In downtown Oaxaca, a gallery with colorful copal hummingbirds hanging at the entrance captures my attention. Inside the Art Gallery Voces de Copal, I discover the most beautiful alebrijes, as unique in their shapes as I’ve ever seen. I now know that these alebrijes are the tonas and nahuales, the sacred beings of the Zapotec culture. The detail is impressive, and they are so beautifully made that more than artisan crafts, they are works of art. It is in San Martín Tilcajete—about 30 kilometers from Oaxaca—where they bring them to life. The Taller Jacobo y María Ángeles feels more like a home than a workspace. María and her husband, Jacobo, are the creators of these beautiful multicolored creatures, and they welcome me warmly and tell me about their work, the workshop, and the various projects they have created together.
How did the Taller Jacobo y María Ángeles begin?
María: Today, Jacobo y María Ángeles is a brand, but we’ve been a couple for 29 years. We both come from artisan families and were very young and inexperienced when we got together. At that time, it was common for people to migrate to the United States instead of starting a project. There was no other vision and no other hope but to migrate. Opportunities thirty years ago were not the same, and our craftsmanship was not as well known as it is now.
When we decided not to migrate, I was 17, Jacobo was 21, and we didn’t know where to start; we just knew we would have to work very hard. All we knew for sure was that we didn’t want to “just make figurines to paint and sell”, we wanted to give more value to our craft, to our monos de copal. So we focused on discovering their background, and it was then when we understood the cultural value of our craft, and we created the aesthetics and the statement of the workshop.
What is that statement?
María: We were inspired by our Zapotec culture. But if you observe, our way of painting in 1985 or 1990 is not the same as it is now. It’s been changing. First, we had to educate ourselves to understand Zapotec history and culture.
Jacobo and I asked ourselves many questions, why is copal wood used? Because it is endemic, it’s the most common in the region and has a meaning. Copal, in the Zapotec culture, is the sacred tree. And why are coyotes, snakes, or jaguars made? Because of the Zapotec calendar. Our ancestors revered and paid tribute to these animals. And why do we make little figurines with the face of an iguana? Because it is the fusion of a tona and a nahual, and they relate to each person’s date of birth.
The tona and the nahual are protector animals, so they’re made of copal, the sacred tree for the Zapotecs.
First, we had to understand it and then share it. Besides, it was essential to make their cultural value known, so that it would also have a higher economic value. At that time, it was not valued. People saw these pieces as souvenirs, as little keepsakes; they didn’t see them as works of art. That is why we wanted to recover that cultural heritage. It was not just about making handicrafts but about educating ourselves and teaching those who came to Oaxaca.
Now they’re known as alebrijes, what is the difference between alebrijes and tonas and nahuales?
Jacobo: Nowadays, people call the tonas and nahuales alebrijes, but in our culture, they are protective animals. Zapotec culture is full of traditions, dances, and rituals, but with evangelization, the words tona and nahual were demonized.
However, in Oaxaca, there was a beautiful movement, that of the Dominican Fathers, who respected and sowed syncretism, so that all the rituals and ceremonies merged and are now celebrated during Carnival. That is why many of our roots have been respected in this area. One of those traditions was making wooden masks and dancing in the village. The children would paint themselves with pigment, make their little masks and go out and run in the streets; I was one of those children. That is how this craft was born; for us, the tona and the nahual transcended.
Later, it was Master Pedro Linares who created the word alebrije, and curiously enough, this word opened the doors to our craftsmanship. In recent years, we have heard that people who don’t know about the tradition have started to call them alebrijes. And that’s okay; we’re not upset. We’ve respected and understood it. But we must recognize that this work comes from here, this town, and Oaxaca. So when people see a nahual or alebrije anywhere in the world, they recognize it as being from Mexico, from Oaxaca. And that is why they now call them “alebrijes de Oaxaca.” The important thing is that we have earned the public’s trust and interest in discovering Oaxaca. We wish for someone to look at our pieces and want to know more, and we love that our work is a window to promote my Zapotec and Oaxacan culture.
How have you promoted your work?
Jacobo: When I was a kid, my father took me to the Zócalo to sell, but there wasn’t a fair trade, and we had to convince tourists to buy, because they saw it as a mere curiosity, a handicraft. In 1985 I went with my sister to sell in Cancún and Playa del Carmen and then to Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, and Mazatlan, but nobody bought.
In 1990, I met Noel Gaetano, who gave us a space in his store, where we sold for ten years. Then, I met Jerry Boyle, who led us across the border to exhibit in museums in the United States. In Oaxaca, it wasn’t easy to start like that. There were no galleries. Going to the U.S. helped us build the resume we were looking for, to have national and international representation. They were the first to start buying and collecting this work. Then more galleries and museums became interested in our craft, and it spread outside of Mexico.
A significant change. What has been your experience in presenting your work abroad?
Jacobo: We started in museums and fairs in the United States, Balboa Park, the Museum of Man, and Bazaar del Mundo in San Diego. Then, that same American tourism began to visit our town. In 2003 we exhibited in Ginza, Japan, thanks to some friends, Gyoko and Shinki, and we sold the most expensive piece we had at that point. We were so happy and couldn’t believe it, “it’s worth it, Jacobo, it’s worth it,” they told me.
Then we went to other countries like Germany, where Harmon Sanker has the largest collection of our pieces. So, we started having a presence in more countries: Spain, Chile, and Ecuador. In 2014, we took a nativity to Rome, Italy. We were also the inspiration for the monumental alebrijes of the Lille Festival in France, and we exhibited at the Rockefeller Center in New York. More than just our work, it represents Mexico, Oaxaca, and my Zapotec culture. Jacobo and Maria’s pieces are just instruments to achieve this.
Which have been the most significant moments that have made the workshop what it is today?
María: There have been several moments throughout our career. One of them was to give recognition and value to women. When Jacobo and I got together, he worked in the workshop with his brothers, and they signed as Hermanos Ángeles.
When I came to live with him, and each brother went their own way, he switched to signing as Jacobo Ángeles Ojeda. At that time, we knew an American woman who, when she saw us working together, asked us, “And what does Mari do?” I painted. “And why isn’t your signature here?” I was about to turn 18 and didn’t know what to say, women never signed. She reacted immediately, “If I don’t see Mari’s signature, I won’t buy anything anymore.” So we began testing. Signing as Jacobo Ángeles Ojeda and María del Carmen Mendoza Méndez? No, too long, it’s more name than decoration. Or maybe María de los Ángeles or María Mendoza? Not yet. In the end, we liked the signature of Jacobo y María Ángeles.
Another critical moment was when we started teaching the technique. We didn’t teach other people for a long time and by habit, because they would learn and leave. That was our fear. We soon realized that it was a mistake. It is selfish to keep that wisdom to ourselves because then everything you’ve developed doesn’t transcend. So we opened the workshop, and people started coming from Ocotlán, Santa Ana, Santiago, and people from different towns are still coming. I believe that sharing and teaching have multiplied this workshop’s projects. There is a lot of human potential in our towns, and I am not talking about labor, but creative potential.
In art, we need the five senses, the sensitivity to touch, smell, see, taste, listen. And it has been important to share this with young people from different communities, and many workshops have emerged out of this one. People have learned and have gone on to set up their own workshops. But in the end, those are blessings, and they reciprocate. Knowing someone is able to survive thanks to what you have taught them, there is no greater satisfaction.
Jacobo: It was also significant when María and I began diversifying into plastic arts, ceramics, and jewelry, beyond alebrijes. It opened up a range of opportunities, making us continue to innovate.
María: Yes, Jacobo y María is not only a workshop for the production of figurines or a workshop for artists. It also has other different projects. We are the first workshop with its own bio-conservation and copal planting area, which is our raw material. Palo que Habla is our reforestation project. We also make jewelry and ceramics. At Mogote, we use local clay, and the colors of our ceramics are not very common. And we know that later, there will be not just one pottery workshop but two or three, and that’s good because it’s a matter of people growing. When we were young, people migrated because there were few options. Now, we are creating them.
What does the future look like for Jacobo y María Ángeles?
María: Our dream is to be an art school.
Jacobo: We want to be a formal arts and crafts school with certifications. We are already a school, but we need to have certification. Or maybe we could become a university of crafts.
María: We already work with several crafts: silver, ceramics, and wood. We also have the culinary part, our restaurant Almú, and the bioconservation area, which requires a lot of knowledge, such as planting cycles. There are many projects that we run. What’s next for Jacobo and María Ángeles? To continue learning, sharing, and enjoying what we do.
