Santa Muerte – the Angel of Death in the City of Angels

By Guest Contributor Aaman Lamba*

As a devotee of Santa Muerte, I take every opportunity to look for ways to engage with her. When I travel to new cities, I look up local stores and temples, and also travel with a personal doll of Santa Muerte, made by my artist wife Deepti Lamba.

Recently, I had occasion to visit Los Angeles, the city with the second largest Mexican population in the world after Mexico City. I knew there would be some stores and temples to the Bony Lady but was quite surprised and happy with what I found. I checked into my hotel Sunday afternoon in Hollywood and looked at a few stores, most were closed, but Atlas Obscura mentioned a place with an interesting name, Templo Major de Santa Muerte.

I looked up the location to find it was far away in Huntington Park and I…