Pedro Linares
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Pedro Linares ( born 1906, died January 26, 1992) was a Mexican artist and creator of the paper maché figurines named alebrijes.
The artform of alebrijes were created by Pedro Linares after he became ill at 30 years old. No one could help him because access to medicine was difficult for poor people. His sisters attempted to assist him but without success.
While he was in bed, unconscious, Linares dreamt of a strange place resembling a forest. There were trees, animals, clouds, sky, rocks, etc.; 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 an 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, and Linares wasn't able to stay there for a long time; he got a terrible headache and he ran along a stone road where a man was walking. Linares asked the man for help as he wanted to escape. The man told him that he shouldn't be there yet, and the man said that Linares had to walk by that road and a few meters ahead there was an exit. Linares ran and ran until he was in front of narrow window, and he passed through that window and then woke up.
When Linares could get out of bed, he started to remember his dream and he wanted his family and everybody to know about the animals he saw, so he took a piece of paper and he molded the figurines from his memory. Then he painted them as he saw them in his dream.
Linares went on to show his work to many people, and he was invited to exhibit his "alebrijes" to the world. Linares worked every day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. until the day he died at 86 years old. Now, Miguel, Paula, Ricardo and Elsa Linares carry on the tradition of the alebrijes.
