Within the last couple of decades the religious world of Latin America has included a significant variety of non-institutional religiosities that have gained more and more power. Some of the examples are the cult of Santa Muerte that has spread to various parts of the planet, the cult of Jesús Malverde, the patron saint of the Sinaloa cartel who is also venerated in various regions of the U.S.A. and Central America, as well as the case of San Simón, interpreted by various social sectors that adjusted the cult to their own spiritual needs, at the peak of its expansion also resulting from social mobility and the institutional crisis of Christian religions. These religious movements implied a redesign in social studies that led us through reflections on theoretical, conceptual, and methodological dimensions. This study takes a social anthropology and situated ethnography perspective, it focuses on description of the worship of San Simón, a saint of Guatemalan origin who does not belong to the Catholic pantheon, and who is venerated by a group of Guatemalan prostitutes in a Chiapas municipality Macondo (a fictitious name), on the border with Guatemala. The research was conducted in a bar named El Kumbala, a place where a series of religious practices dedicated to San Simón occur, in a context permeated by violence, where this religious figure gains a symbolic charge related principally with protection. For the prostitutes from this region San Simón is a great ally who provides them with clients and protection. However, in addition, he lives the same rejection as his devotees, which means, that his relationship with them is of a horizontal nature, which permits a series of punishments if he does not fulfil his basic functions: to protect and to provide.

San Simón es un santo que no pertenece al panteón católico, su plasticidad y ambivalencia le permite ajustarse a diversos contextos sociales donde adquiere significado. En Macondo se le venera principalmente en los centros de prostitución, donde el santo protege a las prostitutas de las profundas condiciones de riesgo, violencia y vulnerabilidad.

Abstract

Within the last couple of decades the religious world of Latin America has included a significant variety of non-institutional religiosities that have gained more and more power. Some of the examples are the cult of Santa Muerte that has spread to various parts of the planet, the cult of Jesús Malverde, the patron saint of the Sinaloa cartel who is also venerated in various regions of the U.S.A. and Central America, as well as the case of San Simón, interpreted by various social sectors that adjusted the cult to their own spiritual needs, at the peak of its expansion also resulting from social mobility and the institutional crisis of Christian religions. These religious movements implied a redesign in social studies that led us through reflections on theoretical, conceptual, and methodological dimensions. This study takes a social anthropology and situated ethnography perspective, it focuses on description of the worship of San Simón, a saint of Guatemalan origin who does not belong to the Catholic pantheon, and who is venerated by a group of Guatemalan prostitutes in a Chiapas municipality Macondo (a fictitious name), on the border with Guatemala. The research was conducted in a bar named El Kumbala, a place where a series of religious practices dedicated to San Simón occur, in a context permeated by violence, where this religious figure gains a symbolic charge related principally with protection. For the prostitutes from this region San Simón is a great ally who provides them with clients and protection. However, in addition, he lives the same rejection as his devotees, which means, that his relationship with them is of a horizontal nature, which permits a series of punishments if he does not fulfil his basic functions: to protect and to provide.