"I promised her I wouldn't use ..."

"... I knew she would seek revenge on me..."

Adapted from this original source:

Ms. Lynn Brezosky, San Antonio EXPRESS - NEWS, Sunday, June 1, 2008."Holy Death reigns over drug dealers dens .. Santa Muerte called fad of criminal world"

"LAREDO -- When Webb County sheriff's deputies started photographing the eerie, sometimes blood - soaked shrines to shrouded skeletal figurines found at the homes and stash houses of big - time drug dealers, it was with the sense they were glimpsing into the psyche of a subculture.

"That was a few years ago.

"Now, the elaborate displays of homage to the Santa Muerte, or holy death, seem more kitschy than creepy.

"The defiant faith that sinister - looking statues could summon netherworld power, which emerged as something associated with cartel kingpins tucked gated estates, has gone mainstream for the Mexican border's criminal element.

"Teens caught with dime bags of pot might have Santa Muerte amulets hanging from their rearview mirrors.

"Small - time drug dealers may have an altar on a closet shelf, with an asortment of statues, beads, roses and spell books arrayed below stacks of folded towels.

"In scale with one's fortunes, the statues may be hand - carved of ivory or onyx, or manufactured in China.

"At a curandera shop in a rumbling block of downtown Harlingen, an owner who gave his name only as El Indio insisted: She's not evil, God created her. If you believe, you believe. It's what you believe. Some people believe in Jesus Christ, the Virgin of Guadalupe .. People call for the power of the saints.

"James Creechan, a Canandian sociologist who teaches part - time at a universiy in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, also has been reearching Santa Muerte.

"Of late, he's seen efforts to have it recognized as an official church..."

A good read, especially for anyone truly interested in the developing situation at Saint Mary Magdalen's Catholic Parish of Brackettville, Texas, you bet! :)