1953 Mexican Tin Retablo Ex-Voto — Señor de la Clemencia, Signed Clara Camargo

A hand-painted Mexican ex-voto retablo on thin sheet steel, signed Clara Camargo and dated April 1953, giving thanks to El Señor de la Clemencia for the recovery of her husband Lucio Rivera. The narrative inscription, lettered in black across the lower third, recounts that in 1920 Lucio suffered a severe sunstroke while working in the United States — "una quemadura del sol que lo puso en cama" — and that Clara, upon learning of his condition, prayed from the heart to the Señor de la Clemencia for his relief in "E.U. donde estaba."

The image field shows Cristo Crucificado mounted on a draped altar with twin candlesticks and floral offerings, framed by a Gothic-arched niche dressed in pink and white flower garlands. Two supplicants kneel at the foot of the altar — a woman in a red skirt and dark rebozo holding a votive candle, and a man in work clothes with his hat set on the ground beside him. The palette runs sky blue, oxblood red, and ochre over a hand-lettered base, painted in oil or house paint directly on the tinplate. The convention is classic mid-century northern Mexican folk devotion: an image of the miracle above, the testimony below, the signature of the grateful devotee at the close.

History

The Mexican retablo ex-voto tradition emerged in the early 19th century as a popular folk-Catholic practice — commissioned or hand-painted on small tin or sheet-iron supports to thank a specific saint or advocación of Christ for an answered prayer. Hung in church naves and side chapels, they functioned as public testimony: the miracle named, the devotee named, the date recorded. This example belongs to the mid-20th-century continuation of the form, when retablos remained a living devotional practice in northern Mexico despite the rise of printed holy cards. The Señor de la Clemencia is a regional Cristo advocación venerated in northern Mexico, and the inscription's reference to the husband's illness occurring in the United States places this piece directly within the early 20th-century migrant-labor history of the borderlands. The 33-year gap between the 1920 event and the 1953 commission is uncommon but documented — a long-deferred act of gratitude finally set in paint.

Collector's Note

Two features elevate this piece for collectors: it is signed and dated by the named devotee, and the narrative explicitly references a cross-border labor incident — the husband's illness occurring in "E.U." (Estados Unidos). Retablos with named signatories and specific U.S.-Mexico migration narratives carry particular resonance for collectors in the Las Cruces / El Paso corridor. The text is fully legible, the image field is intact, and the steel support shows the honest wear of seven decades on a chapel or home altar wall.

CONDITION

Good with age-appropriate wear throughout. Scuffing, paint loss along the edges and white border, and rust/oxidation to the verso of the steel sheet. Adhesive residue at the corners from prior mounting. The central image and the full inscription remain legible and largely intact.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall: 8 5/8" H × 5 5/8" W × 1/32" D
• Weight: 3.3 oz
• Material: Hand-painted oil/house paint on sheet steel (tinplate)
• Signed: Clara Camargo
• Dated: April 1953
• Event Date Referenced: 1920
• Devotion: Señor de la Clemencia
• Mounting: Single hanging hole at top center