Tepito, the neighborhood that prays to Santa Muerte, is now also home to a new cult of Lucifer: The Little Black Angel

In the bowels of Tepito, the so-called “bravo neighborhood” of Mexico City, emerges the cult of the Black Angel, a devotion to the devil full of rituals and symbolized by an imposing altar just a hundred meters from the most famous temple of another popular figure, Santa Muerte.

Alexis, the Chinese for friends, lights a cigar and smokes the Little Black Angel. The figure, sitting in the middle of a giant inverted pentagram that occupies an entire wall of the room, watches the scene undaunted.

In one hand he carries a cake and in the other hand some scapulars and a cigarette. At his feet are money, candles, many cans of beer, a glass of wine, a pizza and several circles of salt on the floor that serve to cleanse the space of negative energies. On the sides of the altar, inverted black crosses.

In this small room of a private home in Tepito, a bustling neighborhood of the capital with a reputation for being dangerous, the little black angel, dressed in white and with big horns, is king.

“I started to worship the Little Black Angel since my mother got sick, she had cancer. And I asked him and promised that if he helped me get my mother out of cancer, I would give myself body and soul,” explained Alexis, who at 27 years old is the father of two children and takes care of the altar with care.

A bit of history

Years ago, the young man traveled to Pachuca, in the state of Hidalgo, to meet Oscar Pelcastre, known as the Black Bishop and the main promoter of this cult some two decades ago.

After going through several tests — some of them include scarifications on the skin — Alexis became part of the cult. And as proof of his devotion he took a figure of Satan to his ward, Tepito.

Now, on the first Friday of each month, the parishioners of this cult celebrate their own special mass.

“There are many people, from children to women. Good people and bad people. There's everything here. There are believers and it is open to everyone. Even politicians come,” he says.

The young man assures that the Little Black Angel always gives what you ask for, but he refuses that it is a dangerous pact with the devil.

“Everyone has that fear without knowing that you are the one who makes him bad. Everyone has this impression that he is bad. (...) But if you approach him and ask him for good things, he will give you good things,” adds Alexis, convinced that his mother's healing was the result of his dedication to the Little Black Angel.

Catholic discontent

Mexico is the second nation in the world by number of Catholics after Brazil with more than 97.8 million people, according to the 2020 census of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), which highlighted that 77.7% profess this religion.

However, this percentage is less than 82.7 per cent in the census of a decade ago, a reflection of a Palautine but growing detachment from Catholicism.

Javier was an altar boy and today, after leaving his hometown of Puente Jula, a town in Veracruz known for its exorcisms, he is a follower of the Black Angel.

“I feel good about him and he gave me what I asked for. It has opened many paths for me, and it has given me a lot of work in my life. And that's how I started to believe and adore him,” says the young musician.

Alejandro, a 30-year-old merchant with his arms full of tattoos, also felt a similar disenchantment.

“I was a Catholic and I asked God and the truth did not see results, but I approached (the little angel) and began to see results, to believe. It's very nice, really,” he says.

syncretism

But being a devotee of the Little Black Angel doesn't necessarily mean rejecting other religions or cults. This amalgam of societies, beliefs and commodities nourishes the neighborhood of Tepito itself.

About a hundred meters from this suffocating space dedicated to Lucifer, to which they have brought animal bones and blood as an offering, is the pompous altar of Santa Muerte, another reference of the profane in Mexico, since according to various researchers, this cult dates back to 1795, when the indigenous people worshiped a skeleton in a village mexican.

Her caregiver, Doña Queta, has been expanding love for the so-called White Girl for years. It is enough to see its altar full of offerings and how many of the neighbors, when passing through the street, cross each other as a sign of respect.

“I get along very well with Mrs. Queta, she is my friend. And it is something very different from what she has, which is a very large deity. And what I have is also a deity. I don't compete with her at all,” Alexis says, removing iron from the matter.

Because the magic of Tepito is that there is room for everyone. It is enough to go another 50 meters and come across La Villita, a Catholic chapel built in the middle of the street and dedicated to the patron saint of Mexico, the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is brimming with flowers that make up this particular triangle of worship.

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