Little Julio got in the pigsty and was bitten by a pig. He almost lost his arm. His mother prayed to the Virgin of San Juan for delivering the boy from losing his arm. The Virgin saved him. The grateful mother brings this retablo.

Juana
Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco
April 30, 1950

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

Guadalajara, March 3, 1978

Lord of Chalma, I thank you with this retablo. The headless man appeared to me, and I got very scared.

Lupito Gonzalez
January 10, 1939

Camilo Gonzales worked as a bus driver, and he got a route in Altas de Jalisco. One morning he was driving being drunk and exhausted. He feel asleep behind the wheel, and the bus fell over a cliff, in a lake. The driver thanks the Virgin of Zapopan because no one of his passengers drowned and because he wasn’t thrown in jail for this accident.

I thank God and San Anthony of Padua for sending me a fiancé. I thought I would stay an old maid forever. And when I expected nothing to happen I heard a serenade. It was Pedro Lopez, a boyfriend that I had before and who came back from USA. We got married and now we are very happy.

Juanita Gomez
Colorado ranch, Jalisco, Mexico
27 May 1976

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

Alberto Camacho became a widower. It hadn’t been a year when he got married again. But then his late first wife started to appear in the bedroom by nights. Alberto was scared and he prayed to the Virgin of San Juan so that she would make her soul rest in peace. The Virgin decided to help him, and the wife’s ghost never turned back again.

Lagos de Moreno
July 16, 1972

3 October 1952, Manuel Campos played with his sisters and fell down the well. His mother, Maria Luisa Campos, gives thanks to the Virgin, Patroness of Zapopan, because he was saved and was just slightly hurt. She offers this retablo to the Virgin.

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 want to thank God and the Virgin of Guadalupe with this ex-voto because it’s time for the Day of the Dead. Every year I make an altar in memory of my late husband Rogaciano. My heart is filled with joy when I feel the presence of his soul. I am overwhelmed with emotions.

Agripina Gonzalez
Rancho Two Brothers, Jalisco, Mexico
November 2, 1962

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