Miraculous Celebrity

"Burdette has written a roller-coaster narrative following the fortunes of a maize-paste statue of Christ in Mexico. Created by Indigenous hands and installed in a small church near Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo, the once-decayed figure miraculously renovated itself to pristine condition in 1621. Its value led it to be seized by Spanish and Creole elites in Mexico City, who then launched it as a miracle-working celebrity, one that vied with the Virgin of Guadalupe in popularity before a later eclipse. This book is required reading for anyone interested in the mechanisms of colonialism, and for its imbrication with religion and visual culture." - Barbara Mundy, Tulane University, author of The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City "Employing a singular miraculous object, the Christ of Ixmiquilpan, as a focused lens, Burdette has produced his own wondrous creation: a monograph that exquisitely illuminates the messily entangled realms of unquestioning faith, political authority, ethnic identity, and Catholic dogma in the urban heart of Mexico City. This peripatetic text expertly charts the ever-changing-yet everlasting-Christ of Ixmiquilpan, from its sixteenth-century Indigenous creation, through multiple colonial era renovations, and on to its modern veneration, compelling us to ponder the alluring authority of material "authenticity" in the discipline of art history." - Amara Solari, Penn State University, author of Maya Christian Murals of Early Modern Yucatan