My brother Eduardo Davila was working at a building construction and fell off the roof. I saw him falling and entrusted him to God to save his life, in spite of falling from up high. But he continued to fall and broke his neck and fell on the lady who was selling tacos, and she lost the use of her legs after the blow.

Gulliermo Davila, August 16, 1974

— Don’t you dare, son… anymore.
— One more?
— One more whitey…

Señor Arnolfo Layo gives thanks to the Holy Death because he stopped drinking alcohol starting October 12, 2010, and went to work in construction to support his family. Amen.

The other day, I was working at the construction site, and a very beautiful girl was passing by. I couldn’t resist and made some flirtatious compliments to her. My bad luck, I didn’t notice the cement dropping out of my cart and felling right on the engineer. I thank Saint Martin the Cavalryman because the engineer turned out to be a good man. He didn’t kick me out and saw the whole situation with humor. I promise to not flirt in working hours.

Nabor Rodriguez \ Puebla

Apolinar, Fermin and Cipriano Ramos infinitely thank the Lord of Chalma for his protection since they’ve been working as builders for 20 years and never had any accidents. All these years they’ve been working to support and provide for their families.

Tlaxcala, 1979

Jasinto Chavez had some drinks and came to work drunk. He was fired for that. He thanks Saint Francis with this retablo because he was paid big dough and has already found another job.

With great devotion, the foreman Catalino Flores and his fellows from the construction thank the Lord of Chalma with this retablo for helping them to get save till the Holy Cross Day and celebrate it with a big feast, and also for protecting and helping them and always giving them work.

Oaxaca, Mexico

The foreman Herminio Castillo’s team thanks the Virgin of Guadalupe for helping them to get till the Holy Cross Day without mishaps and to celebrate it with big work.

Tlaxcala, 1969

Holy Child of Atocha, I thank you for your favors. I was sleeping when suddenly felt something hit me. I tried to stand up but I couldn’t. The I was hit in the head and I lost conscience. Turned out it was a crane working those days, and it stroke my wall making it collapsed on me.

Miguel Galindo
Mexico City, 1983

Since the rains continued for a long time, we couldn’t work, because the materials deteriorated. We prayed to the Virgin of San Juan because we were scared we would be fired because we weren’t working. But the engineer understood us and didn’t fire us. He even celebrated the Day of the Holy Cross with us. We present this humble retablo, as we promised.

Michoacan, 1970
Lucio and Evelio Grajales

The construction of the foreman Margarito Corona dedicates this retablo to the Virgin of Guadalupe because she helped them to arrive to the Day of the Holy Cross without any mishap and to celebrate it with hard work.

Tlaxcala

This is ex-voto of thanks to the leaders of Soviet revolution. If it hadn’t happened I couldn’t have had highly qualified workers from east for next to nothing. I’ve already had three musicians from Kiev Symphony Orchestra working for me as stevedores carrying cement. Now I have a surgeon working on a crane and two Ukrainian women at the kitchen. They were ballet dancers back in their homeland. They’re nice-looking broads, it’s nothing wrong with their bodies, probably because of gymnastics <…>

With machete in hands we rose up to fight for our land rejecting the construction of the airport and ridiculous expropriation. We knew we weren’t alone and with the blessing of the Virgin of Guadalupe we would achieve what we wanted. We showed them that we weren’t going to sit on our hands and we would defend our land with our lives if it would be necessary.

The people of San Salvador Atenco, state of Mexico
August 1, 2002

In 2002, there were protests in San Salvador Atenco. The violent mass protests against federal and local government were caused by the planned construction of a new international airport for Mexico City. The construction of the airport was cancelled.

Chuchito Rendon got drunk and went to sleep into the concrete mixer. The next day, he was mixed. He thanks the Holy Child of Atocha because the mixer was stopped in time, although he got out all covered in his vomit.