suppose it was bound to happen. Violence against transgender women is so common in Mexico.

The civil rights organization Transgender Europe has documented 247 killings of transgender people in Mexico between January 2008 and April 2016, the second-highest number in the world, after Brazil.

Earlier this month, a transgender woman's mutilated body was stuffed into a suitcase and umped by the side of a road.

It does not help that pretty much the only employment available to transgender women in Mexico is sex work.

So who do people turn to for hope?

Santa Muerte has become the preferred focus of belief.

Unlike official church figures such as Our Lady of Guadalupe whose images are ethereal, Santa Muerte appeals to those with practical problems and passions living on the country’s margins. Devotees ask her for protection, even when sex work is their only occupation.

The majority of us believe in Santa Muerte. She’s a god to us. I ask her to shield me from danger and provide work and clients.

--Betzy Ballesteros

The word for today is "syncretism."

The cult of Santa Muerte is an example of religious syncretism, with roots in European Catholicism and Aztec beliefs.

Condemned as satanic by the Catholic Church and frequently portrayed as a narco-cult in the media, worship of Santa Muerte is nevertheless a fast-growing new religious movement in the Americas, according to Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint.

Mexican Catholics and evangelicals tend to view transgenderism as a lifestyle choicet. But the fact that Santa Muerte is outside the orbit of both evangelical and Catholic Christianity makes her much more appealing. It’s much easier for followers to feel that she’s not going to be judgmental.

--Chesnut

Santa Muerte plays a vital role in helping to unify a community that lacks a voice and visibility.