Answered prayers
Subtitle: miracles and milagros along the border
By: Eileen Oktavec.
Series: The Southwest Center series
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Tucson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 239
Subjects: Francis Xavier, Saint, 1506-1552 -- Cult -- Arizona -- Tucson Region.; Francis Xavier, Saint, 1506-1552 -- Cult -- Mexico -- Sonora (State); Mission San Xavier del Bac (Tucson, Ariz.); Santa María Magdalena (Church : Magdalena de Kino, Mexico); Votive offerings -- Arizona -- Tucson Region.; Votive offerings -- Mexico -- Sonora (State); Tucson Region (Ariz.) -- Religious life and customs.; Sonora (Mexico : State) -- Religious life and customs.; Tucson Region (Ariz.) -- Social life and customs.; Sonora (Mexico : State) -- Social life and customs.
Description: When Catholics in the Southwest ask God or a saint for help, many of them do not merely pray. They also promise or present a gift - a tiny metal object known as a milagro. A milagro, which means "miracle" in Spanish, depicts the object for which a miracle is sought, such as a crippled leg or a new house.

Milagros are offered for everything people pray for, and so they can represent almost anything imaginable - arms, lungs, hearts, and eyes; men, women, and children; animals, cars, boats - even lost handbags and imprisoned men. In Answered Prayers, the Mexicans, Mexican Americans, Tohono O'odham, and Yaquis who practice this tradition share their stories of unwavering faith and divine intervention.

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Anthropologist and photographer Eileen Oktavec has spent more than two decades documenting this fascinating tradition in the Arizona-Mexico borderlands. Quoting extensive interviews, she explains the beliefs of the people who perform this ancient folk ritual and the many rules guiding this practice. She also describes the many places where milagros are offered - from the elaborate Mexican baroque Mission San Xavier near Tucson, Arizona, to tiny household shrines and hospitals on both sides of the border.

Oktavec also explains how milagros are made, where they are bought, and how they are used in jewelry, sculpture, and art.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-225) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: milagros and the cult of St. Francis - Offerings and answered prayers; title: Offering sites throughout the Sonoran region; title: Buying a milagro; title: Stamping, engraving, and casting milagros; title: From heads to handcuffs: many kinds of milagros; title: What becomes of milagros; title: The new milagro art; title: The future of milagros.