Gaudencio Popoca went as a migrant in USA. He thanks Saint Patrick because the things are going well and he even met the King of Rock, the great Elvis.

My husband and I dedicate this retablo to Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Santiago. When I got sick in 1981, I was diagnosed with incurable malign lymphoma. We went to Boston for treatment but kept praying to Saint Charlie Rodriguez every day and night. Two weeks later, just before the treatment, doctors checked me again and didn’t find any trace of lymphoma. They couldn’t explain the miracle of my healing.

Up until that magic night, driving down state road 45 in Albuquerque, I had been a self absorbed materialistic and vain son of a gun… Then I saw the majestic figure of the Virgin Mary and my life made a 180 degree turn for the better.

When I went to work as a cook to the United States, I missed traditional tacos al pastor more than every other food. I bring this retablo to Saint Toribio Romo with eternal gratitude for letting me open my own taqueria place which has got a big success as much with my compatriots as with the Americans.

Cosme Hernández \ Chicago, USA

With the promise “to be together till death do us apart” the boy Marquitos and his father Jose Antonio Villaseñor took off from Mexico with the illusion of prosperity. In Reynosa, Tamaulipas, together with 70 others people without documents, they got in the trailer of a truck going to Houston, Texas. After few hours of terrible agony, they were found hugging each other but with no life in them like 11 others Mexicans and 5 more Latin Americans. They all died asphyxiated and dehydrated. They were left without mercy by the mean smugglers in the town of Victoria, south of Houston. Morning of May 14, 2003, when I heard these painful news, I entrusted their souls to the Holy Virgin of the Solitude and the Lord of Chalma. I also ask to protect those who escaped the death.

Alfredo Vilchis Roque, Mexico City, 2003

I came from Tepeaca, Puebla, to the United States full of dreams and hopes for a better life for me and my family. I’m infinitely grateful to the Virgin of Guadalupe because I found a good job as a dishwasher in a famous restaurant in New York via a fellow countryman. May you be blessed.

Severiano Pérez \ New York, USA

I, Timoteo Rodriguez Garcia, and his relatives dedicate this retablo because we almost drown in the strong current trying to cross the Rio Bravo following the American Dream before Donald Trump would build the wall. Crazy fucked up gringo, racist, ku-klux-klan, his whole country is Mexico, bald fatso. Long live the Mexican workers!

Los Angeles, California
June 18, 2017

Thank you, Saint Jude Thaddeus, for miraculously saving my sons during the Rio Bravo crossing when they were going to work in USA looking for a better opportunity.

Paola Valliejo Zambrano
May 19, 1984, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato

I, Jonathan Torrez, thank my Mother, Virgin of Guadalupe, for helping me to survive the war in Iraq in 2002.

Chicago, Illinois

Rosaura Limon wholeheartedly thanks the Virgin of Guadalupe for the miracle that her husband Pedro returned home from United States to spend Christmas and New Year with her and children. He went there for work, and they didn’t see him for a whole year. They missed each other a lot.

Puebla

I thank Neil Armstrong because when he was walking on the Moon I was performing my unusual jaw-balancing act in the Arizona desert.

Facundo Mendez brings this retablo to Saint Patrick thanking him because he went to New York and saw the Rolling Stones’ concert from the first row.

We thank Saint Jonas because we created a mixture of yoga and latin dance and we are going to open a couple of locations in Eastern New Jersey.