Taboo, right, and her daughter, Ole, are Xoloitzcuintli dogs who live in Winthrop, Mass. They're among fewer than 1,000 Xolos who live in the United States.

The Aztecs ate them. Frida Kahlo enshrined them in her art. So did Diego Rivera, who in a celebrated mural in Mexico City painted one baring its teeth at the invading Spaniards as they landed at Veracruz. Dolores Olmedo, a Mexican businesswoman and Kahlo’s rival for Rivera’s affections, ditched the boring cocker spaniels she once favored in order to trump Kahlo by breeding so many of the strange native dogs called Xoloitzcuintli (SHOW-low-eats-QUEENT-lee) that she eventually assembled a mighty pack.

Even the most ardent admirers of the Xolo concede that the dog is plug-ugly. One description of this hairless canine of ancient lineage, a national treasure in its native Mexico, characterizes the Xolo as a hot water bottle with pig eyes, bat ears and a rat tail.

At the 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last month, the humble, homely Mexican Xolo made a cameo as the latest addition to the American Kennel Club’s list of 170 recognized purebreds.

With an estimated population of fewer than 1,000 dogs in the United States, the Xolo is barely a statistical blip relative to the overall canine population (46.5 million households own purebred dogs, according to figures compiled last year by the American Pet Products Association).

What makes the Xolo’s official recognition noteworthy is the breed’s unexpected redemption. The AKC erased the breed from its stud book 50 years ago when interest in this once-popular dog faded and the Xoloitzcuintli, also known as the Mexican hairless, all but disappeared.

“Breeds come and go into and out of fashion,” said Gina DiNardo, executive secretary of the AKC, the umbrella body for 5,105 licensed member and affiliated dog clubs. “People see dogs in movies,” she added, and they fall for the pooch on the screen.

Or they spot Paris Hilton on the red carpet with a trembling teacup Chihuahua peering out of her “It” bag, and suddenly puppy mills are pressured to bring more teacup Chihuahuas online. “People see that Martha Stewart has French bulldogs,” DiNardo said. “And they say, ‘That’s something I want.’”

The Xolo enjoyed a brief moment of vogue in 1940, when Chinito Jr., a dog bred and owned by a New Yorker named Valetska Radtke, became the first and only AKC champion since the dog made its debut in the club’s stud registry back when Grover Cleveland was president.

Now Xolos are back, with a worldwide population of approximately 30,000 and newly formed fan and breed clubs in France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Peru.

That the dog of the year in Mexico last year was a Xolo may have been a sign of resurgent nationalism — or could just mean that allergies are on the rise south of the border.

Although a coated Xoloitzcuintli exists, by far the most popular version is the hypoallergenic one, a dog sprouting no fur beyond an asymmetrical “Tabitha’s Salon Takeover” shock between its ears.

“It’s already started,” said Amy Fernandez, of Forest Hills, Queens. Fernandez, a longtime Xolo owner, also contributed to the breed’s official written standards. “As soon as the word got out that they were going AKC, people ran out to buy a pair,” Fernandez said, referring to the breed’s elevation from a miscellaneous category to stud book recognition, which means that it can appear in the ring at the Westminster show.

Still, Fernandez said: “It’s a fad. There are always fads in dogs because people are attracted to a novelty. They want to be the first one to have the breed that looks the most different.” At $2,500 for a show-quality dog, a Xolo is no cheap impulse purchase.

Mottled, livid, freckly, baggy and with an eternally suspicious squint, Xolos don’t just look different from most other purebred dogs; they are inherently different, their owners say.

Unlike many pets bred to favor docility and anthropomorphic attributes — squashed, childlike faces, pendant ears that resemble human locks — the Xolo is an authentic rarity, a spontaneous genetic mutation evolved according to the laws of natural selection, mainly in the wild.

“I don’t think they were really messed with by man until late in their history,” said Kathy Lawson, a longtime breeder and handler of Xolos who raises them in the high Mojave near Hesperia, Calif.

Historians citing depictions of the dogs in art have variously traced the origins of the breed — which can range in size considerably, from 10 to 50 pounds — to the Aztec, Maya and Toltec civilizations. “There are still breeders in Mexico who make the journey into the Colima jungle to get dogs from the Indians to add to their breed lines,” Lawson said.

Primitive is a word seldom used with cuddlesome pugs or the Labrador retriever, undisputed cheap date of the canine kingdom, and few of the fans who fill the Garden each year for the dog show are likely to think of their pets as avatars of something snarling and wild. Xolo owners, however, are not shy about noting that far from being a quivering naked bed warmer, the Xolo is a fierce and sturdy, assertive and sometimes ornery dog.

“It’s a primitive breed,” Fernandez said.