Saint Jude Thaddeus, thank you for all your favors. It happened so I met this handsome european guy Robert in Oaxaca, on the beach. Turned out he liked men as I do. We fell in love, and Robert even thinks to move to Mexico and to open here a restaurant, since he is a qualified chef. I thank for having met Robert.

Raymundo Trejo
Oaxaca, 1968

Saint Anthony of Padua, thank you for your help. I was asking for a lover and I found one. I met David who is a very handsome man with beautiful mustache. I was seating on a bench in the Alameda Central park eating an ice-cream and he sat by me. We started talking, and we chatted for two hours. So we became a couple.

Enrique Gomez — Mexico City, 1957

Saint Charbel, thank you for protecting us. Three years after my husband had gone to work in USA, we went to visit him. There we celebrated a New Year with our son. Two days later he went to visit his friend and never came back. I had some money but they didn’t last long. We got broke very quickly. We have no money to pay for a room but one lady gave us a room in a semi-destroyed house. Later I found out that my husband lives with an American woman.

Fernanda Mendoza
Tijuana, 1960

Thank you, Virgin of Guadalupe, for all your favors. I used to climb to the mountains to look at Popocatépetl. One day I fell asleep and fell down injuring my arm and my leg. I couldn’t walk for a while. I dedicate this retablo to the Brown skin girl of Tepeyac.

Mauro Ortiz

I thank Saint Anthony for all the good things happened with me. When I worked in a cabaret I had a lot of problems. They paid me very little, and my pimp took a big part of my earnings. One day I made up my mind and went to Texas, USA. I rented an apartment, and now my clients come to visit me and give me big dollars.

Sofia Macias
Texas, US, 1966

Thank you, Virgin of Guadalupe, for protecting me. One warm night in May, I was attacked by a handsome man with a knife. I told him I got not a lot of money on me. I said he shouldn’t attack people and I offered him to live with me. I even promised to support him but he refused because he wasn’t from Mexico but from somewhere in Central America.

Ernestina Luna
Mexico City, 1959

I thank you, Virgin of San Juan, for all your favors. I decided to leave my husband after he had put horns on me. I kicked him out, but the next day he came back to kill me. Gaston, my husband, shot me. My wound was serious, but I prayed to the Virgin of San Juan fro my life. And she saved me.

Monterrey, 1952

I thank the Virgin of Guadalupe. I came to Mexico City from Aguascalientes to become a matador. Two years later, I had a performance in a town in Guerrero. During the fight I stumbled and I fell right on the bull’s horn. It pierced through my ribs, I got head injury and brain concussion. I thank for my recovery.

Pedro Arreola
Aguascalientes, 1979

Thank you, Saint Jude, for you favors. I went to study in the Monterrey University. I found an apartment. I had been living there for four months, when one day I was going out of the bathroom and saw the landlady’s son in my room. I was surprised and asked what he wanted and how did he get into my room. He told me he wanted to have sex with me. “Are you crazy?” I asked. Then he grabbed me and tried to throw me on the bed. He didn’t count that I’m doing karate. So I hit him so hard, so that he wouldn’t think to talk with me again.

Laura Garza, 1964

Thank you, Virgin of Guadalupe, for protecting us. A cold morning caught us in the mountains near by Gabriel Hernandez. My friend Miguel and I put a fire in a cave. We were talking when suddenly bullets began to fly out the fire. They were firing in all directions, and one hit me. Thank goodness, we managed to get in time to my friend who was a doctor.

Victor Tostado
Mexico City, 1956

The Holy Face of God, I thank you for keeping alive all the Mexicans who participated in the Vietnam war. November 1, 1955, the conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam began. US sent the general William Westmoreland over there. The war ended on April 30, 1975.

Mexico City, 1976

Thank you, Saint Charbel, for your help. When I was sleeping, I smelled some rag burning. I went to see what had happened. I came to my elder son Poncho’s bedroom. Turned out he feel asleep drunk with a lightened cigarette which put a mattress on fire. He couldn’t wake up because he was intoxicated with the smoke. Thank you, Saint Charbel, for letting me know.

Carlos Perez
Mexico City, 1967

Thank you, Saint Jude Thaddeus, for all your favors. It started raining, and I, on my way home, had to cross the river. The rain was getting stronger, and I couldn’t get out of the current. My horse and I, we tried another time and got out but the horse stumbled and fell on me. My rib was broken, but I got better after I had an operation.

Blas Gallegos
Puebla, 1965