I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of death spell that is this statue’s likely purpose. The San Benito News reports:
The identity of the owner of an oddly-placed statue of the Santisima Muerte in the middle of the San Benito Municipal Cemetery has become somewhat of a mystery. On Thursday, two local women expressed concern with the statue and called its presence “disrespectful” to the departed. City Manager Manuel Lara agreed that it should be removed if no one claims it.
The statue depicts Death atop a crushed pile of skulls, wielding a bronze globe in its left hand and a scythe in its right. It’s also accompanied by a bronze owl perched near the base and a tag tied to the scythe that displays a crowned Winged Death dangling a heart from a string.
Dr. Antonio N. Zavaleta, a renowned expert on the occult at the University of Texas at Brownsville, believes the statue’s purpose is malicious. “It’s definitely being used in a work of witchcraft, probably a spell to harm or kill someone.” Zavaleta stated.
Zavaleta said the owl is also a clear indication of brujeria, or witchcraft. “It’s a búho, or lechuza – a classic symbol of the witch, and the owl is the witch that takes the form of a person in Mexican-American culture and literally flies to the place where the spell is to be cast, where the harm is to be done to the person. It’s part of a spell.”
“Someone, a man or woman, is doing witchcraft for pay,” Zavaleta said. “Somebody has paid the witch; they don’t do it for free and it (witchcraft) could easily go for a couple thousand dollars. So it definitely needs to be removed. The city should remove it.”
