Cultural Identity & Folk Art | What are Alebrijes? World Renowned Artisans Reveal Backstory

In this interview with Jacobo and Maria Angeles, they share their personal story and insights on the history and traditions of local Zapotec culture, including:

• A description of alebrijes art, and how they reflect Zapotec values and traditions.
• First-person accounts of how the Oaxacan folk artists create their alebrijes that display their cultural identity and traditions.
• An examination of how alebrijes support both cultural and environmental sustainability through community practices, natural resource conservation, and preserving their cultural heritage.
• An exploration of how Zapotec art serves as a social expression.

Expected Learning Outcome:

This lesson includes clear expected learning outcomes that support students in understanding cultural identity through first-person perspectives, while building intercultural awareness and connections between individual experience and global traditions.

• Students will identify and describe key cultural practices and beliefs from the lesson’s focus community (i.e., Zapotec and Mexican culture).
• Students will articulate insights into their own cultural identities and how those identities relate to what they learned.
• Students will analyze how cultural expressions (like alebrijes) reflect values, history, and social traditions.
• Students will compare perspectives across cultures while finding similarities and differences through human themes.
• Students will make connections between cultural traditions and broader global contexts (lessening local culture loss, environmental sustainability), showing critical thinking about identity and intercultural understanding.