Linares family (alebrijes and cartonería)

The Linares family in Mexico City is the best known practitioners of a craft known as “cartonería” or the use of papier-mâché to create hard sculptured objects. They have an international reputation for the creation of forms such as skeletons, skulls, Judas figures and fantastical creatures called “alebrijes. While the family’s history in the craft can be traced back as far as the 18th century, it was the work of Pedro Linares, who invented the alebrijes, that made the family famous. Pedro’s work became internationally famous through the patronage of artists of Diego Rivera and the promotion of it at the 1968 Olympic Games and through documentaries. Pedro died in 1990, but his sons and grandsons continue with the craft, which is sold internationally and have been exhibited in museums in various countries.

The connection between the Linares family and cartonería extends back to the 19th century with Juan Bautista Linares from Xochimilco began to make papier-mâché items for festivities related to Holy Week. In the 19th century, Francisco Linares specialized in the making of Judas figures for burning on Holy Saturday. Celso Linares, the grandfather of Pedro Linares began to make piñatas with papier-mâché instead of using clay pots, as well as masks and human figures. José Dolores Linares, son of Celso and father of Pedro, learned the craft and taught it to his son, along with growing crops on chinampas and making shoes. The family moved from Xochimilco to the Venustiano Carranza area, where Pedro was born.

Pedro Linares grew up in this area as well as married and had his children. The family was not extremely poor but lower middle class. Like his family before him, Pedro began with piñatas, carnival masks and Judas” figureswhich he sold in markets such as the one in La Merced. Pedro is the pivotal figure for the Linares family due to his creation of alebrijes starting around 1936. According to the family, Pedro Linares came up with the concept of alebrijes as a young man sick in bed with a high fever, dreaming of them and the name. After he became well again, he began to create the monsters he saw in his dreams. These creatures are amalgams of real and imaginary animals in bright colors in wild designs. Despite the story, Pedro Linares himself admitted that the creatures evolved over his lifetime.

...
Wikipedia