by rubbing cocaine and human blood on their Santa Muerte statues. In one instance a vicious cartel killer boasted that Santa Muerte had brought him back from death five times, right before two enforcers hacked him to pieces with machetes.
In Tepito it was discovered that a drug lord was holding annual human sacrifices of virgins and newborns in return for the Saint bestowing magical powers on him. Recently a mass grave was unearthed in the drug crime embattled northern state of Sinaloa. All 50 bodies were marked with symbols and adornments depicting Santa Muerte. Although venerated alongside Jesús Malverde, the "Saint of Drug Traffickers" whose following is strong in his hometown of Sinaloa, the force of Santa Muerte is much more dominant. Altars with images of Santa Muerte have begun to crop up routinely in raided drug houses in both Mexico and the United States, as immigrants bring their practices with them to their new homes.
Churches for Santa Muerte have cropped up in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, and New Orleans, as well as other heavily populated areas that draw in migrant workers. At present there are 15 religious groups in Los Angeles alone dedicated to her worship and not just by Latinos. Increasingly larger numbers have begun to show up at pseudo-religious ceremonies as the worship of the celebrated folk Saint continues to spread inside the United States. Each and every day millions of people pray to her, asking for her assistance in both worldly and spiritual matters, including cartel and gang members who in some cases ask for nothing more than a quick, painless death and for their names to live on in glory long after they are gone.
For more information on Santa Muerte check out Devoted to Death by Andrew Chesnut, the leading authority on the growing cult. Until next time... Stay Scared!
Devan Sagliani
@devansagliani – Twitter, Facebook & Instagram
http://devansagliani.com
http://smarturl.it/devansagliani
Originally published on The Escapist at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/columns/darkdreams/14021-Santa-Muerte-Gaining-More-Prominence-in-Mexican-Culture
Acknowledgements
First and foremost I would like to thank my loving and supportive wife, Angie. Your unceasing support for my passion gives me the strength I need to fight through the dark moments of doubt as a writer and just stay true to my voice. I love you baby.
Thanks also to the Salerno family for their love and support, including my 'chosen mother' Diane, who took it upon herself to be both my willing and eager beta reader as well as my editor. I appreciate your love and support more than you can ever know.
Thanks to my amazing friend and fellow author Shana Festa and the Bookie Monster for always having my back, endlessly helping me solve publishing riddles, and just being awesome in general. You are the engine that drives our charity At Hell's Gates and I appreciate everything you do. Always.
Thanks as well to all of my At Hell's Gates and Shaytrix writers, especially Stephen Kozeniewski, Stevie Kopas, C.T. Phipps, Tim Marquitz, S.P. Durnin, Sharon Stevenson, and James Crawford who have all shown me and my work great kindness in the past. Thanks to Dave Gammon for my first great review and for always supporting me as well.
Mahalo to the Hālau Hula O 'Imi 'Ike for always supporting my writing career. You've taught me the true meaning of Ohana and Aloha.
Thanks to Dean Samed for the beautiful cover. Thanks to Shawn King for creating my Laughing Crow Media logo and the cover for my book Undead L.A. 1.
Thanks as well to Alexander Macris from DEFY Media who persuaded me that doing a bimonthly horror column for a gamer site was a good idea. You truly are a genius my friend and I am ever grateful that I met you.
Thanks to Clive McLean who first introduced me to Cabo San Lucas. You and your stinky cigars are missed by all who knew and loved you, Seen Yor Cleave Eh.
Last but not least thanks to you, my incredible readers, for supporting my work. I love receiving feedback from readers and connecting with them on social media. I also love seeing your positive and encouraging reviews. They help more than you can know. So please, friends, if you enjoyed Saint Death, leave a review on Amazon for me. Thanks again.
About the Author
Devan Sagliani was born and raised in Southern California and graduated from UCLA. He is the author of the bestselling Zombie Attack series, The Rising Dead, A Thirst For Fire, Saint Death and the Undead L.A. series. Devan also wrote the original screenplay for the movie HVZ: Humans Versus Zombies. He writes a bimonthly horror column for Escapist Magazine called Dark Dreams. In 2014 he cofounded the At Hell's Gates horror anthology series with Shana Festa, which donates all proceeds to The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund to help wounded soldiers and their families.
Devan is an active member of the Horror Writer's Association. His fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Million Writers Award. In 2012 his debut novel Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde won Best Zombie/Horror E-book on Goodreads. In 2015 The Rising Dead and Zombie Attack were both named on the Best Zombie Books of 2015 by Ranking Squad.
He currently lives in Venice Beach, California with his wife and dog.
You can visit him online at http://devansagliani.com.
Connect with Devan on social media:
http://www.twitter.com/devansagliani
www.facebook.com/ZombieAttackRiseOfTheHorde
Read his columns on The Escapist:
www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/columns/darkdreams
To learn more about AT HELL'S GATES, visit http://www.athellsgates.com.
Also by Devan Sagliani
Zombie Attack: Rise of the Horde (book 1)
Zombie Attack: Curse of the Living (book 2)
Zombie Attack: Army of the Dead (book 3)
The Rising Dead
Undead L.A. 1
A Thirst For Fire
At Hell's Gates: Existing Worlds
At Hell's Gates: Origins of Evil
At Hell's Gates: Bound by Blood
As a bonus I’ve included a zombie short story entitled LAX
from my horror novel Undead L.A. 1. I hope you enjoy it!
Devan Sagliani
UNDEAD L.A. 1: LAX
by Devan Sagliani
Laughing Crow Media © 2013
All rights reserved.
PREFACE
The Undead L.A. series tells the story of the zombie apocalypse through the eyes of different protagonists, giving us a unique perspective on the end of the world and making the city itself the main character in the process. LAX is the first story in Undead L.A. 1. I've made it available for free to zombie fans on my site and am now opening it up to readers online as well.
Told through the eyes of commercial airline pilot Edgar Reynolds, LAX is the story of a desperate man who wakes up to find the world has gone mad and fights his way through the a sea of walking corpses back to his airliner in the hope of making it out of the city alive.
Buckle up! It's going to be a bumpy ride!
Introduction
On September 20, the zombie virus was released into the dense population of transients on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. It spread like unstoppable wildfire in all directions, decimating everything in its path for six full weeks before measures were taken to cleanse the scourge. LAX is just one of the stories that takes place in those final times.
Told through the eyes of a commercial airline pilot, it offers a u
nique perspective to the events as they unfolded and to the aftermath of the virus. In many ways it bears witness not only to the tragedies of that unforgettable period, but also to the city's former glory.
May this story never be forgotten but remain uncensored for future generations, along with the rest of the Undead L.A. collection, so others will have the chance to understand the choices that were made and why the sacrifices were necessary for our survival. Hopefully it will serve as a reminder, along with the rest; not only of mankind's infinite potential for good, but also of our latent animal desire for cruelty and suffering, and how the constant struggle between these two opposing forces defined what it meant to be alive in the era commonly referred to as the 21st century.
***
Los Angeles, also known as the City of Angels, once had a
racially and culturally diverse population of nearly 4,000,000 people.
Prior to its fall it was the most populated city in California
and the second most populated in the entire United States.
It covered an area of nearly 500 square miles.
In fact the Greater L.A. Area region contained approximately
18,000,000 people, making it one of the most densely populated
metropolitan areas on the entire planet.
The city's inhabitants were referred to as Angelenos.
***
LAX
The flight management computers were still working when he locked himself in the cockpit. He'd been trying to catch his breath for what felt like forever. Sweat formed at his temples and he could hear his heart beating violently in his ears. He was sore all over, but other than that he was in better shape than most. He'd managed to climb through hell without even getting a scratch. He’d double-checked the door to be sure it was locked, not believing his own eyes.
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