Blessed God, I offer you this retablo for not letting me die when I drank that damned poison after having got an illness that looks like aids. I could’t stand the idea of dying from it, I got scared and that’s why I took this decision. But I was saved, and I was told the news that there’s a cure from my illness.

L. F. C. Yovana — Mexico City, 1980

Julieta Mondragon orders this retablo to the Virgin of Guadalupe because the infection she caught from a client by carelessness wasn’t AIDS. I was so sick from fright, and I entrusted myself to the Virgin, and thanks to her I’m healthy and feeling good.

Merced, Mexico City, 1995

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