On my recent trip to Mexico I was determined to find these cards I had seen before, "You know, the cards with the sun and the moon, and a ladder and there are numbers on them." People looked at me like I was crazy. I suggested that they might be fortune telling cards, then I remembered more correctly that they were lottery cards, but lottery in the sense that there is a randomness to them. When I started asking for "Loteria", then I got somewhere. And I was justly rewarded for my search. At first all I could find were really small sets of lottery cards, or the game called "Loteria Gacela", but I wanted the large cards. One man who didn't have them told me they come in three sizes, but he hadn't seen the large ones. Instead he sold me these similar games:
The first one is "Serpientes y Escaleras" and looks similar to the game "Chutes and Ladders". I loved the multitude of images--birds, wild animals, people at work, there's even one image of someone being spanked--of course this has a snakes head on it, hissing. Oh, and another of a boy drowning with a man diving in to rescue him. The ladder attached to this image leads to a hero's welcome.
Another game is "Juego de la Oca", also featuring animals and birds but this one is more sporting, as the close-up shows. The printing on this one is very unusual, almost as if it's attempting to be 3-D, or is intentionally out of focus. The vendor explained to me that he thought this was perfect, "Perfecto!", he said. So, I bought it.
Alas, this vendor did not have my lottery cards but suggested that I look in the paper stores, where they sell composition books, pens and paper ribbons; or maybe a party store. So my search continued.
On the day before leaving Todos Santos I figured I needed to buy some souvenirs for my family, so out I went again to collect the goods. This time I ventured into the more tourist oriented shops and found a small set of lottery cards. This vendor knew where I might be able to find the cards I wanted and sent me down the street. Jackpot!
The game is similar to Bingo, with the deck cards drawn from the stack and each player looking on his player card to see if he has the matching image. A smaller marker is placed on the image if you have it.
I don't think these games are played frequently anymore as everyone seems to be playing Playstation and Wii. Up the hill from our hotel was a small room with large flat screen televisions of the wall--nothing but World of War being played there, to great camaraderie and noise.
7 comments:
I have never seen these before but they certainly have interesting graphics. Fascinating.
Congratulations on your successful search!
At first, I thought that the cards would be Memory cards. Wouldn't it be fun to stumble across a group of people playing "Loteria" in some small town, especially if they asked you to join them. In some Swiss restaurants there are special tables that are reserved for the older men to play a card game called Jass. Those cards also have pictures on them.
The snakes on the first board look really scary. They would give me nightmares.
Mary Kay, yes, it would be great fun to find people playing the cards, and I'd certainly join them. I didn't see any dominos players either, but maybe they're not popular there like in the Dominican Republic and Cuba. And about the snakes, Mexican society seems to embrace things that my American eyes find challenging, like skulls, and snakes and body parts, bloody hearts, etc. Viva la difference!
Adrienne, yes, the graphics are great. Some people frame and hang these sheets as art.
Joseph. On our stopover in LA last week we ate at a great Mexican restaurant that had HUGE versions of these cards around the restaurant, each probably four feet high. They were beautiful and now thanks to you, i know what they are! Congrats on your find and new treasures.
Mike
Every good Mexican family has a loteria lying around somewhere around the house that was handed down to them by their grandma. Another fun game is the "Toma Todo" literally, Take Everything. It is a dradle looking top with six sides. You play for beans or money; money is more fun! Google it :)
Conchita, thank you for your comment--I like the 'handed down to them by theri grandma" particularly. I saw Toma Toda too while I was there but I didn't buy that one. The man explained it to me but I was more attracted to the graphics. Maybe I should start a game collection gathered from my travels.
Well if you do, Joseph, I'll contribute the Italian equivalent, tombola. I just bought one in Rome on my last trip - they were selling them all for the Epiphany.
Just as eyecatching as the graphics here but more...earthy, shall we say?!
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