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Popular religion is frequently considered as the remains of “pre-modern” times. To some it may seem anachronistic in an era of highly developed technologies and urban life styles. However, in Mexican society, new types of religious practices and the devotion to secular saints are associated with the drug world and the informal sector at the margins of urban life. These new forms of popular religion are a sign of a changing Mexican society that has been deeply impacted by globalization and neoliberal economics. This paper explores this contemporary religious phenomenon by using Giorgio Agamben’s notion of “bare life”. The worship of Jesús Malverde, La Santa Muerte and other laic figures is gaining popularity among those who are abandoned by the mainstream and involved in the informal sector, where they remain exposed to danger and violence and abandoned by the law. The role of new religious icons is to provide protection, identification and a sense of community without authorization by the Catholic Church the traditional system of Christianity. Practitioners of these forms of popular religion may be accused of justifying illicit activities and reproducing the culture of fear and everyday violence. This study discusses these controversial practice in order to examine a social environment in which the informal sectors have been condemned illegality while nonetheless constructing their own culture, identity and ways of life.

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