May you be blessed, Virgin of Guadalupe, because we came back from the peasant war. With the slogan «Land and freedom to the people!» we defended our property that had been taken from us by bad government supported by the big landlords who got more richer while the peasant got poorer.

Elijio Crudo and Romualda Hernandez
Yautepec, Morelos, 1917

I offer this retablo to the Holy Child of Atocha because my leg has been healed. I got it crushed by a wheel of the canon I was in charge of by the order of the general Felipe Angeles. It happened on the Grillo mountain when we were taking Zacatecas on the evening of July 23, 1914. The city was taken by my general Francisco Villa, and I prayed that my leg wouldn’t have get gangrene. Now I offer this retablo to tell about your favor.

Bartolo Coronel from Fresnillo, Zacatecaz
December 24, 1914

Virgin of Guadalupe, I dedicate this retablo to you thanking for saving us from an ambush of the federals. We got some wounds but managed to get through. We, revolutionaries who are fighting for the land and for the freedom, offer this retablo.

Guanajuato
September 24, 1917

Marvelous Saint James, we offer you this humble retablo for helping us with the soldiers who didn’t let the train pass because we were going where our general Pancho Villa was and we were carrying riffles and machine guns to him because we were fighting for our land and our freedom.

Hortencio Gamboa Lopez
Guanajuato, 5 july 1915

I was in my drugstore when the Zapatistas arrived and took my wife and my mother-in-law. I thank the Holy Child of Atocha for they didn’t see me.

Santa Ana Chiautempan, 1914

Tired from constant abuses and humiliation from the owners of the weaving factories in Rio Blanco, who, felt protected by the regime of don Porfirio Diaz, had forced us to slave labour for a scanty pittance, we went on strike for our rights to dignity and justice. Not far away from the factory, we were caught and repressed. They started to chase and catch us. On that tragic day, January 7, 1907, hundreds of our workers companions, with the wives and the children, were murdered on the streets of Orisaba, Veracruz, by the three cavalry battalions commanded by the general Rosalio Martinez. I give thanks to the Lord of Sacromonte because I managed to escape and hide myself in Amecameca, Puebla, from where I thank you now.

1910

Thank God, my fiancé and I went on our honeymoon to San Miguel de Allende, the cradle of the Bicentennial independence.

I give thanks to the Lord of Hospital from Salamanca for the miracle of saving me from death in Celaya, April 1915. When we defeated Pancho Villa and his troops, the general Alvaro Obregon had his arm blown off by a grenade. And I was behind him. Realizing what happened, I ordered this retablo.

Virgin of Guadalupe, I dedicate this retablo to you for saving my life twice. First time in a skirmish with federals, and second time, when we were going on a train and I almost fell on railroad tracks but you saved me.

Ruperto Diaz
Guanajuato
July 9, 1916

I give thanks to the Saint Michael the Archangel because my sons ran away to the mountains and joined the Emiliano Zapata’s people to fight for our rights. They suffered injustice on the hacienda of a cacique, who thought he was our master and treated them like animals. Take care of my sons because they are kids who deserve to be happy as they should be.

Brigida Perez
Cuautla, Morelos
December 1912