Jorge Adrián Yllescas Illescas He is a graduate student in Latin American Studies, a master in Anthropology and a degree in Sociology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He has been a research assistant for the National System of Researchers (SNI) at the Colegio de México. Collaborator in the Network of Researchers of the Religious Phenomenon in Mexico (RIFREM). He has participated in different national and international academic events. His most recent publications are: “La Santa Muerte. A cult in consolidation? " in the book: La Santa Muerte: spaces, cults and devotions. Collaboration with the colef, colsan; "Doing field work in a seclusion space", in an electronic magazine Anthropological Route, no. 2. Specialist in issues of religion and violence.

Realidades socioculturales

The altars of the body as resistance to prison power

  • Jorge Adrián Yllescas Illescas

This text is part of an investigation carried out at the Santa Marta Social Reintegration Center in Mexico City, the main objective of which was to learn about the practice of the cult of “Santa Muerte” in that prison institution. Various themes emerged from this proposal, and one of them was the use of the body and its relationship with religious practices in a context where control is omnipresent. It will first examine what this prison control consists of and then the importance of the body as a form of resistance to said prison power will be considered.