Constantino Blas

• San Pedro Cajones

From a remote region of Oaxaca emerged the rainbow-colored works of the Blas brothers of San Pedro Cajones (3 hours drive from Oaxaca). Their paintings were starkly different than other villages.

Constantino was born in San Pedro Cajonos, Villa Alta Oaxaca on February 17, 1952.

He started out as a farmer, which is the most common occupation in the community, and seeing that it was not enough to support his family, he decided to make nets of ixtle, bags, and make bricks and adobes. Seeing that even so, his income was still insufficient, he began to look for a new path, which was his great and brilliant imagination.

One day, together with his brothers, they thought about what would come out of carving wood and then decorating or painting it. At 33 years old, he got to work carving masks of the community's original and traditional dances. At 35 years old, he began making dolls in the shape of Yalaltecas people up to 60 cm tall, which was a very easy task for him, so he decided to try something new, making crocodiles. He saw real animals and turned them into fantastic animals using the wood carving technique, adding some other details from his imagination. Little by little, he transformed and created new pieces until he got to making many fantastic animals, giving them curious names like Caralampios, dragons, insects. He made these figures for 36 years. Dedicating day and night to his work, showing that imagination is the best inspiration. With work and dedication, nothing is impossible, since his pieces were in exhibitions at the state and national level, and unfortunately, he could not reach the international level due to Covid-19.He died on October 1, 2021 at the age of 69