Note on Translation

Accompanying the retablos in the gallery section, we have included transcripts of the original texts in Spanish as well as our English translations of those texts. In transcribing the original Spanish texts we sought to retain the original spelling and punctuation whenever possible. However, due to the precarious conditions of a few retablos, in cases where we were not able to decipher the text, we inserted an [unintelligible] mark in the corresponding section. In translating the texts, we sought to provide English-speaking readers with clear, accessible, and readable prose. Achieving these goals necessarily involved editing as well as translating. Although we tried to produce literal translations, we often found ourselves choosing words and constructions that, while conveying the underlying meaning accurately, sounded better in English. We also made grammatical changes and added punctuation, as appropriate. Moreover, in order to clarify the geographical referents for North American locations, we corrected all U.S. place names from their renderings in phonetic Spanish.