Word: ismaelito
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...When I walk up the streets of my barrio and there are no police in sight, I pray to Ismaelito or to Petroleo Crudo," says Escalona. "They were malandros, so maybe they can talk to these malandros and tell them not to harm me." She adds: "I also believe in the Virgin Mary and my other saints - it's just that these saints understand the street better...
Judith Escalona visits the General Cemetery in southern Caracas at least once a month. At the tomb of Ismaelito, she pours the dead man a drink and lights him cigarette after cigarette. Ismaelito was no relative, however. He is the king of the santos malandros - the holy thugs. The purpose of Escalona's tribute, including the prayers she offers to Ismaelito, is protection. Almost 50 people die from criminal violence in any given week in Caracas. Escalona's store has been burgled several times, but she is grateful that no one has been killed - and she hopes Ismaelito will keep...
...bring safety and security to the streets. (This summer he's had to deploy national guard troops on public buses in the capital to keep them from being hijacked.) Many Venezuelans have responded by entrusting themselves to a group of dead "saints" who had lived delinquent lives. Ismaelito and other santos malandros such as Petroleo Crudo (Crude Oil), El Raton (The Mouse), La Malandra Isabelita, Machera and countless others were petty criminals in the 1960s and '70s. Most, if not all, are said to have died brutally at the hands of the police. But, like sinful ghosts trying to escape...
...There is no doubt in his devotees' minds, for example, that Ismaelito, the king of the holy thugs, was a thief and one of the most wanted crooks of his time. Still, among many who knew him when he lived, he's considered more of a Robin Hood than a criminal. In El Guarataro, a shantytown in southeastern Caracas, those who knew him remember the time he raided a meat delivery truck and shared the bounty among his neighbors. "I was an errand boy," recalls Carlos Flores, 50. "He would steal, but he never killed. Today's malandro is mean...
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