✨️LET'S LEARN LOTERÍA✨️3 - LA DAMA✨️

 

3: LA DAMA (THE LADY)

Alright friends, I’m about to take you all on a journey – we are going to learn about a game first created in Mexico during the 1700s by the Don Clemente company, a game called lotería, or “lottery.” And while the direct translation of lotería is indeed “lottery,” the game is more closely related to Bingo.

There are fifty-four different cards in a lotería deck, each with a rather colorful and easily recognizable object, animal, or person. Each player receives a plaque with several rows of corresponding objects, animals, or people. When a card is drawn from the deck such as “La Maceta,” or The Flowerpot, the card-drawer will say the name of the picture, then its “grito” or saying (the grito for La Maceta is “El que nace pa'maceta no sale del corredor” or “He who is born to a flower pot won't leave the corridor” in English), and everyone that has the same picture of la maceta on their plaque would put down a bean or corn kernel or coin to mark that same picture. The game is won in either of two ways: in the first, the first person to get an entire row or column filled wins; in the second, the first person to get the entire plaque filled wins.

I give this information because lotería is first and foremost a party game. At least, that is what it was designed to accomplish. But for many Latinos like myself, we wanted a system of divination that felt particularly our own. There’s a certain shared history with tarot, and oracle is obviously open to all.

But lotería feels like home; it reminds of us of our childhoods, of carne asadas for every celebration big or small, of huge birthday parties where we’d end up sleeping rather peacefully on a chair next to our cousins in the living room by eleven while the adults partied outside until three in the morning. It’s a testament to how Latinos have taught one another to “not take life too seriously.” Lotería is a game. But it is also a reminder.

The third card in the fifty-four card deck is La Dama, or The Lady. The grito for La Dama is “La dama puliendo el paso, por todo la calle real” or “The lady polishes as she steps, all along the royal street.” There is also a note with this grito: La Dama is not actually a super important card like the High Priestess or Queen of Cups in tarot – she’s not necessarily an archetype the way many high feminine figures are in other systems of divination, though she is a force to be reckoned with.

Why this difference then? If La Dama is a force to be reckoned with, why is she not an archetype of important figure within lotería?

I want to premise this with saying that there are several cards within a traditional lotería deck that have prejudiced origins (we’ll get to that more as the weeks go by), to say the least. While La Dama isn’t necessarily considered a stereotype-based card, I personally look at the history of these cards, which were specifically created in the 1700s. This was not a time of equal rights for all, and women were often left with the brunt of unpaid housework and childcare even more so than they are today. I believe there’s a sort of cognitive dissonance going on with this card – La Dama is a woman who handles business, she IS important. But contextually, a woman’s work is a woman’s work and it is not more important than many of the other cards in the deck.

I don’t agree with this; I do want to make that clear – so here’s my personal breakdown of the card:

La Dama IS an archetype, like the High Priestess, like the Empress, like the Queen of Cups, etc, etc, etc. She is a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to do what she needs to do to get it. But she is also a woman of grace, performance, and elegance. La dama knows that issues won’t get resolved through emotionality and desire alone; these areas need to be backed by grace, dignity, and the will to push through even if no one else believes in you.

In the upright position, La Dama is a symbol of handling our own problems. She is a powerful #bossbitch but doesn’t take advantage of the leverage she holds. She knows her place, and that is at the head of the table. There is no narcissism here, no power grabbing, no arrogance – just plain, pure, and unadulterated confidence in everything she does. La Dama does not demand things of others, she draws them in with her aura, her presence, and her leadership.

In the reversed position, I read La Dama more in the classical sense – you are filling a role that is expected of you whether you want to or not. La Dama reversed tells me that we are beholden to the expectations of others and may not have had the chance to break from such thinking yet. The card asks us to reflect on not only how we handle our problems, but how we view ourselves in the larger world. If one draws La Dama for themselves in the reversed position, it is a pretty big sign that more self-love, more confidence, more assuredness is needed in one’s life.

As far as depictions of the cards go, I am once again showing three versions of the card – Xelena González’s design (pic 1), the original Don Clemente Company deck design (pic 2), and my reimaged design as well (pic 3). In the first, we see La Dama as a motherly but spirited figure, one who wears a sunhat and carries a rose and purse to show the duality of femininity and womanhood – on one side, practical, and on the other, beautiful. In the second picture, La Dama is more of a business woman (keep in mind, this is an updated version of the ORIGINAL ORIGINAL deck, which I can show as well if anyone’s interested). There is still the idea of expectation on her shoulders, of being placed in a role meant for a woman. She continues to hold the purse and flowers, continuing to show that duality.

And lastly, we have my design, which is very similar to the previous two with one major difference – La Dama is no longer holding a rose or flower. I made this decision because I wanted readers to focus more heavily on the practical side of La Dama versus the stereotypical views of woman that many people held from the 1700s.

That concludes this week’s lesson! As always, a reminder: lotería is OPEN TO ALL as a game, which was the intention behind its original creation. ANYONE can play lotería, whether it be with friends or family. And while game decks are sold far and wide from Amazon to your local Mexican grocery store, it’s important to try and support Latine sellers more than the big-box, mass-produced replications.

But as far as lotería as a divination system? This is where more nuance is needed – if you’re of Latine descent, then yes! PLEASE read for yourself and for others as well. But if you are NOT of Latine descent or adjacent, please consider only reading for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with buying a deck to support the culture and the people who created it! And there’s nothing wrong with divining in general – but to profit off this practice as someone not descended from the culture can be considered disrespectful at best. Just things to consider for the future.

In any case, thank you so much for joining me on another lotería lesson! I’ll be back next Tuesday with information on card four, which will still include the three card designs for reference.

Thanks again, I hope you all enjoyed! If you did, PLEASE leave a comment, question, or anything else related. I’m also happy to answer questions <3