Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Venezuela, 1980: a novel cult to criminal saints – Santos Malandros – starts making its way into the inner workings of Venezuelan spiritism, also called Cult to María Lionza. After almost 40 years of social change, political turmoil and, two decades of acute economic crisis, the cult has grown in scope and influence, having been spatialized into a shrine inside the Cementerio General del Sur de Caracas. The pilgrims who venture into this well-known dangerous place do so for the most diverse reasons: to ask for protection, to escape the violence ridden barrio, or to seek the spirits’ blessings for criminal endeavors. Through a “fugitive point of view” rooted in the material representations within the shrine, with the help of the ever-present salsa and spiritual possession, the marialionceros weave together their own personal narratives with the social memories that have been preserved through practice, shaping a new personal and empowering experience. Performing agency through the citation and mediation that characterize the spiritual and material evocation of the Santos Malandros, the community of worshippers looks back in order to be able to look forward and defines the present according to a re-definition of the past that will lead to the creation of new paradigms. It is not easy to survive, let alone live, in such an environment. But to be able to survive with the help of those who did not, can perchance give some sense to the incomprehensible.