Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 462–479, 2007 © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Society for Latin American Studies. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 462 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Tears, Trauma and Suicide: Everyday Violence among Street Youth in Puebla, Mexico 1 GARETH A. JONES AND ELSA HERRERA Department of Geography & Environment, London School of Economics, UK SARAH THOMAS DE BENÍTEZ Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, UK Despite considerable ethnographic research with young people in street situations and a growing interest in violence, little attention has been paid to suicide. The occurrence of suicide is a dramatic event that re- veals weaknesses in support systems established by governments and civil society organisations, as well as perceived failings of friends. While an interest in suicide usually considers cause, in this paper we explore effect. How does the death of a member of a tightly knit group of street youth affect others and what does the suicide tell us about their identi- fication with death more generally? Research for the paper was part of an in-depth study of identities among street youth in Mexico. Keywords: suicide, street youth, religion, Santa Muerte, Mexico. Introduction Worldwide, thousands of people are killed each year from vigilante beatings, police repression, gang violence and war, yet a more prevalent ‘cause of death’ is suicide. Over one million people die each year from ‘self-directed violence’, as the World Health Organization (WHO) defines suicide, or nearly twice those who die from homicide and more than twice those who die in wars. Although in most societies suicide rates increase with age cohort, in recent years, there has been evidence of suicide as an increasingly youthful phenomenon, including in Latin America where the number and rate of suicide 1 Research for this paper was conducted with ESRC grant RES 148-25-0050 as part of the Identities and Social Action programme.