Many artists became popular in the country known as Mexico and many also became world famous. Heremenegildo Bustos was not only the pride of his city, but he also became historically known as one of the best Mexican artists of the turn of the century. Although Bustos was primarily a portrait painter, he possessed a superb ability to create altarpieces and exvotos for which he became famous. "The altarpiece, a small painting on tin, usually celebrates a miraculous healing from an injury or illness or a providential escape from an accident. It depicts the hero or heroine in a difficult situation from which he or she has been saved supernatural, as well as the deity who performed the miracle The forms are primitive, the colors sinister, the composition arranged for their immediately dramatic values ​​(Helm 8). It represents the essence of traditional Mexican culture of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. After the conquest, Mexico found that this type of art form was flourishing. Inexpensive mediums were eventually introduced and the popularity of this. art form reached its peak in the last quarter of the 19th century. Hermenegildo Bustos was relatively unknown outside his hometown and the region of Purisima del Rincon, Guanajuato was not only a portrait painter, but he also made a living. as a goldsmith, farmer, carpenter, church sacristan and even ice cream maker because at that time he was a man who needed to earn a living and provide for his family. It was difficult to make a living solely by painting portraits, but incredibly, he managed to find commissions even after the emergence of photography. "Like Velasco, although on a smaller scale, Bustos communicated both through the medium of paper and through the ages, a kind of diary that captured and interpreted anecdotes, customs, events, and happenings (Durand 33) .""A total of 67 of his altarpieces have been identified, most of which are in a private collection such as those of Aceves Barajas, Orozco Munoz, del Valle Prieto, Pina, Durand-Arias and Rionda Arreguin (Durand 33). )."Works citedDurand, Jorge and Douglas S. Massey. Miracles at the border: returns of Mexican migrants to the United States. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995. Print. Helm, MacKinley. Mexican painters: Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros and other artists of the social realist school. New York: Dover Publications, 1989. Print. Oles, James. Art and architecture in Mexico. , 2013. Print. Oles, James and Karen Cordero. South of the Border: Mexico in the American Imagination, 1914-1947. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993. Print.