Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ianchadwick.com/blog/loteria-de-camacho/
1/5
Ever since I first visited Mexico, more than
30 years ago, I’ve been fascinated by its
culture. It’s beautiful, exotic, alien, yet also
comfortable and attractive.
2/5
Over the decades, I’ve brought back several versions of the game, the latest being from our
recent trip to Mazatlan (bought in a small farmacia near the hotel).*
While all of the images in the decks are similar, the artwork can be quite different, and very
compelling, depending on the deck. There is a new (nuevo) deck that I have not found, but
will search for in my next visits.
Sets usually include a deck of cards, several playing mats as per the image above (10 mats
is common, but I’ve seen sets with fewer and more), plus a sheet for tracking what’s been
played (sometimes just a blank grid with numbers).
In play it’s similar to bingo, although the winning patterns aren’t all identical. What continues
to captivate me is the images.
Unlike bingo, the caller doesn’t always simply call out the basic card or its number. He or she
may use a riddle, poem or epithet instead, forcing the players to guess the card. These may
be simple or challenging. For example, as Wikipedia notes, the caller may cry,
3/5
This is, in English: “Do not miss me, sweetheart, I’ll be back by bus.” So what card does that
relate to? A bus? A traveller? Regular players would recognize it as number 27: El corazón
(“the heart”). There are also regional variations on the riddles, too, and often the callers
depend on extemporaneous poems or descriptions.
The announcer’s approach will often depend on the social context in which the game is
being played. At a church bazaar, for example, he might use a more tame humor, while
for a game played in an adult setting he might use innuendos that are more risqué and
derisive. Satire and references to contemporary events and politics are often a part of
the word play involved; in fact, the linking of images to social commentary has existed
since the inception of the game.
Villegas has her own set of cards that is well worth examining, especially in comparison to
the traditional images. Sometime in the future, I’ll dig up a tarot deck and compare the similar
images one-to-one.
~~~~~
* I will post my thoughts about Mazatlan in a separate blog shortly. Suffice to say we were
pleasantly surprised by the city, and by the number of Canadians who have chosen to make
it their second home. Weather was superb. We plan to return.
4/5
** The tarot fascinates me as a visual
collection of archetypes, not as a fortune-telling
device; it is a psychological expression of
essential western symbols. Fortune-telling, of
course, is simply superstitious claptrap. There
are no psychics: merely charlatans and con
artists. That does not detract from the artistic,
historical and psychological interest in the
deck.
5/5