Given her name, there’s a common misconception that Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte – Santa Muerte for short – is actually connected to the Catholic canon. In reality, she’s a folk figure with greater ties to Indigenous spiritualism than to Catholic sainthood. Toying the line between supernatural figure and religious icon, scholars have come to associate Santa Muerte as being an adaptation of the Aztec goddess of death, Mictecacihuatl. In the wake of colonial religious inquisitions and violence, Santa Muerte’s typical Spanish garb and European accoutrements show this interplay between the indigenous spiritualism and European religious sentiments battling with each other at the time having manifested in this unique female figure.
