LET US PLAY LOTERÍA!
Photo courtesy: Lina Mariscal
We know from the chroniclers of the viceregal period that lotería has been a popular game in Mexico for at least the past 300 years. Although today it is more commonly played in the home, people used to gather around tables in squares and carnivals to play and listen to lotería verses. The winners won prizes of earthenware, glasses, jars, and even potties.
A lotería deck is made of 54 cards with characters or objects whose images have become iconic in Mexico: the rooster, the calaca (Death), the mermaid, the nopal (cactus.) It is played with tables gathering combinations of 16 images. The game is led by a “singer” or “screamer,” usually a folk poet reciting traditional verses for each card. After listening to these verses, the players mark the images that were sung by placing beans on their boards. The game is won by the person who marks all the images first. Lotería has been a source of inspiration for artists and folk poets, who have made new versions of its images and verses. Here are some traditional lotería verses compiled in 2005 by Professor Samuel Juárez Martínez, when he was living in Tamaulipas, Mexico and was 89 years old. Death Death sat all her mass On her ultra skinny ass The tree The hope tree An always welcome invitee The star The northern star Ever shining far The jar In a jar everything fits When you arrange the tiny bits Lotería is still alive within the Alaskan Latino community. For example, Lina Mariscal plays it with her grandsons every Sunday. “I play lotería to keep the tradition alive, to teach them vocabulary and to train their memories, like in the flashcards or bingo that are played here in the US,” she says. |
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