Between Virgins and Girls: Religious Devotion to Female Figures in Drug Culture in Mexico

Abstract

Narcoculture is a phenomenon spread over the last decades conforming, not only the daily life in the subsistence form of a significant sector of the Mexican population, but also, it has established its own idea of transcendence, where religious syncretism has played a transcendental role. The religious figures which prevail in the world of Narcoculture are very varied, and each of them presents very particular characteristics. Some of the most representative cults of the drug world are: the devotion to the Holy Death, the cult to Martín Valverde, and the devotion to San Judas Tadeo, just to mention a few. But what happens when these figures worthy of devotion become feminine? What is the distinction between entrusting yourself to a male and a female figure? We can observe that femininity through religious beliefs has a very important role in the configuration of these transcendental ideas.