[touron]

The City of Renton is honored to host the Exhibition of Sacred Art de la Basilica de la Virgin de Talpa de Allende, Jalisco, Mexico. The Exhibition will be located at the Renton Community Center, 1715 Maple Valley Hwy., and will be open daily to the general public Sunday, May 21 through Sunday, May 28, from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Admission is free but donations at the door are welcomed. This exhibition is sponsored by the Washington-Jalisco Sister State Organization, the Cuautla-Renton Sister City Committee, the mayors of the cities of Jalisco, Club Jalisco, and local restaurateurs from Jalisco. I visited the exhibit today. It is not a large exhibit, but pretty interesting. From the brochure: "The image of our Lady of the Rosary of Talpa was made from the corn plant's dried stalk towards the middle of the 16th century by Tarasco Indians of Patzcuaro Lake, located in whatt's known today as the state of Michoacan, Mexico. This Image was taken to Talpa de Allende, Jalisco, Mexico (Ancient Tlallipan) by the Spanish priest Manuel de San martin, the evangelizer of that whole region. Having deteriorated through the years and finding itself in a deplorable shape, by the destructive action of the mosquito and other insects in general, the then parish priest Br. D. Pedro Rubio Felix ordered the natives to wrap the Image with linen and bury it in in the rustic chapel of the locality. When Maria Tenanchi and the other natives were about to carry out the priest's order on September 16, 1644, the Image renovated itself miraculously." Talpa de Allende