I needed money quickly, and my friend told me that I could earn it right away as a prostitute. I put a provocative dress on and stayed at the corner near the cemetery. But all the clients approaching me were very strange. They all were skeletons. I was so scared. I thank the Virgin of Guadalupe for I got a job in a store so I don’t need to prostitute anymore.

November 1, I went to the bar to drown my pain. There I found myself in the middle of a party of the dead men. They were celebrating being dead. I was terrified when they invite me to drink with them. I entrusted myself to the Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, and she helped me to escape. I promised to not drink alcohol anymore.

Holy Virgin of Esther, thank you for the miracle of delivering me from those horrible nightmares when I saw a couple of living dead with their bony pets.

Acanceh, 1954

Inocencio Fernandez, being well drunk after consuming a lot of mezcal in the bar, began to see many skeletons around him. One of them asked Inocencio “Why you are alone?” It was the Death in person who tried to take him. He thanks the Lord of the Wonders for he could escape, running out of the bar, safe and sound before he died on that November 2. He promised to amend his ways.

Huamantla, Tlaxcala

On my way back from the market, I was talking with my fired Josefina. We stopped near an abandoned house. Suddenly, a skeleton appeared from the house and tried to catch us. Only thanks to the protection of the Virgin of Zapopan, we managed to escape from this ghost. The Virgin healed us from the fear that kept us for a few days after. We thank for that with this retablo.

Fransisco thanks the Virgin of Guadalupe for saving him from dying during a dangerous heart surgery when he was between the life and the death. He gives the retablo for this granted favor.

January 25, 1995

There was a legend in my town about a ghost of a villista who rode the horse on the Night of All Saints. I never believed that but that night I worked late in the mountains, and on the way back to my hut I bumped into that ghost. He told me to go with him to the Revolution. I prayed the Virgin of Zapopan, and that moment the ghost disappeared. I thank for I didn’t die of fear.

Ponciano Morales
Durango, Mexico

Marta Juarez and her daughter Maria were coming back home from a dinner late evening. They met a company of happy skeletons in a dark alley. The skeletons were celebrating the Day of the Dead. Marta and maria were so frightened, they couldn’t move. They thank the Virgin of Zapopan because the skeletons didn’t notice them and passed by, chatting and laughing.

The Martinez sisters, Graciela and Alicia, were so beautiful that one day when they were coming back home through the cemetery, the dead men came out their graves and followed the girls flirting with them and giving them compliments. The girls, however, got scared and ran away. But the dead kept following them. So then the sisters prayed to Saint Barbara, and she appeared protecting them from the skeletons. The saint ordered the dead to go back to the cemetery, and the disappointed skeletons walked to their graves. The Martinez sisters thank the saint for this miracle.

I thank Saint Pancras for protection me every November 2, because that night my bar is filled with the souls of the dead of the town. They come very cheerful to celebrate their Feast with music and mezcal.

Filomeno Arriaga
Oaxaca, Mexico

There was a legend in my town about a ghost of a villista who rode the horse on the Night of All Saints. I never believed that but that night I drank too much mezcal and on my way back to my hut I bumped into that ghost. He told me to go with him to the Revolution. I prayed the Virgin of San Juan, and that moment the ghost disappeared. I thank for I didn’t die of fear.

Feliciano Piña
Durango, Mexico

November 2, the brothers Cosme and Basilio Trejo went to the cemetery to drink. There they met a mister sitting on a grave who wanted to give them a chest full of gold so they could continue to go on with their vice. Suddenly, they noticed that it was a dead man who was speaking with them. They implored Saint Benedict for protecting them so nothing bad happened to them. They promised to cut off drinking and to respect the dead.

Oaxaca