Ofelia Robledo got into prostitution because she looked exactly like Marilyn Monroe. She gives infinite thanks to Saint Catherine of Siena with this retablo because she’s doing very well.

Prostitute Sara L. ended up in the hospital with an allergic reaction after swallowing a client’s semen. She gives infinite thanks to Saint Martha for granting her recovery and promises to retire from this job.

I thank the Virgin of the Solitude for I came well out of these two surgeries and now I’m back again to do this work. They call me Kardashian from Merced. I ask you to protect me.

Merced, Mexico, March 2015

They didn’t accept me in the village for being gay. So I decided to go to the city. But I had no money, and I didn’t know anyone there. I thank Saint Sebastian who send good people on my path. They give me food and shelter. Although I had to devote myself to prostitution for several years, thanks to that I managed to do surgery and also paid my studies. Now I lead a quiet life, I had a good job and enjoy my identity as a woman.

Saint Sebastian, I thank you because I’m alright now after that tremendous beating a client gave me when he realized that I’m not a woman. He dragged me naked out of the hotel and whacked me. In that mortal danger, I implored you begging to save my life.

Armando “La Paola”
Tlalpan, Mexico City, May 12, 2000

I’m going to thank Our Lady of the Solitude for sending me a cure from a horrible disease that I carelessly caught from a client. Finding myself in such a bad condition, I implored the Virgin, and now I’m back to work honestly as a whore at this corner that feeds me.

Julia Barrera — Merced, Mexico City, 2001

Thanks to the Virgin for me being a whore and giving food and education to my children.

November 7, 1990
Lola Lopez, whore

I’m infinitely grateful to Saint Paul the Apostle for having met Leo. He is my best client, and the last time he ordered me to be together he told me that it’d be our last time because he had to leave the country for work. But he was so generous, that the next day he surprised me by presenting me a car which will be a big help for me.

Rubi

Julia the Pretty, I infinitely thank the Virgin of Guadalupe for making me a miracle of finding a good man who loves me and doesn’t care about me being a whore.

January 4, 2004

Virgin of Guadalupe, I thank you for letting me find job as a prostitute in Merced. As you know, I do it out of necessity, so I ask you to look after me in this hard work thanks to which I can support my family.

Faviola the Fatty, Merced, Mexico City
December 12, 2009

I thank the Archangel of the Neighborhood for the luck of meeting on my path these great women who earn their living by selling pleasures on the streets of Merced. They have inspired me to paint their stories and experiences in this old profession. God bless them, support and always protect them—wholeheartedly asks you this humble neighborhood artist Alfredo Vilchis Roque.

Corner of the miracles, Minas de Cristo, Mexico City

Acapulco
January 22, 1970

I thank the Holy Face of God from Acapulco for working a miracle that my daughter Sara stopped working as a prostitute.

Her mother Maria Solis

Thank you, Virgin of Carmel, I was able to find my fiancé and convince him to go to the church for his own good.

Petra — Oaxaca, Mexico, 1968