A new photography exhibition in downtown Bloomington shares the stories and craftsmanship behind a popular Mexican doll. Lele, la muñeca mexicana features photographs by Yolanda Alonso, a journalist who created the blog Latinos en BloNo.
It’s a rare guest exhibition for Art Vortex Studio, owned by artist and community organizer Janean Baird, ahead of Hispanic Heritage Month. An official opening takes place Friday, Sept. 5, during First Friday festivities, with viewings scheduled through November.
“I’m so happy to be here and share my roots, my culture, my traditions, with my family, with the Latino community and the entire community of Bloomington-Normal, ” Alonso said.
The show’s 20 photographs were taken during two trips to Mexico in 2024, where she met women keeping the indigenous culture alive. Lele dolls are handmade, crafted to wear traditional clothing from the central Mexican state of Querétaro, which was declared a cultural heritage site in 2018. More recently, the Mexican embassy organized a tour of Lele through Chicago, where Alonso photographed her daughter in front of a 20-foot tall recreation of the doll.
Alonso’s work is both artistic and journalistic. She interviewed native Otomi women who make Lele dolls and took close-up images of the doll's construction.
“Every photo has a story,” she said.
Alejandra is one of those stories. She's from San Juan del Rio, a city 60 miles from the capital city of Querétaro.
“She takes three hours and three buses to go over there,” Alonso said. “She works weekdays in her home and then goes Thursday to Sunday to downtown Querétaro to sell her creations.”
Alonso said it’s tradition to pass down knowledge of how to make and sell Lele dolls to young women.
“When I talked to these women, I would say, ‘Do you remember who taught you how to make them, when you started?’ But her memory couldn’t pinpoint a specific moment,” Alonso said. “They’d say, ‘Our mothers, our grandmothers, our sisters, our aunts—they all learned this trade. It’s been with us since we were born.’”
Younger generations have added their own spin on the dolls, adding sugar skull embroidery, Frida Kahlo’s iconic unibrow, and playing with different colors and outfits—and even making dolls styled after the vaqueros, or Mexican cowboys.
Alonso said the dolls are also a vital source of economic stability for native Otomi women.
“Many of the women in the Otomi community don't have the opportunity to go to school,” she said. “Dolls are a way to learn to read, to speak Spanish, to learn how to make beads so they can sell them. Around the doll comes a cycle of knowledge and a trade.”
But despite the doll’s international popularity, Alonso said not enough attention (or money) have been paid to the women who make them. In a small but not insignificant way, Lele, la muñeca mexicana is trying to change that.
"I think this way of promoting can help them have better living conditions,” she said, hoping women like Alejandra might one day not have to commute six hours to sell their dolls.
It’s also Alonso’s way of passing down her culture to future generations—and the wider community she now calls home.
“This exhibit is for everyone,” she said. “The people who don’t know about this, they can learn about it. The Mexican people who have been able to see these can learn more about it. It doesn’t matter if you know or you don’t know. These dolls, they’re for everyone.”
Lele, la muñeca mexicana opens Friday, Sept. 5, at Art Vortex Studio, 101 W. Monroe St., Ste. 210, Bloomington. An opening reception from 5-8 p.m. includes a meet-and-greet with Alonso, refreshments and hands-on artmaking. The exhibition closes Nov. 8, with viewing available on Sept. 13, Oct. 3 and by appointment.
