Palo que Habla (Talking Stick) in San Martín Tilcajete, Mexico

There is plenty of documented history about how the handicrafts commonly known as alebrijes came to be linked with towns like San Martín Tilcajete. The term "alebrijes" originated in Mexico City, and the first crafts to be called as such were made out of papier mache. Manuel Jimenez brought the idea to the state of Oaxaca, where the copal wood was the element of choice for local carvers to use in these figures, due to its ease to work with as well as the symbolic significance of the tree.

The majority indigenous population in this area of the state is the Zapotec, and their culture exerts a large influence. Bursera copallifera is one of the species best known as copal, as it name indicates, but several other trees in the Bursera genus have this common name too.

For several indigenous cultures, copal was valued for its resin, often dried and burned as a type of incense, with the smell of its smoke said to be able to "awake the gods" for the Zapotec. With alebrijes becoming one of Oaxaca's best-known crafts, along with masks and other carvings made out of copal, numbers of these trees began to decrease at an unsustainable rate.

Morales himself noticed these issues and in 1994, he lead the first reforestation campaign in the area of Tilcajete and neighboring towns like Ocotlán. In the 21st century, the workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles has become one of the most influential in the craft of alebrijes, often responsible for unusually large pieces with complex shapes, which require a large amount of copal wood.

It was the Ángeles workshop that established Palo que Habla (which can be translated as Talking or Speaking Stick) in 2006, after the slow gathering of suitable land that started in the 2000s. Palo que Habla is set up as a multifaceted and constantly growing project encompassing several conservationist aims, with the main one being the nursing and establishment of copal groves which can then be sustainably harvested for wood.

Its terrains also feature water catchment areas, fields for growing commercial flowers and crops (heirloom corn and beans in particular), many of which are showcased in Almú, its onsite restaurant. One of the project's most interesting practices is the yearly "Adopta un Árbol" (Adopt a Tree) campaign, which includes a reforestation campaign by volunteers along with a system for donors to sponsor a tree that they can name.