Insecurity and Contemporary Mexican Religiosity

Misra, Amalendu (2026) Insecurity and Contemporary Mexican Religiosity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. ISBN 9783032158277 (In Press)

Abstract

Insecurity and Contemporary Mexican Religiosity investigates the intersection between insecurity and non-mainstream faiths in contemporary Mexico. It asks why people turn to contentious faiths during extremities. This detailed study brings to light how a belief system representing three popular saints - Santa Muerte, Jesús Malverde, and San Judas Tadeo - has been adopted by the country’s poor and marginal and co-opted by criminal fraternities. By interrogating manifestations of this new religiosity in Mexican society, Amalendu Misra demonstrates how faith can bolster the assertion of power in order to challenge authority and even on occasion inflict injury on adversaries. Misra also draws on testimonials, religious representations, and disturbing statistics regarding brutality to underscore the dependence on specific forms of divinity, of those seeking to survive Mexico’s ecosystem of spiralling criminal violence.