Mexican votive offerings and altarpieces. From acts of faith to the plastic statement

Abstract

The Spanish word Exvoto (votive offering) comes from the latin: ex, of and votus, promise. It is a symbol of gratitude on the part of an individual or group of individuals for favors received. Without a doubt, these are materials that represent a way of believing and living the Catholic religion and whose disappearance or devaluation would certainly be regrettable. The purpose of this article is to recover the value of exvotos as a cultural practice; observe their formal structure; and, from this, think about their prospects of continuity or disappearance. The triad of Peirce is used to conceptualize the exvoto as sign, as well as opacity as an element of the discourse and the proposal of a model that seeks to bring us closer to intertextuality in this specific type of cultural product.