The House of Jaguars

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I bought a jaguar mask at the "Touristic Festival" last Saturday to add to my collection.

The artist who created this mask is from the village of San Martín Tilcajete in the state of Oaxaca.  He, and many of the village's residents, are employed in the creation of "alebrijes", the colorful and fanciful images of animals.  I don't think that this mask would be considered an "alebrije", but, like the Oaxacan "alebrijes", it is hand-carved from copal wood and hand-painted with intricate designs.

Later that day, I saw a vendor selling jaguar images on a downtown street.  She was from the village of Amatenango del Valle in the southern state of Chiapas.  That village is also renowned for its sculptures, not of wood, but of clay.  The subject of the pottery produced there is almost exclusively of the jaguars that used to roam the forests of Chiapas.  She had several small jaguar masks, so I purchased another.

So, now I have two more jaguar masks added to the collection that I have hanging on the wall of the master bedroom.

Several are wooden masks done by makers of "alebrijes", and several others are of clay from Amatenango del Valle.  One of them is done in the famous black pottery of Oaxaca.   I don't doubt that I will find more to add to the wall.

I started collecting jaguars after a visit that Alejandro and I made to Mérida, Yucatán, some years ago.  There was a tourist shop that sold t-shirts of the so-called "Mayan zodiac" with a different animal for each month.  Alejandro's sign was a jaguar.

In addition to the masks, I have quite a few clay jaguar figurines, all from Amatenango del Valle, throughout the apartment.

(I know that I have probably shown you photos of my individual purchase before, but here is the collection all together.)