​
I am looking for a coherent explanation regarding a pattern I’ve observed within the Santa Muerte community, particularly on social media.
Many practitioners who style themselves as “decolonial” frequently gatekeep the veneration of the White Lady, accusing White practitioners of “colonizing” a spirit that is supposedly “exclusively Mexican.” However, this position collapses under even minor historical scrutiny.
If these individuals are truly concerned with indigenous sovereignty and the rejection of colonial influence, their current practices are a maze of contradictions. Santa Muerte, as we know her, is not the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl. She is a syncretic product of the colonial era a direct result of the imposition of Spanish Catholicism upon indigenous concepts of death. She is, for all intents and purposes, a refugee figure forced to hide under the veil of the colonial church to survive.
When I have challenged prominent “spiritual influencers” on TikTok with this asking why they gatekeep a spirit that is fundamentally a product of colonial synthesis or why they refuse to work with indigenous spirits? or why they simultaneously petition European saints like Saint Expeditus while complaining about “colonizers”—the results are predictable. I am either ignored, blocked, or given the evasive non-answer that she is “the result of secrecy.”
I am fully aware she is the result of secrecy. My point remains: secrecy does not strip away the colonial overlay they so vehemently claim to abhor. If they were truly dedicated to decolonial spiritual purity, why aren’t they petitioning the pre-colonial Mictecacihuatl directly, rather than the skeletal synthesis created under the shadow of the Vatican?
Furthermore, the recent attempt to link Santa Muerte to modern progressive political platforms—claiming she is “against” anti-immigration policies or conservative values—is arguably more “colonial” than anything they accuse outsiders of doing. It is the blatant hijacking of a folk tradition to serve as a mascot for contemporary political identity.
It forces the question: Are these individuals actually engaged in spiritual devotion, or are they simply grifters using the guise of “tradition” to build a brand, signal virtue, and exclude those who don’t fit their preferred socio-political aesthetic? the spiritual dissonance and these communities is alarmingnot loud and wrong.They're married , ignorant and proud of it. Stop complaining about colonization if you're going to work with white white Catholic saints or call nice saints.Work with indigenous ones
If you call everyone else a colonizer while worshiping a figure born from colonial subjugation and importing European Catholic saints to boot, you aren’t a traditionalist—you are a hypocrite. Can anyone actually provide a logical defense for this position that doesn’t involve blocking me or reciting a pre-packaged script? I would love to hear it.