A group for anybody who worships, or is interested in, la Santa Muerte. Especially in studying her as an expression of cultural outcry from marginalized and oppressed people. Examining her origins and contemporary existence by those who live against and under the system, and her compatibility with anti-systematic movements. All in contrast to her media depiction as an 'evil' 'narco-saint' who's worshipers torture and kill.
Select excerpts from Wiki:
"Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte or, colloquially, Santa Muerte (Spanish for Saint Death), is a female folk saint venerated primarily in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees. Despite opposition by the Catholic Church, her cult arose from popular Mexican folk belief, a syncretism between indigenous Mesoamerican and Spanish Catholic beliefs and practices... Santa Muerte remained clandestine until the middle of the 20th century. When it went public in sporadic occurrences, reaction was often harsh, and included the desecration of shrines and altars. Veneration of Santa Muerte was documented in the 1940s in working-class neighborhoods in Mexico City, such as Tepito...
The cult of Santa Muerte is present throughout the strata of Mexican society, although the majority of devotees are from the urban working class. Most are young people, aged in their teens, twenties, or thirties, and are also mostly female. A large following developed among Mexicans who are disillusioned with the dominant, institutional Catholic Church and, in particular, with the inability of established Catholic saints to deliver them from poverty. The phenomenon is based among people with scarce resources, excluded from the formal market economy, as well as the judicial and educational systems, primarily in the inner cities and the very rural areas. Devotion to Santa Muerte is what anthropologists call a "cult of crisis". Devotion to the image peaks during economic and social hardships, which tend to affect the working classes more. Santa Muerte tends to attract those in extremely difficult or hopeless situations... Some of her most devoted followers are those individuals associated with petty economic crimes, committed often out of desperation; such as prostitutes, pickpockets and thieves. The worship of Santa Muerte also attracts those who are not inclined to seek the traditional Catholic Church for spiritual solace, as it is part of the "legitimate" sector of society. Many followers of Santa Muerte live on the margins of the law or outside it entirely. Many street vendors, taxi drivers, vendors of pirated merchandise, street people, prostitutes, pickpockets, petty drug traffickers and gang members are not practicing Catholics or Protestants, but neither are they atheists.
Santa Muerte is also seen as a protector of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender communities in Mexico, since many are considered to be outcast from society. Many LGBT people ask her for protection from violence, hatred, disease, and to help them in search of love. Her intercession is commonly invoked in same-sex marriage ceremonies performed in Mexico. The Iglesia Católica Tradicional México-Estados Unidos, also known as the Church of Saint Death, recognizes gay marriage and performs religious wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples. In the Mexican and U.S. press, the Santa Muerte cult is often associated with violence, criminality, and the illegal drug trade. She is a popular deity in prisons, both among inmates and staff, and shrines dedicated to her can be found in many cells.
The Vatican has condemned the cult of Santa Muerte in Mexico as blasphemous, calling it a "degeneration of religion". Mexico's Catholic Church has accused Santa Muerte devotees of mixing Christianity with devil-worshiping cultism... The majority of devotees of Santa Muerte, however, do not worry about any contradiction between the church and the worship of Santa Muerte."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Muerte