Jacobo Angeles (born March 14, 1973)[1] is a Mexican artisan from San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca who is known for his hand carved and distinctly painted alebrije figures.

Angeles travels frequently to promote alebrijes and Zapotec culture, especially in the United States, and his work has been shown in major venues in Mexico and abroad, as well as featured in two books.

Angeles and his wife María del Carmen Mendoza were both raised in subsistence agricultural families in San Martin Tilcajete, a Zapotec community in the Central Valleys of the state of Oaxaca.

[2] In his youth, Jacobo learned to carve wood from his father, and was interested in the twists and turns of copal trees, that lent themselves to alebrije shapes.

Like other Oaxacan alebrije makers, the wood is soft copal, in his case collected from the nearby Sierra de Cuicatlán, and worked only with hand tools such as machetes, chisels and knives.

[3][4][7][8] The entire process of making one alebrije, including carving, drying, submersion in gasoline and other chemical to kill insect eggs in the wood and painting averages about a month.

[3][6] Angeles and his wife Maria still make alebrijes at their workshop which is also their home in San Martín Tilcajete; however, operations here have grown to include dozens of people and has become a tourist attraction.