Hola and hello! I hope everyone is staying warm out there in TexMexlandia!! This little announcement might warm your heart anyway: I was recently asked to grant an interview with the fine folks at Artisanjoy.com. Artisan Joy is a website that celebrates exactly what you would expect: The joy of being an artisan!
Being the attention-depraved soul that I am, I leaped at the chance for some spotlight! They were kind enough to make me come across as way more professional than I actually am…which is very much appreciated!
Anyhoo, instead of reading the interview here, I will send you over to their website where they highlight different artist/entrepreneurs like me who make a living out of art! Maybe even subscribe 😜 because I know you will love their articles!
Click Here for the direct link to my interview…and as always, Gracias and Thanks!
Follow me to the most famous pasta tile factory in México. Mosaicos La Peninsular – Beautiful European imports which became a Yucatecan tradition. These hand made pasta tiles are now made in Mérida, Yucatán, México.
The Man, The Myth…Ignacio Durán. Owner and Boss Man of Tile! | Photo: TexMex Fun Stuff
Quick History of Mosaic Tiles or Spanish Tiles or “Pasta” Tiles in the Yucatan Peninsula: These tiles were originally made in Barcelona, Spain and used by architects such as Antoni Gaudi as early as 1857. We couldn’t find any mention as to if they were made exactly the same way there and then as they are here in Mérida today…But, today’s pasta tiles are essentially 3 levels of cement that have been turned into individual works of art!
Long story short, as early as the 1600’s, the Spaniards realized that they wanted to bring back home all of the great shit that México has to offer…aka…chocolate, coffee, gold, silver and most importantly at the time…henequin. We’ll cover henequin in another video/blog post. #promisespromises
Making Handmade Pasta Tiles (Mérida Yucatán México | Photo: TexMex Fun Stuff
So on their way to México (when they more or less owned it) the Spanish loaded their ships full of these pasta tiles as ballasts – literally to balance the otherwise empty boats to fill with New World treasures. They landed in the ports of Yúcatan, Campeche and Veracruz…then proceeded to dump all of the tiles out upon arrival. Then they filled the ships up with their Mexican treasures and back off to Spain they went.
Obviously, this left a lot of random tile laying around the peninsula, so people started collecting them and using them for flooring in their houses…and of course as sexy kitchen backsplashes and wall décor around their pools… Just Kidding.
Essentially, these tiles started as free imports here. But then about a 100 years ago, factories started popping up in the Yúcatan to make tiles to order for haciendas, businesses and regular casas alike. The good homeowners and business property folks realized that these tiles are cost effective, easy to maintain, beautiful and durable all at once. Plus, they really do stay cool and it gets hot as balls here.
Then China came up with less expensive ceramic tiles and introduced them to México and the world market. At that point the 7 or so factories in Mérida that had been producing these high quality tiles couldn’t compete and shut down. All but one… Mosaicos La Peninsular.
Ignacio and the gang endured the “ceramic tile storm” and thank God (!) because they alone kept this home decoration and flooring tradition alive. Plus, mosaic tiles last a minimum of 50 years and up to 100. Ceramic tile lasts around 7-10 years. #worthityo
He was commissioned to design the flooring for the Famous El Gran Museo del Mundo Maya in Mérida. This is a sexy honor, but we can tell Ignacio is WAY prouder of being featured in the Tacombi Mexican Restaurant in the Empire State Building!
Ignacio simply BEAMS with pride when he talks about how his tile is in the Empire State Building! | Photo: La Magia de los Mosaicos Yucatecos
Ignacio says that he doesn’t let just anyone into the factory, but I batted my eyes like a gringa flirt and got my way! First stop on the tour is the cement separation station. These dudes are literally not wearing shoes and standing in a pit of thick sand. Then by hand, they shovel the material up and throw it through a sifter. This is an important step because they end up garnering two levels of cement that helps build the necessary layers of the tiles.
Seeing Production!!!! Behind Door #1 is the separation of the cement. | Photo: TexMex Fun Stuff
The particles that fall through the strainer are used for one level of tile and the thick stuff that doesn’t make it through gets used as the bottom of tile. NOW we take the separated material to the artists!
This guy below is called a Ladrillero – that’s Spanish for “Brick Maker”. The Ladrilleros start with a decorative mold and they mix very fine dry cement with color and fill in the little sections within the mold with a scooper thing. Afterwards, they sprinkle fine dry cement on top. THEN they fill in the rest of the space with a thicker, damp and chunky cement mixture…
After the Ladrillero cleans up the mold, he just sticks it in a hydraulic press and literally presses it for 5 seconds. Ignacio is actually a mechanical engineer by trade, so I think that’s where the hydraulic press comes into play. This compression adds to the longterm durability of the tiles.
A Ladrillero doin’ his thang! First the paint mix, then the fine dry cement level and then the thicker base level. Press and be Impressed! | Photo: TexMex Fun Stuff
Anyhoo, the ladrillero removes the mold from the press, releases the ‘brick’ from the mold, flips it over and voila! A 100% handmade piece of beauty is on the back side! Since all of this is done by hand, a ladrillero can make from 80-130 tiles per day.
Ignacio has a mold for every style: 1800-1900’s Hacienda Old World classics, Art Deco, Traditional Mayan embroidery looks, you name it. As you can imagine, the more complicated a pattern and the number of colors per piece determine the length of time it takes to make each one, but after that process is complete…the tiles simply dry. No baking of any kind. They simply dry out for 8 days.
Molds for every style! Pic 2 is the warehouse where made to order tiles are drying out until they are ready to ship… | Photo: TexMex Fun Stuff
When the tiles are installed in their final resting place as flooring – a polisher shows up to buff and shine them with a polish. This polishing brightens up the colors and the tiles really become their best selves. Smooth to the touch, shiny and slippery when wet…but excellent to dance on!
When our tour was over, Ignacio gave me a fabulous and unexpected gift…the literal book on the subject…’La Magia de los Mosaicos Yucatecos’. A real treat!
THE BOOK! Forgive the Starbucks…It WAS early on a Monday morning after all! | Photo: TexMex Fun Stuff
For those of you who want to score this gem, it’s all in Spanish. The main gist is the history of bringing the tiles from Spain, the rise of factories like Ignacio’s in the early 1900’s and then their decline. It really drives home the value the tiles bring through design, durability, aesthetics, cost and ease of maintenance. I will have a discussion with Ignacio about making this book available to purchase! #promisespromises
IN THE MEANTIME…check out all of what Mosaicos La Peninsular has to offer on their English and Spanish website Mosaicos La Peninsular! Gracias and thanks for watching and reading and get ready for more to come!
I had seen those Mexican Bingo images everywhere. The Drunk, The Mermaid, The Crown, The Heart, etc. Cute and silly and there are a helluva lot of them. Except for all the names being in Spanish, I never really noticed that they are particularly Mexican (even though I had seen them all over Mexico). Mostly on paintings, cards, t-shirts, mugs, matchboxes, whatnot, what have you.
THEN I opened a store in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico with another gringa loca (crazy white girl) who was way more in the know than me. Her name is Julie and she was unfortunately in charge of teaching me a lot of shit about Mexican culture before our first buying trip in Guadalajara pre-grand opening. She told me we were gonna “Get our La Loteria on!” in a big way.
La What? La Profitable!
Classic, Millenial and Papel Picado versions of La Sirena from La Loteria – just a taste. | Photo: TexMex Fun Stuff
The Hardcore Backstory of La Lotería
Gambling is fun, let’s face it. Even Bingo is a good time…and I’m relatively young! Cards kill time and build friendships in ways other games can’t. Uppity folks in Italy and Spain knew this and played regularly as early as the 1400’s. It made sense for Hernan Cortés and his troops to bring a few decks of cards with them to play during the Spanish Conquest of México while plundering the natives of “New Spain”. Basically, when the Spaniards took time out from stealing land and enslaving Mexicans, they would kick back and enjoy a few games for laughs, money, pride or whatever.
I guess one good thing the Spanish conquerors did was introduce a taste for cards into México. Cortés himself was a great card player as it turns out. This introduction led to 2 very distinct, yet equally important games:
Lotería Nacional on the left, La Lotería on the right. I Photo: Julie Beinke
The Difference Between La Loteria and The Lottery
After all the battles of the War of Independence were over, lotteries and raffles were set up all over Central and South America. Lima, Peru was the first New World place to have an official lottery. It was introduced after an earthquake destroyed a local hospital and the archbishops there decided to institute a citywide lottery to rebuild the hospital with the profits.
Mexico needed profits to rebuild its post-war everything. BIG TIME. So in 1771, it became the second country to establish a legal lottery with the first big jackpot of $84,000 pesos.
“This vice, or time-honored habit – intelligently channeled towards good, so that it might benefit the poor and deprived, relieving them in their distress – is what gave rise to the lottery. Good engendered by evil: this was the idea proposed by the kindly King Charles III, who founded the lottery in his dominions of New Spain.”
—Artemio de Valle Arizpe in ‘A Brief History of the Mexican Lottery’ in “The Art of Fortune” by Artes de México.
And when we say ‘good engendered by evil’ we are talking about how all of the Catholic muckety mucks declared gambling as evil…even if it was ultimately for good. By 1782, after 11 years of successful fundraising (and some exploitation to line King Charles III’s royal pockets), México’s jackpot would commonly get to BIG MONEY. The PowerBall (if you will) would get to $715,000 pesos, which was a shit ton in 1782!
Since this was clearly a lucrative business, some clergymen and nuns got in the game…creating mini-raffles similar to La Loteria cards, but naming the cards after saints and relics. Douchey.
Long story short…México still to this day has its own National Lottery called Lotería Nacional with scratch-offs, PowerBalls and the whole shebang. This is NOT to be confused with the fun board game that is referred to as La Lotería. Yes, both types stemmed from the games of the Spanish soldiers, Cortés and King Charlie. However, La Lotería has much more cultural significance which is steeped in 200 years of history. The images of which have become iconic. No scratch offs, just loads of history.
Traditional La Lotería from 1887
So after 100-ish years of playing versions of La Lotería, a commercial board game version was created in 1887 by French entrepreneur, Clemente Jacques. He aptly called his widely sold game, “Don Clemente Gallo”. For those who have ever shopped in a Mexican grocery store or ‘super’, you have seen that name and that gallo (rooster) image before.
It was Clemente Jacques who came to Mexico to import games, seeds and canned foods and ended up establishing the first food processing and canning factory in México. This same dude made and marketed a timeless family-friendly game while feeding Latin America. Strange connection, but the company is one and the same.
Loteria? Ketchup? Strawberry Jam? Thanks Jack! I Photo: clementejacques.com.mx
Anyway, Señor Clemente Jacques mass produced a formal game of La Lotería. His version has a total of 54 images that each include a picture, a name and a number. Each one depicts a unique characteristic of México…food, Catholic beliefs, Aztec beliefs, booze and Mother Earth essentials. Frankly, Teresa Villegas says it better…
“Every culture has its idioms and icons -certain words and images that transcend the literal and reside in the psyches of the people. This artwork has drawn upon Mexican traditions, historical figures, gastronomy, and popular culture, translating them into images familiar and recognizable to those who have experienced this distinctive culture. ” And Teresa drops the mic…BOOM.
Example of a Lotería tabla or board | Photo: SAMSUNG CSC
How to Play
Each player is given a La Lotería board that has 16 images and a hand full of beans, bottle caps, rocks or whatever is lying around. Then a caller gets ready to rumble…He or she draws a card like a bingo caller fetches a ball out of that whirling dervish of a metal cage.
The caller is the crucial part of the game and plays the Emcee, the ‘Fair and Balanced’ Entertainer and the Riddler. The unique aspect of calling out the randomly chosen images, numbers or names is that they don’t actually call them out at all. WHAAATT?? The caller uses riddles, puns or jokes to note which image/number/name is being called. Depending on the audience, he or she can be quite tame or risqué AF.
Remember, this game has been played in churches, schools, dirty cantinas and table dance joints all over México for over 200 years. #dontjudge
Sound confusing? I agree, but it’s actually genius and if it is used in grade schools to teach kids objects and words, it’s gotta be good! I personally think it’s pretty hilarious that one of the images is ‘El Borracho’ which is ‘The Drunk’ in English. Little kids in grade school are learning that shit pretty early in life! Foreshadowing? Si. 🙂
When a pun is called that matches one of the images on your board, you put a bean or a bottle cap on the square. Once you have 4 squares across or 4 squares down or just 4 squares in the shape of a square, you win and you scream out LA LOTERÍA! And the crowd goes wild.
The different ways to win at La Lotería | Photo: Wikipedia
Millennial La Lotería from 2019
Fast forward to 2019 and you have a new way to play! You millennials are cray cray and are always coming up with fun and fanciful shit. This is an example that I LOVE! Did you notice the ‘La Selfie’ image at the top of this post? Creator, developer and my new 20-something hero, Gerardo Guillén has created the Millennial version of La Lotería! And in typical millennial fashion, you can follow the company on Instagram at @millennialloteria. #followustoo @TexMexFunStuff
No more El Diablo, El Corazon or La Corona…now we have La Selfie, El Tinder and La Dick Pick!
GENIUS I tell ya!
It comes with 46 cards, 10 boards and 80 bitcoin tokens. Bitcoin tokens? I can’t even! I bought 10 sets. Buy yours on Amazon here. If you want one or 10 of the classic sets you can get those here…
Finally, I mentioned that my friend Julie educated me on all of this shit and she deserves some serious street cred for that. Her store (formerly our store) is called El Estudio! and it is located on the main drag in Merida, Yucatan, MX. When in the hood, stop by and see her and get some cool Lotería merch! You’ll recognize the store by the logo below…which is basically she and I as Catrinas – another blog post!! Peace out and thanks for reading!
Are you looking for more inspiration from México? Check out the TexMex Fun Stuff Blog for more sights, sounds and badass-ness uncovered while exploring México searching for handmade fun stuff for you!
