Al palomo del Comalito / To the dove of the griddle

I dedicate this retablo to the Virgin of the Rosary. At the feast of Xilonen for the holy shubaa (?) of my town Miahuatlan, field of corn ears, I, as a grinder, found myself in a difficult situation. My head and my arms were in pain. I asked the Virgin to set me for this job that I’m humbly doing. I asked to give me strength so I could prepare tortillas and sell them to the people who wanted to buy my tortillas. I thank the Virgin for I’m back to work after long illness and many disappointments in my life. I offer my retablo with all my devotion.

Miahuatlan de Porfirio Dias
July 1963

April 5, 1950, Lucio Perez was drowning but he was saved by fishermen. He thanks the Virgin of the Rosary.

I became a widow when I was young. When my children grew up, got married and left, I felt lonely. I adopted some cats so that they would keep me a company. I gave so much love to my animals. One day my daughter got divorced and came back with my granddaughter to live with me. Now I’m even happier, because my granddaughter shares my love to the cats. We coddle them together. And I thank the Virgin of the Rosary for these moments of joy.

My husband went fishing, but his boat never turned back because of a dense fog. Three days later a giant octopus dragged the boat pushing it with the tentacles. My husband was alive, and I thank the Virgin of the Rosary for that.

Because of financial problems, we had to move to the outskirts of the town to live with aunt Cleotilda. My girls were scared because on their way to school they had to go through the old, abandoned cemetery. There were a lot of horrific stories about the cemetery. They were so frightened, they refused to go to the school. But thanks to the Virgin of the Rosary my husband found a good job, so we can moved back to the town. We thank for that.

My daughter Antonia went insane after her fiancé left her for another woman. She even started howling to the Moon. I prayed to the Virgin of the Rosary of Talpa, and she miraculously regained her her sanity.

Talpa — July 15, 1968

I was very annoyed because my dogs followed me everywhere. But one day I was delivering my shop proceeds to the bank, and a robber with a knife wanted to attack me. My dogs attacked him instead, and he had to ran away, having nothing but some dog bites. I thank the Virgin of the Rosary for my dogs protect me very well.

Carmela Rodriguez

Doña Marianna, the Dulce Maria Torres’ mother-in-law, used to fell into a rage quite often. She became literally devil-possessed. Father Luis recommended to Dulce to add some holy water in her mother-in-law’s tea and to pray to the Virgin. She thanks the Virgin of the Rosary because her mother-in-law changed.

May 25, 1953, we went to baptize our Luisito. The bus broke down so we had to ride horses. We were in rush, so we rode full speed. My horse stumbled on rocks. We thank the Virgin of the Rosary because nothing happened with the baby at the falling. We still baptized him, and he’s all right.

I made a very delicious cake for my daughter Marcela’s commitment dinner. But unfortunately my younger children are very gluttonous, so they ate almost entire cake. But luckily, and forgive me God, my daughter’s fiancé got mumps, which he caught from his little sister. The dinner was canceled. And I’m immensely grateful to the Virgin of the Rosary because the parents of the fiancé are very stiff and haughty and I didn’t know how to solve this problem with the cake.