Mexican folk art in an Art Deco fire station — alebrijes, Tree of Life candelabra, textiles and skeletons.
Opened in 2006 in a 1927 Art Deco fire station, and devoted entirely to arte popular — the folk and craft traditions of Mexico’s regions, treated as art rather than souvenirs.
It is one of the most enjoyable museums in the city and it is consistently underrated by visitors, who tend to prioritise the Aztecs.
What is in it
Four floors around a light well.
Alebrijes — brightly painted fantastical creatures. The form was invented in the 1930s by Pedro Linares, a cartonería maker in Mexico City who dreamed them during a fever; the Oaxacan carved-wood version came later and is now the better known. The museum holds enormous examples.
Trees of Life — elaborate ceramic candelabra from Metepec, covered in figures, originally depicting Eden and now depicting anything.
Textiles — huipiles, rebozos and embroidery from Oaxaca, Chiapas and beyond, with the regional distinctions explained.
Talavera pottery from Puebla. Barro negro from Oaxaca. Lacquerware from Michoacán and Guerrero. Silver from Taxco. Copper from Santa Clara del Cobre.
Cartonería — papier-mâché — including Judas figures burned at Easter, and catrinas, the elegant skeleton figures derived from José Guadalupe Posada’s 1910 print and now inseparable from the Day of the Dead.
Huichol beadwork and yarn painting.
The parade
The museum runs the annual Desfile de Alebrijes Monumentales each October — around 200 giant alebrijes, built by artisans and collectives, paraded down the Paseo de la Reforma from the Zócalo to the Ángel de la Independencia, then displayed on the boulevard for a fortnight and judged.
It is free, it is enormous, and it is one of the best things in the city’s calendar.
Practicalities
Ticketed and inexpensive; free on Sundays. Closed Mondays.
Allow two hours. Labelling is bilingual and unusually good at explaining technique and region.
The building itself is worth looking at — the fire station’s Art Deco fabric has been kept, including the original tower.
Mercado de San Juan is five minutes away and Bellas Artes ten.
More Museums
Museo Nacional de Antropología
One of the great museums of the world, holding the Aztec Sun Stone and the whole of Mesoamerica, under a concrete umbrella.
Museo Frida Kahlo
The blue house in Coyoacán where she was born, lived with Rivera, and died, kept as it was left.
Museo del Templo Mayor
The Aztec great temple, found by electricity workers in 1978 under the corner of the Zócalo, excavated and left open.