After the region's annexation by the United States in 1848, Anglo-American clergy modernized New Mexican churches by replacing the santos with plaster statues and framed lithographs. The older images were removed to family chapels or the moradas (meeting places) of the penitentes, whose practices were frowned upon by the new clergy. In the traditional Hispanic Catholic world view, spirituality and the after-world were dominant and pervaded all aspects of life, while the essentially European view of the incoming Americans valued mastery of the material realm and earthly rewards. Penitential and other practices were seen by the Americans as the epitome of a whole complex of cultural expressions which were considered out-of-date, unprogressive, and even socially harmful. In response, The Brotherhood sought to protect and preserve the core religious values of the Hispanic New Mexicans, and to preserve the cohesiveness of their religious, economic, and cultural way of life. Thus, the art of the santero and the practice of an indigenous form of Catholicism became intertwined with the struggle to resist cultural cleansing.

The santos in Images of Penance were drawn from the collection of the Taylor Museum for Southwestern Studies of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, which also organized the traveling exhibition through funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A lecture, The Art of the New Mexican Santero, was given in association with the exhibition by Larry Frank, who is a collector, curator, and authority on the art of santos. He is author of New Kingdom of the Saints: Religious Art of New Mexico, 1780-1907.

The exhibition and installation design at Art Center were organized by Williamson Gallery director Stephen Nowlin.