Alebrijes

Many of you have probably seen those fanciful wooden carvings of animals, painted with brilliant colors and fantastic designs. They are locally known as alebrijes (ah-lay-bri-hays) and we took our last trip outside of the city, and our first in a southerly direction, to the small town that specializes in them, San Martin Tilcajete. In true Oaxacan style we walked down to the main market and caught a colectivo with the town Ocotlan emblazoned on the windshield. (Ocotlan is a bigger town farther south than San Martin.) We told the driver where we wanted to go and after picking up 2 more passengers we were off. About 20 minutes later we were dropped off on the side of the highway, at a road leading to San Martin Tilcajete.


As many of the towns that specialize in one of the crafts, doors on the streets were opened to reveal the artisan workshops all filled with the same thing - in this case these wonderful wooden creations. We stopped in a few of the shops and were able to discern some of the differences in styles and paint used. From the questions we asked we learned that the pieces are carved from a wood called Copal - it is light weight wood from trees that grow locally. There has been an effort in the last years to reforest this type of tree. The alebrijes are made from one or many pieces of copal. Next comes a base layer of paint and then the more detailed work on top of that. The artisans actually don't have to treat the wood before they paint, which may be one reason this type of wood is so popular. It can take weeks to months to finish a piece.


Some of the more high quality stuff we saw came from a workshop whose artists have done some traveling and artist exchanges in the U.S. - some near us in Boston. Here is a look at some of what they had in their shop.



You'll have to come visit us in Boston to see the ones that we ended up purchasing. They are too carefully wrapped right now to reveal....

I have to be honest now. I was totally taken by the beauty and intricacy and craziness of these alebrijes, but there was another highlight of this little excursion. On our way back to the highway we were able to catch a motorized tricycle/rickshaw kind of thing, called a mototaxi. They are a common form of transport in areas on the outskirts of cities (saw a lot of them near Calpulli going up the dirt hill). I had been excited to try one out for quite some time so we hopped in with all our goodies. Had I been more with-it I would have gotten a shot of the whole thing or one with me while we were driving - I had a huge grin on my face for the entirety of the 300 yard journey. Here's a view out of the front.