Alebrijes were also featured as two of the main characters in the 2017 Pixar film Coco that introduced many Americans to the tradition. Today, alebrijes can be found on many Día de los Muertos altars and parades, especially the large Día de los Muertos parade in Mexico City. Alebrijes had become more than merely the expression of an artists’ fever dream, and now they had come to symbolize spiritual, mythical animal guides that can help guide us in this life and in the afterlife. Since Frida and Diego were pillars of Mexican culture who proudly celebrated Día de los Muertos, alebrijes started to become interwoven into the celebration. Soon thereafter Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, who were already customers of his, saw his new creation and the popularity of alebrijes began to spread around Mexico. When Linares awoke and returned to health, he began making his alebrijes out of papier-mâché. According to legend, Mexican cartonero (a papier-mâché artist) Pedro Linares fell ill, and during one of his fever dreams he envisioned “a donkey with butterfly wings, a rooster with bull horns, and a lion with an eagle head,” and these fantastical beasts kept repeating one word over and over again: “Alebrijes! Alebrijes! Alebrijes! Alebrijes!” This week’s word “alebrije” (pronounced “ah-leh-bree-hey”) derives from the traditions of Día de los Muertos, and speaks to the culture we can create together.Īlebrijes are fantastical, colorful, playful animals that can consist of a variety of different imaginary creatures, and the concept has only existed since 1936. The hope is that the artists’ work will inspire others to create their own altars, and cultivate a new cultural tradition.
By housing this expression of diversity in one location, we cultivate a new shared culture, and by creating an annual celebration we can help ensure that this practice remains sustainable and constructive for years to come. Due to the diversity of America, the altars that the artists create do not look similar, but they still resemble altars. This festival is inspired by Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and the many other ancestor remembrance traditions from around the world. The Altars Festival provides people with this opportunity.ĭuring the festival, we bring together artists and commission them to create altars in celebration of their ancestors and culture. This is why we are called The Sustainable Culture Lab, and the Altars Festival was developed in our laboratory.Įthnocide thrives off of systemic division, terror, and the erasure of history and culture, so to counter ethnocide we must cultivate practices that proactively bring people together, provide them with the opportunity to cope with the trauma of ethnocidal oppression, and celebrate and remember their history and culture.
To combat ethnocide, we cannot merely raise awareness of ethnocide, but must also create sustainable, constructive culture. Due to living in an ethnocidal society that emphasizes the destruction of culture while keeping the people, American society struggles to conceive of and create sustainable, constructive culture. The Altars Festival is one attempt by The Sustainable Culture Lab to cultivate ethnogenesis / cultural naissance. Thankfully, this year’s event can be in-person, and we have been fortunate enough to have found a partner in STABLE arts to physically host the event. Last year, we had our first Altars Festival, but due to COVID-19 the entire event needed to be done virtually. This Friday, The Sustainable Culture Lab opened our second annual Altars Festival, and this was a pretty significant moment in the development of our philosophical work.