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LET US PLAY LOTERÍA!

TRADITIONAL MEXICAN GAME STILL ALIVE IN ALASKA
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BY gabriela olmos

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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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Lotería and other traditional Mexican games will be played on May 5 at the Anchorage Museum’s Día del Sol.
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Sol de Medianoche is a monthly publication of the Latino community in Anchorage, Alaska