Alebrijes: Fantastical Mexican Folk Art

I have probably seen an Alebrije before, but I didn’t know that’s what it was called. Or even that it had a name, because it was only shortly before I started writing this post that I learned it was an art form and a specific one at that.

If I had seen examples of it before, and thought anything of it at all, it was probably something like this, “Wow. That’s colorful. Fun and weird all at once.”

In other words, right up my alley.

But it wasn’t until I was playing with a new augmented reality app on my phone that I even thought to

1. Look it up, or
2. Write about it.

But let me back up a moment and explain how it was I came to learn about this art form known as Alebrije…

Getting Crazy with Waazy

The app that started it all is called Waazy. Not to be confused with Waze, which is a navigational app.

Waazy is awesome. You can bring all sorts of crazy things to life around you via your phone.

Here’s one I shared for Alien Day on HJ’s Facebook page:

I was snooping through their various categories (they have everything from Fear and Funny to Fantasy and Science Fiction) when one in the Fantasy section caught my eye. It kind of looked like a unicorn, but more colorful.

Except, they also had a unicorn in the same section. So what was this one all about?

The Alebrijaja

When I selected it, I saw its character name was “Alebrijaja.”

My first thought was, “What in the world is that? Surely that must mean something.”

I noted to self to look it up when I had a moment. For now I was busy trying to figure out exactly what it was.

Part unicorn? Part Pegasus? Part pinata-come-to-life?

That’s what it first made me think of.

Take a look and see for yourself. What do you think it looks like?

 

The History and Origins of Alebrijes

When I did have a moment to Google “Alebrijaja,” Google said, “Did you mean alebrije? No results containing all your search terms were found.”

I don’t really know what I mean, Google, so sure. Let’s go with your suggestion.

Bingo!

And the Wonderful World of Wikipedia once again proves very useful. It has very in-depth info all about Alebrijes.

But I’ll just share the very first paragraph here, because it’s perfect for my purposes, which is to just give a quick overview of what they are and how they came to be.

Alebrijes are brightly colored Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical (fantasy/mythical) creatures. The first alebrijes, along with use of the term, originated with Pedro Linares. In the 1930s, Linares fell very ill and while he was in bed, unconscious, Linares dreamt of a strange place resembling a forest. There, he saw trees, animals, rocks, clouds that suddenly turned into something strange, some kind of animals, but, unknown animals. He saw a donkey with butterfly wings, a rooster with bull horns, a lion with an eagle head, and all of them were shouting one word, “Alebrijes”. Upon recovery, he began recreating the creatures he saw in cardboard and papier-mâché and called them Alebrijes.

Examples of Alebrijes on Pixabay

I love Pixabay. They have so many awesome images.

For the heck of it, I went to see if they had any for Alebrijes. Sure enough!

Here are a few of my faves:

 

 

 

Have you seen an Alebrije before? Did you know that’s what they were called, or are you learning about them along with me?