Dear Mr. Laden: Please Don’t Bomb Our Paisanos

If you are remotely familiar with Mexican catholic fervor, you’ve probably seen exvotos adorning a church. An exvoto is an image offered to a deity or saint as a form of prayer or as a thank you for an unanswered prayer.

I’ve seen hundreds of exvotos in my life, but nothing quite like the above one, dated September 30, 2001 and loosely translated as follows:

“Dear Virgin of Guadalupe don’t let this guy Osana vin Laden [sic] attack the United States again, much less with nuclear weapons because I have family working over there, in Los Angeles, California; and may peace reign and not WAR, because we are all your sons. Give them good sense in behalf of humanity.”

Hat tip to the Unfabulous Mr. Badgerous