I thank God and Saint Francis of Assisi for the miracle of meeting the love of my life. I was 40 years old and thought that I was never going to marry. But then my old boyfriend came back from the United States and proposed to me. I thank God because we are very happy and have become the parents of a beautiful baby.

Juanita Lopez & Amador Ramirez
Guadalajara, Jalisco
December 12, 1986

I thank Jesus Christ because bastards who attacked and violently raped me didn’t kill me and didn’t infect me with AIDS. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ with this retablo.

Monica Torres Avila
Guadalajara, Jalisco, 1971

Saint Jude Thaddeus, thank you for the happiness you gave me—for The Cheeky. Every day on my way to the bakery, I saw a guy who stared at me. I always looked away and ignored him but one day I noticed that he was following me. Another day he slapped my ass. I felt embarrassed and became very nervous. That’s how I met Sotero and we became a couple.

Isaias Lugo
Guadalajara, Jalisco, 1960

On her third year in the boarding school, Dorita Martinez started to sleep-walking. She and her little sister Sandra prayed to the Virgin of Zapopan for curing Dorita because the nuns had told that if she wouldn’t stop sleep-walking they’d send her back home before the end of the school year. And Dorita was bored in her village. They thank the Virgin because she got cured.

Guadalajara, Jalisco
June 9, 1959

April 14, 1989, during a walk in the “La Primavera” forest, Guadalajara, I dared to confess my love to Richard Patiño. I thanks the Lord of the Miracles for my beloved accepted me.

Luisito Mendez

The Lucas family are grateful because they managed go all the way to Jalisco on their knees.

Guadalajara, March 3, 1978

I give thanks to the Virgin of Zapopan because my horse El Rojo (Red) got better after illness and didn’t die.

Jesus Torres
Guadalajara, Jalisco, 17 May 1949

I thank Saint Anthony of Padua with this humble retablo because my Maclovio came back to the ranch. He had gone very far away to work, and everybody was telling me that he’d never come back. I’m glad he kept his word, so now we’re going to get married.

Nicolasa Gomez
Guadalajara

I dedicate this retablo to Saint Bartholomew because I invented and patented a natural size model that reproduced, with some inaccuracies, the anatomy of the little boy about 3 years old. My son Enrique served as a model. I hope to sell it to the University of Guadalajara so that they do research on it as much as they like.

We thank the Virgin of Guadalupe for letting us cross the river and arrive to the USA for work. From the bottom of the heart we offer you this retablo.

The Ramiraz Gutierrez family
Guadalajara, Jalisco
July 10, 1979

Virgin of San Juan, thank you for giving us enough strength to cross the desert and arrive in the USA where my son Jesus had a surgery to remove a tumor in his head. We thank you because you protected us under your cloak and now we are all right.

Antonio and Rozaura Murillo
Guadalajara, Jalisco — May 1, 1995

Nicho, Joaquin and Calisto Huerta are thanking the Virgin with this retablo because, thanks to her protection, they managed to continue working as musicians. It is what they like to do, and now they have been offered a contract to work in the capital.

Guadalajara
22 November 1959

I thank the Virgin of San Juan for sending me a man who took me out of prostitution and proposed me. Now I’m very happy with him. May you be blessed.

Sofia Izquierdo Ruiz
Guadalajara, 1955