Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, may you be blessed for the miracle because I left this woman of easy virtue. I was crazy about her, she made me forget about my wife and kids. I deeply repent and ask for forgiveness.

Julio Ruiz
Merced, Mexico City, 1999

I dedicate this retablo to the Virgin of the Solitude because I managed to work another year on this angle to send money back to Oaxaca to my parents so they wouldn’t lack anything. I beg from the bottom of my heart to look after them for me.

Morena
Merced, Mexico City — May 10, 2009

Virgin of Guadalupe, I offer this retablo in your honor for saving me from the death when an angry asshole cut me because I was dancing with Rosa and he wanted to dance with her first. I thank you because I’m alive.

Luis Guzman
Merced, Mexico, 1989

I thank the Virgin of Guadalupe because I was tested negative for AIDS, so I can continue to work as a prostitute to pay for my husband’s spine surgery and to provide for my family.

Magdalena Rubio
Merced, Mexico City, 1990

May you be blessed, Virgin of San Juan, for the miracle that I met a good man who loves me. It didn’t matter for him that I was a prostitute. He proposed me, and now we’re very happy together.

Claudia Perez
Merced, 1987

Yolanda gives thanks to the Virgin of Guadalupe for finding a job as a prostitute here, in La Merced, Mexico. Look after me, so I could send some money to my parents in Pachuca, Hidalgo.

September 12, 1980

Virgin of Guadalupe, I offer you this retablo because I met a man who fell in love with me and saved me from the life of whore.

Marta Luna
Merced, Mexico City, 1990

I give thanks to the Holy Mother, Virgin of Guadalupe, for healing me from a damn infection that I caught when I went in the hotel with a prostitute.

Martin R.
Merced, Mexico City, 1959