Rafael Nieto de Dios and Lola Mento Mialma give infinite thanks to the Almighty Lord of the Hearts from Huajapan de Lion for having met each other at the rehearsals of jarabe mixteco dance to go to Gelagetza.

2017, Oaxaca

Thank you, Virgin of Guadalupe, for giving my son Paco another chance to live and to bring him health, granting the favor that I asked you for, with all my mother love. Now he’s living his life again, after getting out from the hospital and coming back home on December 12. Today, December 24, I bring you this retablo as I promised you. Thanks and Merry Christmas to all the children of the world!

Ajusco mountains, Mexico City

Unrested souls sometimes appear in don Pepe’s canteen. They drink, dance and sing. You, Virgin of Guadalupe, please make them rest in peace or make them dance and do their rowdy parties somewhere else. The people got used to this and say: there is mezcal for everything good, and for everything bad, as well, and if there’s no remedy, a liter and a half would help. And don Pepe says: the dead into the pits, the living to enjoy. Holy Virgin, let them rest.

Tultepec, state of Mexico

Ciriano Perez gives thanks because we were drowning in the lake but my piggies saved us.

Zumpango, December 4, 1950

Clementina Arrollo thanks Saint Agnes because Eligio has taken responsibility for his morning mischief and wishes that I would always have milk. He promised that one of these days he would leave his wife and six kids for me.

Mixcoac, June 7, 1957

A giant serpent came down from the sky and told me a secret. Thanks.

I thank the Virgin of Sorrows because, in spite of our poverty, we managed to put an altar for my father-in-law who, although he was a Jehovah’s witness, was born Catholic and enjoyed hojaldras pastries. Thank you, Holy Virgin, for interceding for him with Saint Peter so he would open the gates and let him pass, although he didn’t believe in you. Señora Santa Trinidad from Ocotepec, Morelos, ordered Emmanuel Espintla to paint this exvoto.

November 2, 2019

When I was leaving “La Pasita” canteen, in Los Sapos neighborhood in Puebla, my mother-in-law chased me with a stick. I thanks, with this retablo, the Virgin of the Solitude because the old lady didn’t catch me.

Catarino Perez, 1949

I thank the Holy Spirit for all the favors done for me, a being gifted with balance and temperance. When we thought that the pandemic is going to take us to extermination, it brought us the gift of speculation and power over our subordinates. Thanks for perseverance and omnipotence to control this world which I’ve built along with my gray brotherhood.

Notes:
Pun in Spanish. When the bureaucrat calls himself a gifted being cer-dotado, the first two syllables, along with starting the word with “c”, are read as “pig”.

I was abducted by extraterrestrials, and they changed my religion.

Plumber Jesus Ramirez was hired for a job, but the mistress of the house paid him with her body. WIth the present retablo, he gives due thanks to Saint Jude for such good luck.

I wanted to impress my neighbor whom I was attracted to. I climbed up a tree to save her kitten, totally forgetting that I have a fear of heights. I thank the Holy Child of Atocha because the firefighters arrived to bring me down, since I was so scared I couldn’t move. The cat meanwhile came down by itself giving me a great embarrassment in front of the people and the girl. I promise not to pretend to be brave anymore to avoid being a ridicule.

Benito Segura / Morelia, Michoacan

Virgin of Guadalupe, I promised you if I’d come back to work in the circus I’d order you this retablo. Now, thanks to you, I’m giving you thanks and dedicate this performance to you, after an illness that kept me away from the circus, which is my passion, for more than a year.

The Flying cyclist, December 12, 1995
Mexico City, Long live the circus!