Cross of Milagros

Among the souvenirs I brought home for friends, the oddest is probably the Cross of Milagros I found for Richard Bonomo. It was in the back of a store in Mazatlan, far behind the usual tourist kitsch, in the religious section. There were crosses covered with small charms called "milagros," which is Spanish for "miracles," and these charms were of all sorts of strange things: animals, people, plants, religious objects, and disembodied arms and legs. However, only this cross had a gun milagro.

Figure 1: Cross of Milagros

The moment I saw this cross, I thought: "Here is the perfect gift for Rich!" Then I showed Tiffy, who seconded this opinion. There is something so surreal about the pretty flowers juxtaposed with that six-shooter, and then St. Michael in the middle, holding a sword and a ... balance?? (Kathbert, who is a great devotee of St. Michael, said she was pleased to see that he is a Libra too.) The other charms are chili peppers, a young boy praying, corn, a pig, and the Eucharist.

Last night Rich, Kathbert, and I were looking online to find out what the milagros meant, since each one symbolizes something. The little charms are used either to ask a favorite saint for a miracle or to thank one for a miracle granted. Here is what we found:

Corn and chili peppers: abundance

Pig: abundance

Boy: either a prayer for a wayward young male relative or thanksgiving for a boy child

Eucharist: this wasn't listed, but it seems pretty straightforward

However, we could find nothing regarding the gun milagro. Even the salesman at the Mexican shop was puzzled and said he thought it must be for protection. So perhaps I have just wished for Rich to have an abundant, Eucharistic life that is well-protected and full of male offspring...? The boy milagro can also symbolize one's inner child, and the pig can be a wish that someone stops a piggish behavior, so maybe this will get Rich to stop doing what he himself calls "turbo-eating." (He says he got the term from Kathbert, who replied that the actual phrase she used was "turbo-chewing.") n.b. Rich is not a terribly messy eater, just a very fast one. Kathbert thought this cross was appropriate, since Rich is a very healthy individual and therefore would not need any milagros of body parts.

Here are a couple of movies of "Billy from Phili-penis" and his towel animals. The first one is rather long, and I will warn you that much of the action (such as it is) is blocked by the ape sitting on the edge of Billy's work table. However, it does show you Billy in action, going from two towels to an adorable apatosaur in under three minutes. Also, you can get a really good idea of how fancy the atrium (or, as they called it, "centrum") is in the Radiance of the Seas.

The second video is a much shorter one showing the animals sitting on the bar. The poor bunny rabbit has no more eyes because Billy "borrowed" them for the baby. I try to list each animal as I am passing it, but it was very crowded so in a couple of cases I am saying, "Excuse me" instead of naming the animal. The creature balancing something on its nose is a seal, the orange-and-white creature is a kangaroo (you can see its baby's ears sticking out of its pouch) and the other orange-and-white thing is a lobster.

Famous Hat