Professor Mariolina Salvatori
Department of English
University of Pittsburgh

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Mexican Ex-votos


"Commonly referred to by the generic term retablos ... ex-votos are commissioned by supplicants, who are often illiterate, to semi-literate popular artists (generally called retablisti) who can paint familiar representations of the particular divine figure that is the subject of devotion at a particular site. The majority of retablisti do not sign the ex-votos they produce." (Excerpted from "Mexican Ex-Votos' Iconographic Literacy," in Popular Literacy: Studies in Cultural Practices and Poetics, ed. John Trimbur).

	Ex-voto
	This embroidered ex-voto was drawn and embroidered by women living in a group of pueblitos in the state of Guaolanajuato, Central Mexico.
	Mary is a divine figure often represented in ex-votos.
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