Alebrijes

The Alebrijes are imaginary creatures that have elements from different animals such as dragon bodies, bat wings, wolf teeth and dog eyes. Colorfully painted, they were originally made with papier mache but can also be found carved in wood.

History

The Alebrije was created by Pedro Linares Lopez in the 1930's. Pedro was a cartonero (papier mache crafter) from La Merced a popular barrio in Mexico City, he made a living by doing pinatas and judas like his father did before him.

The story says that while very ill Pedro had a feverish dream where he saw mythical creatures and heard them say the name alebrije. After that Pedro began to represent in papier mache the strange creatures he had dreamed of.

A far more reliable version explains that Linares was appointed by painter Jose Antonio Gomez Rosas aka El Hotentote to make some "alebrijes" to decorate the annual masquerade party in the Academia de San Carlos. The painter was in charge of the decoration of that event and many others in the art academy. Linares asked Gomez Rosas how to make such things, to which he replied "just grab a judas and give him a tail and bat wings". In Gomez Rosas paintings there were often zoomorphic and fantastic figures that combine reptile, bird, insect and mammal parts as well as different eras and painting styles.

Pedro Linares' work sold locally for many years counting customers like Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, until 1975 when a documentary film made by Judith Bronowski made him internationally famous.In 1990 he received the National Prize for Popular Arts and Traditions. Linares passed away in 1992.

Making Process

The alebrije has a reed or wire structure that is covered with several layers of papier mache and then painted with bold colors. Today Linares progeny makes the now iconic alebrije figurines in the same barrio in Mexico City and artists all around the country craft these fierce creatures in different materials.

The Oaxacan Alebrije

Some wood carvers from Oaxaca adopted Linares' creatures and successfully created the wooden alebrije figurines from Oaxaca. Although some people called the whole style alebrijes de Oaxaca this is a misname, Alebrije name should only refer to the mythical creatures created by Linares.