The Aztec Virgin stands in a nice nicho with a hand painted frame, and it is constructed in the traditional style. It looks much like a traditional antique 19th Century nicho. Milagros, which are the name of a type of small charms, are nailed to the frame. These are used by people to testify to specific miracles that a saint has done for them. When one asks for a miracle from a saint, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe, one makes a vow, which is known in Spanish as a manda, wherein one promises to go the a shrine or church dedicated to her and leave a milagro there. If the image that is the center of devotion in that shrine or church is inside of a nicho, the milagro would be nailed to the frame in many cases. In this particular piece, however, the idea is that the owner might have the means to put up her own shrine, and if the Virgencita Santa grants her a miracle, she can nail her own milagros on the shrine itself and not have to go all the way to Tepeyac or try to find a Santuario de Guadalupe somewhere nearby. On either side are two saints that are important for a lot of Mexican folks healers, or curanderos, as they are known. These are San Cipriano, the patron saint of magicians, and San Ramon Nonato, who helps people deal with gossips and also helps people keep their secrets hid.

The Virgin of Guadalupe is the most famous saint in Mexico - the patron saint of Mexico, in fact. Known as the “Virgen Morena” - the brown skin virgin- Guadalupe was supposedly first encountered on the Hill of Tepeyac in what is now Mexico City only a few short years after the Spanish Conquest, by an Aztec Indian, Juan Diego, who was told to go and tell the bishop to build a temple on the spot where he first saw her. It happens that this spot is the same location where the temple of Tonantzin (“Our Lady” in the Aztec dialect, Nahuatl) was located. Tonantzin, on the other hand, was the recreation of an earlier Mother Goddess of the Indians who had been in the Valley of Mexico long before the arrival of the Aztecs.

************

These pieces are made with recycled wood - Mexican fruit crates - or “rejas” as they are called - by the self styled "King of Taco Deco", the world famous artist and bon vivant Bryant "Eduardo" Holman.

From Fausto's Art Gallery in Ojinaga, Chihuahua.
(Shipped from Presidio, Texas)

I accept Visa/Mastercard, Money orders, and checks.

$35.00 dollars plus $10.00 shipping and handling

FOR QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WRITE TO bryanth@presidiotex.com