Loteria Mexican Bingo Game of Chance: The Destiny of Things, Story 157

Loteria Mexican Bingo Game of Chance:  The Destiny of Things, Story 157

Much of my art is collage and is part of my paper hoard before it was coined "ephemera"

photo via The Destiny of Things, available here

I use these in my Mexican Folk Art and as part of my paper ephemera gift as a "thank you!" but I've been collecting paper all my life.

From childhood, I've saved written or printed matter destined for trash cans!  I have advertisements, saved envelopes for the prints inside of them, scrap paper of all sorts, origami paper, Botan candy toy prizes, all my report cards, my swimming tests, recital programs, vaccination reciepts, even a Valentine I made in kindergarten.  I even have my baby shower cards from womb age and the drawings people made of me from the games!

I even had saved every souvenir postcard and letter I ever received as child into my college years, every single pen pal I had, friend that wrote me, wedding invitation, etc, but one day without a thought or a ping of pain I dumped the apple box crate into a large rented trash container at least the half the size of a cargo container with most of the rest of my hoard that I'd been dragging around from at least five to six different houses over the past ten years.

I thought I was starting fresh!

Even now I have several boxes in my hoard that simply say, "collage paper" with a year on it.  Why I saved collage paper over my childhood letters is beyond me, except perhaps the boxes weren't labeled at the time, so I didn't throw them away?

Anyways, back to this story....

One Etsy buyer informed me she is going to use them traditionally as a game to learn Spanish because she was starting Spanish 101 this year and another gave them to her Mother this last Christmas and said it was going to be the "perfect" gift for her!

Funny, how I've forgotten how I used them to brush up on my Spanish too!  And then I used them making some Religious Mexican Folk Art inspired shrines!

photo via The Destiny of Things, available here

I use the above in all kinds of ways, to make boxes and cards.  I also used to make little Mexican Folk Art shrines which I haven't made since the 80s or 90s when my brother and I used to have project days.  I cut up the game board to make small shrines and use the card sized ones for larger shrines.  They look like houses.  I'll have to refind them in my hoard or at least the photos of them!

I especially like these loteria cards because they have the traditional riddles on the back of them in Spanish!  Yes, this was one way I tried to teach myself Spanish back in the day when I was an inner city teacher in California because my first year teaching I had 28 Spanish speaking and reading students and only 4 English ones!

This was fun, but not academic Spanish, so I do know third grade academic vocabulary or at least I used to, like valor de posicional, millares, centenas, decenas and unidades.  Once I was so excited that I didn't need sub titles to understand the movie, El Mariachi that I told my class ( I didn't tell them the movie title) and even understood, "mocos" which is a word I learned from them when someone was caught picking their nose, but got it mixed up with "mosca" and we all had a huge laugh and probably bonded over that.

In the movie, El Mariachi, the drug lord's street name is Moco, which perhaps is just as bad as "mosca." Anyways, it's a good movie and has some interesting mid century modern apartment in it or bar, if I recall correctly.  If you love a good story as I do, you might enjoy it!

So at lunch I told my best teacher friend who was bilingual that I might be getting somewhere with conversational Spanish, besides knowing third grade conversational spanish like, "levantano la mano antes de hablar, por favor!" haha, I still remember that!  "Please raise your hand before you speak!"

and I was so let down when she told me, "well, the movie is pretty much third grade level Spanish."

And even though I love the riddles on the back of these loteria cards they didn't help me with "real" life Spanish much either!

photo via The Destiny of Things, available here

Here are some examples of the riddles on the backs of each card.  I think you might agree how amusing they are, but not too helpful in a third grade classroom:

45 El venado (The Deer)
Saltando va buscando, pero no ve nada.  It jumps around searching, but finds nothing.

18 El violoncello (The Cello)
Creciendo se fue hasta el cielo, y como no fue violín, tuvo que ser violoncello.  Growing it reached the heavens, and since it wasn't a violin, it had to be a cello.

6 La sirena The Mermaid
Con los cantos de sirena, no te vayas a marear.  Don't get dizzy with the songs of the mermaid.

These are from wikipedia and the rest of the card translations are here!

I think I learned slightly more from singing with Los Super Seven, which used to be my Sunday Morning newspaper reading music back during my teaching days.  Here's La Sirena from utube.  Here's another one, even more traditional that will pull at any old timer's heart and bring nostalgic goosebumps, perhaps tears, El Ranchito, here and lastly I'll leave you with Un Beso Al Viento, here

If you are like me and only buy music when the entire album, CD or whatever they call it these days are good try Los Super Seven, the one with the Religious Mexican Folk Art shrine on the cover.  Their music takes me back to happy simple times for some reason.

photo via The Destiny of Things, available here

Saying Goodbye:  I looked all over for the traditional loteria game with the riddles on the back of the cards and ended up going back to the area I used to teach to find these at the Alameda swap meet, so I could cut them up and use them as "thank you" ephemera to include as part of my "thank you" omiyage and of course, bought a hoards worth to keep me busy and supplied!

Here's a sample of my "thank you" omiyage package from VintageToGoEasy using the loteria cards and other fortune teller ephemera and what not I just love:

 photo VintageToGoEasy, available here or order something from any of our shops!

What I Learned:

1.  I have been getting more hoard organized and many of my art projects have been at least boxed together in like groups, so I think I will start having more 4 hour art project days in the near future, since I'd say half my hoard is now left to better homes.

As of today, to be exact, 572 hoarded items have found new lives and homes and I think I'm about half way through, so as long as I don't buy anymore stuff I guess I have another year to dehoard until I'm done and my mission is complete.

2.  I'm pretty sure I gifted all my Religious Mexican Folk Art loteria shrines, but I did take photos of them, I think.  Anyways, I started to branch out from Religious Mexican Folk Art to Russian and then mixed it all, if you'd like to see my other Religious Folk Art, most of it is at The Destiny of Things, here.

This is the Religious Folk Art piece that gets the most views:

"When Angels Meet" is available here with more description, photos and my interpretation.

The brother to this piece is the Skulls of Saint Michael:

Made from vintage Tibetan Yak bone rosary skull beads, beads from my childhood, a Makita drill, glue and a Russian wooden Saint Michael plaque, available at the Destiny of Things, here

3.  I've been told I had more lives than a cat and this piece might represent having more than nine lives because I used to keep count, but lost count at around 24 and since then losing count doesn't seem to effect how many times I've barely survived only to rise to the surface unscathed by the hair of my chinny chin chin!

How many "close calls" can you remember?  Many of mine are written down some where and are lost in my paper hoard!

Thank you Etsy buyers from The Destiny of Things for leaving crumbs of information for me to follow like Hansel and Gretal!  I think your tidbits of information are helping me with mine by leading me back to my art!  I can't thank you both enough!

Thank you Etsy for helping me on this unknown journey that seems to be pointing me in a new direction!

Thank you US, France, Thailand, Greece, China, Ecuador, Finland, Germany and others who have come to support my  HoarderRehab and The Destiny of Things!  

Click on the shop names to visit my hoard listed daily: HoarderRehab,  The Destiny of Things, VintageToGoEasy and now JunkDrawerLove!  There are about 101 items listed on JunkDrawerLove and relistings to each shops daily and adding new listings weekly to all shops too!  Thanks for looking!

Maybe you'll find something to take home and share your story too!

Related Stories from my 80s Mexican Folk Art collection:   

1.  My Virgin Mary Tin Nicho:  It went to a home where someone knew it was going to need some time to settle in before it found it's perfect comfy spot and what exactly would go inside it.  Read it here!

2.  Coincidental Copper Anniversaries:  Sacred Heart Mexican Tin Nichos:  The Destiny of Things, Story #10 and #11

3.  From Hoarder Lite: Mexican Folk Art Tin Frame and Cards, The Destiny of Things, Story #21

4.  Day of the Dead Wedding Topper made with my skull bead destash, read it here!  Thank you Jim Gould at Etsy shop, Your Tops!  Also a confessed hoarder or at least questioning it by his wife's acknowledgements!  See his handmade Day of the Dead wedding cake topper with my white skull bead destash here! 

5.  My favorite Cross Nicho, now long gone that I used for photos of family ancestors, left side of the cross for paternal and right side of the cross for maternal while mixing all the religions in my family into one shrine, here

6.  Our Lady of Guadalupe Vase and La Sirena drink markers, here.  These reminded me of my Mexican Folk Art days and have since added them to my hoard again!

"To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die." ----Thomas Campbell