It happened on May 17, 1998. When I was coming out a restaurant in Polanco and was going to drop my boss, four subjects blocked my way. They blindfolded me and took me to a suburb. They told me it was a kidnapping. I felt asleep, and the morning I woke up in a drainage in Nezahualcoyotl. Since I saw that my ears weren’t cut off and all my fingers are in place I gratefully dedicate this retablo to the Archangel of Justice for protecting me.

I thank the Virgin of Talpa for giving me the opportunity of studying her retablos and for it was possible, thanks to the generous support of many people, to publish this book about her. I ask God for his intercession and to always look after the priests of Talpa, holy fathers Estrada Sting, Enrique Flores and Salazar Gonzalez, as well as Martha Becerra, don Francisco Arias and mr. Ernesto Valdez.

Prof. Elin Luque Agraz, Mexico City, May 10, 2015

Saint Jude Tahddeus, thank you for you kindness of saving my marriage by finding solution of my illness in viagra. Now we spend unforgettable passionate nights, and we are both happy.

Grateful spouses
Roma, Mexico City, 1990

I give thanks to Saint Jude Thaddeus for granting me the freedom. I was arrested for taking money for the lottery tickets I’d sold. But you know well that I took them to buy Christmas presents for my children. I did it because they’ve never received presents. And today, January 6, my boss found out the truth and withdrew his complaint saying that I’m innocent because he was also a boy once and he’s also a father.

Mexico City, 1968
Melchor Garcia Baltazar

Saint Sebastian, thank you for my family, for they are so kind, cool and awesome guys who respect and support my decisions. Bless them so they could keep on celebrating this joy with me.

Oscar Espinosa Garcia
Mexico City, November 10, 2017

Mercedes Cataño is grateful to the Holy Lord of Chalma because Santiago proposed to her after she was told that he had married and wouldn’t come back but it wasn’t true.

San Mateo Tlaltenango, 1930

When we were coming back from our honeymoon at the beaches of Puerto Escondido in Oaxaca… and we could lost our lives by negligence. My wife implored the Virgin of Juquila for protection, and now we thank for her miracle.

Lupe and Pedro from Mexico City, 10–May–2010

Señor Toribio Ventura born in Puebla is infinitely grateful to the Holy Virgin Mary of Guadalupe for having recovered his bulls that had been pawned so he could work on his fields. He asks you a lot to send him a good wheat harvest and the wheat did better than ever. With the gathered crop he ordered to make this retablo asking to bless his yoke and so that his seeds would never lack rain. Glory to the Holy Mother!

The night when I was coming back from Xaltocan lake by Axomulco canal after midnight, the Weeping Woman herself appeared to me. I got goosebumps. I prayed Our Father and entrusted her lost soul to Niñopa. I cross myself each time I passed this place and she has never appeared to me anymore. I thank for the received favor.

Pascual, Xochimilco, Mexico

Immigrants who sank at the drift in Mediterranean sea searching for a better life. They ran from the terrible wars, injustice, discrimination and poverty in their countries, risking their life by facing their destiny—men, women and children. I thank the Christ of the Ocean for they were saved and taken to the coast of Italy, country that opened the doors of friendship and humanity receiving them with respect to the life, for a better world. Bless the path of all immigrants in the world.

A grateful chilango Alfredo Vilchis R.
Corner of the miracles, Minas de Cristo, Mexico City, 2017

Thanks, Virgin of Guadalupe, for healing me from a terrible disease that I carelessly caught from a client. I implored her in such a bad situation, and now I’m back to work.

July
Merced, Mexico, May 2002

Saint Rita of Cascia, I offer you this ex-voto thanking you for not giving me diabetes because I got very much frightened when I was passing by drunk and the Death and the Devil himself appeared to me. I ran away to my house because my stomach was bursting. But then I realized it was the Day of the Dead and people dressed up like that to ask for sweets because it’s the tradition of all Mexicans. Viva la Catrina and those who celebrate the Day of the Dead!

Grateful chilango, November 1 and 2, 2014
Mixquic, Mexico City

Blessed Heart, I give thanks to you for giving a second chance to live to this woman after she was stabbed. An evil client who was drunk attacked her and left het badly wounded in a hotel room in Merced, Mexico City.

A. V. R. — May 2016