By Ricardo Ibarra

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – An artisan in a small village in western Mexico has earned the nickname of “diosero,” or godlike, by creating ceramic statuettes to which some attribute miracles, the artist said Monday.

“I have a little sculpture I made of St. John the Evangelist to which miracles have been attributed. It’s very small. As far as I’m concerned, that depends on a person’s faith and the beliefs each one has,” Martin Ibarra Morales, 43, told Efe at his workshop in Jalisco state.

Among the anecdotes about alleged miracles, Ibarra mentioned an aunt of his wife who had a son in grave state of health because of brain tumors.

“In the hospital she lent the little statuette of St. John the Evangelist to her son and when he saw it, since his faith is very strong, he said, ‘Now I do know I’m going to get better,’ and that gentleman is still alive and well,” the artisan said.

The story spread among the inhabitants of Miravalle, a neighborhood in Guadalajara, the state capital, where the mother of the recuperated patient took the statuette that Ibarra made.

The locals made a novena to the figure “and they didn’t want to give it back until I asked for its return,” the sculptor said.

Another of his creations that inspires devotion among believers is the Virgin of Zapopan, which he made and gave to an American seminarian, which is “in the United States” and now and then “they show it in poor neighborhoods,” he said.

Authorities in the state of Jalisco have given some of his statuettes to important people and dignitaries of international politics including Spanish royalty, the sculptor said.

Martin Ibarra said that he possesses no power to make his pieces become icons of faith for anyone, though he admitted “pouring” something of himself into each statue.

“I don’t see the economic value in what I do. I enjoy sculpture, I feel it and put something of myself into it, because it also depends on your state of mind,” he said.

“If I’m happy, I transmit that feeling, and also when I have faith in something I transmit that, thinking it will do good,” he said.

His workshop is a small space made of clay like his sculptures, and is located directly in front of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, which is on the so-called “Franciscan Route,” a series of municipalities through which preachers in Mexico passed in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The church has pre-Columbian motifs since Mexican Indians took part in its construction, and inside visitors can appreciate the syncretism of the beliefs of the Franciscan monks and the religious cults of the natives, such as a face of the Aztec god Tlaloc on the facade of the Catholic church.

Ibarra learned the art of creating religious figures from his father, who began making them out of clay after he discovered a tomb with a variety of ceramic offerings.

Now that others have begun to imitate his work, the artist plans to continue innovating with his works through a symbiosis of pre-Columbian style and his own way of creating – and enjoying himself. EFE