The truth of it was that she was just truly a santita from ever since her fatal experience at the age of three and she didn’t have to prove nothing to no one. She didn’t bother to do it when she was more or less among the living and people figured out eventually that she was not going to try to prove nothing afterward, neither.

Rather than all those gratuitous titles of La Patroncita de Todas las Pobres Criaturas or Patrona de la Cocina y la Comida (or, more formally, as she was referred to during Mass: Patrona de los Hambrientes, Patrona de las Enfermedades Misteriosas, and so on), if you ask me, nothing suited her better than La Loca Santa, which was her first and original title.

The annual conference of M.O.M.A.S. eventually became, as anyone could easily imagine, a world event each year, taking the cake over the World Series and even the Olympics, when they were held, winter and summer. Not only were Las Blessed Mothers present but droves of spectators attended with high hopes and often heavy hearts to catch a glimpse of their favorite martyrs and saints. In addition to the fact that few ever went away disappointed (since there was always a certain number among the faithful reported by the press to have been physically cured, spiritually redeemed, or otherwise saved from some human failing), you would, unfortunately, also get your share of charlatans.

Every year the number of vendors of basically more useless products and souvenirs than what a tourist could find on a given day at Disney World grew. For example, there were your T-shirts with such predictable stenciled phrases as “The Twenty Third Annual Convention of M.O.M.A.S., Flushing, NY,” or “Perros Bravos, Nuevo Leon,” or “Las Islas Canarias,” or “My Mother Is a Member of Mothers of Martyrs and Saints—Genuflect, Please!”, the usual posters, stationery, forever-burning votive candles with your favorite saint’s or martyr’s picture stuck on (or an instant photo of your own kid, if you preferred), “automatic writing” pens, and then, of course, the all-time favorite—La Loca Santa and her Sisters Tarot Deck drawn by a lovely and talented artist in Sardinia, Italy.

In this version, Sofia as a mother was simultaneously represented by the Empress card and by the Queen of Swords, a quick-witted, dance-loving strong woman who was nevertheless powerless to the sorrow she suffered. Esperanza also appeared as a court card in the suit of swords as the knight—for she had been driven by her yang as much as her yin for the sake of what she believed.