Tonas, nahuales, alebrijes... a sacred link.

In Oaxaca, they carve nahuales, also called "Tonas" in the town. According to the Zapotec worldview, these are animals that mark our lives at birth. In the pre-Hispanic calendar, there are twenty tonas: coyote, lizard, armadillo, turtle, snake, rabbit, deer, frog, dog, monkey, owl, eagle, jaguar, butterfly, fish, snail, hummingbird, opossum, and mockingbird. Each child is assigned a tona according to their birth date and year. These alebrijes are handcrafted figures made of copal incense, where the artisan's imagination and creativity transform them into true works of art. In Oaxaca and San Martín Tilcajete, life revolves around alebrijes, as the inhabitants learn to carve and paint these incredible handcrafted pieces from a very young age. Copal wood is commonly used because it is resistant and not too hard. A machete is used for the initial shaping, followed by a knife for the rustic finish, and finally a blade for the fine finish. Vinyl paint is used for painting, allowing for a finer and more colorful finish. Currently, copal wood is sourced from different regions of Oaxaca, including the Cañada, Huatulco, and Valles. This sometimes results in wood that is hard or brittle. However, the local people have planted several hectares of communal land with these trees, which has reduced the cost and improved the quality of the wood. Tree, good tree, that after the storm stood bare and forlorn upon a carpet of fallen leaves indifferently stirred by the wind… Today I have seen on your branches the first green leaf, wet with dew, like a gift of spring, good tree of summer. And in that green tip that is sprouting in you from I don't know where, there is something that silently asks me or silently answers me * Fragment of the poem of the tree by Antonio Machado. Marvel at these incredible works of art. Colored lines on copal wood, skillful hands that shape and carve tonas, nahuales "spirits" that slowly lodge in the bodies of fantastic animals that over time have been given the name of alebrijes, whose artistic value is highly admired, but that in the hands of artists from Oaxaca get a spiritual character and takes us back to pre-Hispanic times and its link with the sacred, where the gods had the power to become animals to interact with animals.