This exhibition would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, Associate Director for the Arts and Humanities of the Rockefeller Foundation, who we first contacted about the project in February 1997. We are also most grateful for the extraordinary contributions of co-curators Dr. Elizabeth Zarur, the primary researcher from New Mexico State University on the history and icongraphy of the New Mexico State University retablo collection and Charles Lovell, former art gallery director. Our co-curators and contributors are Elin Luque and Michele Beltran who effortless work on the Mexican venues, we are also grateful to Albert Ruy Sanchez, Director of Artes de Mexico.

Two key individuals who were also instrumental in the planning of "El Favor De Los Santos," are Hector Rivero Borrell, Director of the Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City, and Miriam Roberts, independent curator from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Rivero Borrell and the Museo Franz Mayer played a major role as our Mexican partner. Ms. Roberts was also responsible for the sound planning and substantive scheduling of the U.S. tour. The venues were the University Art Gallery, NMSU, Las Cruces (November 19, 1999-February 7, 2000), Museo de Historia Mexicana, Monterrey, Mexico (March 22-June 7, 2000), Museo del Amparo, Puebla, Mexico (July 27-September 15, 2000), Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City, Mexico (October 15, 2000-January 31, 2001), San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA (March 4-June 3, 2001), Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago, IL (June 29-September 9, 2001), University of Miami Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL (February 7-March 31, 2003), National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM (May1-July 31, 2002) and two venues in Spain and in the Canary Islands.

The exhibition "El Favor de los Santos" and the catalog The Nineteenth-Century Retablo Tradition received major support from the Museum Program of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Stockman Family Foundation, and New Mexico State University. Other contributors include the Friends of the University Art Gallery, the University of New Mexico Press, the New Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs, Televisa, the Fideicomiso para la Cultura Mexico/U.S.A. (U.S./Mexico Fund For Culture), the Fundación Cultural Bancomer, the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, the New Mexico Arts Division, the N.M.S.U. College of Arts and Sciences Research Center, Casa Lamm Cultural Center, Harold and Susan Skramstad, Merrill Lynch - Las Cruces Branch, and the Fundación Margarita Miranda Mascareñas.

The generous support of Dr. Reed Dasenbrock, former Associate Dean and Director of the College of Arts and Sciences Research Center, was essential towards securing grant funding and provided the organizational support to pursue this ambitious project. Other individuals from New Mexico State University who assisted with the fund-raising efforts include Rebecca Sellars, John Van Ness, Mike McDonald and Joe Creed from the N.M.S.U. Foundation; former Dean René E. Casillas Ph.D., Jeffrey P. Brown, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor Jack Burns, Ph.D., J. Mack Adams, Ph.D, Grants Development Officer Cindy Hoffman, and Associate Director Carol Quintana from the College of Arts and Sciences and Research Center; and Prof. Joshua Rose. Individuals who helped with the local fund-raising efforts include Dr. Luis Miguel Diaz, Barbara Freeman, Vincent Figliola, William Green, José Manuel Mascareñas, Eugene Matta, Helen Lucero, Larry Sheffield, New Mexico State Representative Paul Taylor, George Newman, and Barbara Wilbanks.

The Friends of the Gallery Board of Trustees have been most generous in providing considerable funding for the project from our two most recent benefit art auctions. Board members who greatly deserve our thanks include the past and present presidents Connie Hines, Ammu Devasthali, as well as Gloria Baron, Jeffrey P. Brown, Elaine Clance, Patty Conroy, William Eamon, Elizabeth Fisher, Tom Gale, William Green, Betty Hase, Joe Hidalgo, Jerry L. Kaufman, Cecilia Lewis, Julie Marineau, Rosemary McLoughlin, Barbara Montoya, Louis Ocepek, Mary Kay Papen, Richard Parra, Margaret Ritter, Joshua Rose, Ted Shelton, Pat Sisbarro, Jane Slagel, Harold Skramstad, Penina Slotnick, Elaine Szalay, and Angela de la Vega.

Initial support for the catalog came from the U.S./ Mexico Fund for Culture. The Fideicomiso para la Cultura Mexico/U.S.A. funded the travel and honoraria for the nine leading scholars from Mexico and the U.S. to research the retablo collection and to present lectures at N.M.S.U. and the Museo de Arte, I.N.BA., Juárez, Mexico. A second phase of this project funded these scholars to complete essays for the U.N.M. Press publication. We are extremely grateful for the support of the U.S./Mexico Fund for Culture staff: Lic. José Luís Martínez H., Presidente del Comite Directo; Lic. Ercila Gomez Maquero R., Presidenta del Comite Directo; Lic. Marcela S. Madariaga, Directo

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