Alebrijes: the art born from a nightmare

The story of alebrijes begins in 1936 with Pedro Linares, a papier-mâché craftsman from Mexico City who, according to his own account, fell gravely ill and during the fever delirium dreamed of a strange place where fantastical creatures appeared that were none he recognised: mixtures of animals from different species, with impossible colours and forms that defied known anatomy. In that dream, the creatures repeated a meaningless word: alebrije.

Upon recovering, Linares reproduced those creatures in papier-mâché, creating the first figures of what would later be called alebrijes. His pieces reached the hands of painter Diego Rivera, who collected them and introduced them to gallerists and collectors. The diffusion was rapid: by the 1940s and 1950s, Linares's papier-mâché alebrijes were known in Mexican folk art circles and had won prizes at international exhibitions.

The carved wood version that today is perhaps better known than the original papier-mâché comes from another place: Oaxaca, where craftspeople from San Martín Tilcajete and San Antonio Arrazola independently developed copal wood figures carved and painted with geometric patterns and vibrant colours that became associated with alebrijes. The term extended to these pieces of distinct origin and technique, creating a craft category that today is one of Mexico's most representative cultural export products. Pixar's Coco brought alebrijes to a global audience that in many cases was unaware of their history.