Nicholas Herrera started life as a mischievous, dyslexic boy, born into one of the old Spanish families of New Mexico. Bad teachers and poor schooling helped him to lose himself in drugs, drinking, riding motorcycles and driving fast cars. A near-death experience, a wonderful mother and a fascination with making art saved him.Today Nicholas Herrera is one of the most noted Santeros artists who create images of saints and other religious figures in the U.S. The text, as told to Elisa Amado, tells Nicholas's story through his art and expounds the hard-earned wisdom that his experience has brought him. Herrera's life, his political views about drugs, his sense of social justice, and his support for oppressed people will speak directly to young readers, especially those who might feel that life has nothing to offer them due to their economic circumstances or their class or ethnic backgrounds.

Nicholas Herrera is one of the best-known folk artists working in the United States today. His art is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art, the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City, the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles, the Regis University Collection of New Mexican Santos in Denver, the Taylor Museum in Colorado Springs, the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, and the Harwood Museum in Taos. His work has been exhibited in New York, Paris, Chicago, Baltimore, Denver, Pueblo and Santa Fe. John T. Denne is a photographer who lives and works in New Mexico. Elisa Amado is a Guatemalan-born author and translator who lives in Toronto.