 In some towns, especially in Tilcajete, the economy has shifted from agriculture to the making of wood carvings with a number of families abandoning farming altogether.However, for most households in Oaxaca, the success of alebrijes has not replaced the need to farm or to alleviated the need to send family members to Mexico City or to the United States and work and send remittances back home.Despite Oaxaca's reputation for the production of crafts by indigenous peoples, alebrije makers are monolingual Spanish speakers who generally do not identify themselves as a member of an indigenous group although almost all have Zapotec ancestors.