Skeleton saint Santa Muerte attracts devotees among US Latinos

People carry a statue of Santa Muerte after a procession in the Queens borough of New York. Photo: AFP

Standing before an elaborate altar in her living room in New York, Arely Vazquez explains the pledge she made to Santa Muerte - or Saint Death - after surviving pancreas surgery 17 years ago: that she would honour her "little skeleton" by throwing a festival of thanksgiving each year.

Vazquez is the main priest, or "madrina," in the United States of a growing faction of devotees to the skeleton saint revered in Mexico, often alongside traditional Catholic saints.