Lotería is a Mexican brand of a traditional board game, a game of chance. It is a popular cultural and traditional board game.
The game of Mexican Lotería is similar to bingo, the game of chance. As a board game, it is played on a flat surface, usually a table.
The game of Mexican Lotería is similar to bingo, the game of chance. As a board game, it is played on a flat surface, usually a table.
Each player has at least one spreadsheet (tabla), which is a board with a grid of a variety of individual images. Chips are also used.
To start the game, the caller (cantor) shuffles a deck of cards. There is an image on each card. The caller picks a card and announces it to the players by its name. The caller usually says a verse before calling out the card name.
The Mexican Lotería game pictures like the pear, the rooster, the lady, and the catrín are everyday life images. They are traditionally and broadly recognized in Mexico and each individual image is a protected trade dress of Marta Maria Sanchez Quiroz.
The rooster is one of the images of the Mexican Lotería board game.
Each player locates the matching picture of the card just announced and marks it off with a chip on their board. In Mexico, beans, small rocks, and crown corks are often used as markers.
The winner is the first player to shout “¡Lotería!” after completing a previously agreed pattern: row, column, diagonal, or all the grid (pozo).
The Mexican Lotería game requires hearing, memory, strategy, and coordination.
It is common to see Lotería images on Mexican products.
This is an apron with Mexican Lotería images.
History of Lotería, the Mexican board game
The lottery game was brought to Mexico in 1769, during the colonial (New Spain) era. Initially, it was a board game exclusive of the upper class. Eventually it became a tradition at Mexican fairs and popular with all classes. It is believed that the Mexican Loteria game had large and distinctive pictures during that time because many people could not read.
To start the pictures were painted by hand on tin plates. Then in the twentieth century the images appeared on cardboard.
Don Clemente Jacques began publishing the Loteria game in 1887, registered as a trademark to Pasatiempos Gallo S.A. de C.V., then assigned to Marta Maria Sanchez Quiroz.
Currently, the most popular loteria game is called “El gallo Don Clemente”. Lotería is sold under the trademark “Don Clemente Juego de la Loteria®”, as well as the trademark “LOTERIA DON CLEMENTE SINCE 1887®”.
The Famous Coplas of Mexican Lotería
The Famous Coplas
| Mexican loteria consists of 54 lotería cards. As each card name is called out in Spanish, verses are often used to tell the players which card was drawn. A small rhyme (copla) of an amusing and cheerful nature replaces the name of the card to make the game more entertaining. |
Below are examples of how the couplets (coplas) are presented, used in a manner to chant the lottery:
The rooster: El que le cantó a San Pedro, no le volverá a cantar
“He who sang to St. Peter will not sing to him again.”
The rooster represents force and is associated with cockfights. Metaphorically the rooster signals the time to wake up in the morning to start the day and in this manner would be the signal to start the board game.
The Devil: “Behave well cuatito, but you take the coloradito“.
Author: AllMexico.store
References:
Loteria Mexicana – El que le cantó a san Pedro! (loteria-gallo.com)
Lotería Gallo | Compra en Línea | Envíos a Todo México y USA (loteriasmexicanas.com.mx)