God Dies of Heatstroke

Abstract

Santa Muerte is a skeletal Mexican folk-saint whose influence has rapidly spread to cover the Americas. This religious movement is set apart in modernity due to how quickly Santa Muerte has become ubiquitous in so many places despite facing pushback from both the Catholic Church. Followers also face profiling by U.S. law enforcement, who often unduly target her devotees due to the social stigmas attached to her worship. FBI training documents link Santa Muerte to human sacrifice using examples of drug-war killing — though there is no clear case of a person being sacrificed to Santa Muerte — while promoting Christian spirituality to its agents to help them cope with the job. Law enforcement’s view of her followers is driven by Robert Almonte who lectures police about Santa Muerte across the nation. His teachings have inspired a culture of anxiety and profiling, one akin to the fear of Satanic worship that was seen in the 1980s. As the border becomes increasingly militarized and the Catholic church wanes, the number of Santa Muerte’s disciples will continue to swell and increasing clashes with law enforcement may accompany that change. Giving Santa Muerte a true treatment and rejecting the pervasive profiling of her followers is an important step in humanizing not only migrants and Latinx people, but also cartel members — as they are just as much people trying to survive caught up in a system that is both violent and against them as most in the U.S. are.