Alebrije
From Freepedia
Alebrijes are mythical creatures in the folklore of the Mexican Linares Family.There are a range of stories about how these exotic and fascinating figures originated. The most famous says that Pedro Linares created them under the influence of hallucinations resulting from a bout of an unspecified illness. When he awoke he was enchanted by the visions and in an attempt to recreate them he began make reproductions of them with Papier mâché, which were later hand-painted. True alebrije figures are all unique.
Personal testimony
Alebrijes were invented by revelations that Pedro Linares had when he got ill at 30 years old. No one could help him because medicine advances weren't available for poor people. His sisters tried to assist him but they didn't have success on it.
While he was in bed, unconscious, he was dreaming of a place, a different an estrange place, some kind of a forest, there were trees,animals, clouds, sky, rocks, etc.; my grandfather said that everything was in calm, he felt no pain and he was very happy walking down there. Suddenly, rocks, clouds and animals 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 eagle head, and all of them were shouting just one word, the word was "Alebrijes", every animal was shouting louder and louder: "Alebrijes, Alebrijes, Alebrijes!".
The sound was terrible, was too noisy there, my grandfather wasn't able to stay there for a long time, he got a terrible headache and he ran through a stones road where a man was walking. My grandfather asked the man for help, he wanted to get out of there. The man told him that he shouldn't be there yet, the man said to my grandfather that he had to walk by that road and a few meters ahead, there was an exit. My grandfather ran and ran until he was in front of narrow window, he passed through that window and he woke up.
His family was so happy because they thought that my grandfather wouldn't be in good health anymore. When my grandfather could get out of bed, he started to remember his dream and he wanted his family and everybody to know those animals, so he took a piece of paper and he molded those figures he saw. Then he painted them as he saw them in his dream. Then he show his work to many people, Mexicans and foreigners, and he was invited at USA and Europe to exhibit his "alebrijes". My grandfather worked from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day until the day after he died. He died on January 26, 1992, when he was 86 years old. Now, Miguel, Paula, Ricardo and Elsa Linares go on with Pedro's tradition of alebrijes.
Image:Alebrije12.jpg This is an authentic alebrije made by Miguel Linares Mendoza in Mexico City.
