"Miraculous Celebrity centers its study on the history of the life-sized crucifix known as the Señor de Ixmiquilpan, which was one of the most important pieces of religious art in Mexico in the colonial period. However, it is also a piece that has been comparatively overlooked in favor of figures such as the Virgen de Guadalupe. The Señor is what is known as a "cornstalk" crucifix, made from a paste developed from cornstalks and created by Indigenous peoples for sculpting materials. The sculptures are extremely light and composed of a hollow wire frame covered with paste, which were originally the basis for creating lightweight sculptures of pre-Hispanic gods that could be easily carried and displayed on the battlefield. Although the Señor was first created around 1545 and kept in a small chapel where it slowly decayed in obscurity, it wasnt until several decades later that the statue "miraculously" renovated itself and was identified by religious authorities in Mexico City during a period of fervor for miraculous statuary and images that had the power to bestow its powers upon devoted (and paying) parishioners. It was removed from its chapel over the protests of locals and taken to Mexico City. From there, it was documented in printed materials and paintings and carried through streets in moments of crisis such as the typhus epidemics that swept through the city and the aftermath of a major earthquake in 1845. Burdettes manuscript traces the long history of this statues celebrity and uses it as a way of tracing New Spains religious and social history from the centuries of colonial life to the independence movement"--.