Spanish-Suited Playing Cards in Latin America

The Arrival and Spread of Playing Cards in Central and South America

Playing cards reached the Americas with early European explorers and settlers in the decades following Columbus’s first voyages in the 1490s. Thrust into unfamiliar environments and facing hunger, disease, and armed resistance from poisoned arrows, many expeditions were driven primarily by the pursuit of gold and loot, and violence was a frequent feature of early encounters with indigenous tribes. The conquistadores (mostly Spaniards) were also keen gamblers, and gambling was a well-established feature of their social life. Early accounts from the Americas, however, more often mention dice rather than cards, possibly because dice were sturdier and better suited the damp, unstable conditions of ships and frontier settlements. At the same time, Indigenous peoples also had their own gaming traditions, often tied to shamanic practices, invocation, divination or social exchange, before playing cards reached them.

Although royal legislation sought, in careful and well-intentioned terms, to protect indigenous peoples and convert them to the Catholic faith, in practice the Spaniards repeatedly invoked the right of conquest to retain occupied lands and subjugate native populations. Violence was not simply the result of individual excess, it was supported by legal and theological doctrines. From 1513 onward, Spanish expeditions carried El Requerimiento, a formal declaration drafted by the jurist Juan López de Palacios Rubios (1450–1524). Read aloud, often without translation and sometimes out of earshot, it asserted papal and royal authority over newly encountered lands and peoples, giving Spaniards automatic entitlement. Indigenous resistance was framed as rebellion against divine and imperial law, thereby justifying enslavement and dispossession. Basicaly, human lives could be reduced to property, a logic that permeated colonial society and, at times, extended even into games of chance.

A frequently cited early account illustrates the brutality of the gambling practices:

“... Estos esclavos eran herrados y luego vendidos en almoneda en la misma Santa María o bien en Cuba y en La Española, cuando no se jugaban a los dados como rebaño humano. Se refiere que en una sola apuesta el gobernador en persona perdió la cantidad de cien indios”. (“…These slaves were branded and then sold at auction in Santa María, or else in Cuba and Hispaniola, otherwise they were gambled away at dice like a human herd. It is reported that in a single wager the governor himself lost as many as one hundred Indians.”) ¹

Although playing cards are not mentioned in these early accounts, their presence can be traced through legal and administrative records. By the late 1520s, royal laws in New Spain were already attempting to restrict gambling with both dice and cards, citing financial losses, disputes over property, social disorder and so on.² ³ This suggests that cards were already widely used. Mulattos, blacks, enslaved people, Indigenous communities, and Europeans all took part in card play.⁴ Cards thereby also served as light entertainment in homes, taverns, and aboard ship, forming part of everyday social life.

Alongside The Requerimiento, the legal framework governing Spanish overseas possessions had been laid earlier, notably with the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), in which the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and John II of Portugal divided rights to future discoveries along a meridian west of the Cape Verde Islands. While these treaties and laws did not concern cultural practices such as gaming, they established the geopolitical context within which European customs - including playing cards and gambling - were transplanted to the Americas.

Among Spanish settlers in the American colonies, playing cards quickly became a regular feature of everyday life. Alongside dice and other games of chance where cheating was endemic, card play was deeply embedded in a culture marked by coarse popular entertainments and a picaresque, semi-delinquent way of life. Cards were commonly played in taverns, wine shops and so-called peluquerías, whose back rooms often doubled as brothels, spaces where gambling, heavy drinking and social disorder freely mingled. The widespread consumption of alcohol, cutting across all social classes, further fuelled these card-playing environments, where disputes frequently erupted. What might begin as minor quarrels at the gaming table often escalated into serious violence and even murder, much to the advantage, and workload, of courts and magistrates tasked with maintaining order in colonial society.

Below is a selection of early Spanish playing cards which might have been carried by explorers to the new colonies in America, giving an idea of what may have been used for the first 200-300 years or so after Spanish settlers arrived.

Above: Gothic Spanish-suited cards from the Catalonia area, 15th century. Cards with similar characteristics were produced in several areas but are now obsolete.

Above: 48-card Franco-Spanish pattern deck by Diego del Campo c.1550, Phelippe Ayet, 1574, and several others, produced and used in both France and Spain.

Above: archaic sixteenth century Spanish playing cards by Francisco Flores, preserved in the Archivo de Indias, Seville. Cards of this type have been discovered in various parts of the world, jncluding archaeology excavations in Peru. The pattern is now obsolete.

Above: probably originating in Spain in the seventeenth century or even earlier, the “Spanish National” pattern was extensively exported to Latin American colonies. Cards like these (and the ones above) may have been used for the first 300 years or so after Spanish settlers arrived.

The Viceroyalties of Mexico and Peru

By the time Felipe II ascended the throne, the phases of discovery and conquest had largely come to an end, and a new era was beginning in the Indies. Many conquistadores had aspired to establish themselves as a landed nobility, but these ambitions were thwarted by the increasingly centralised and authoritarian nature of the Spanish monarchy. The evolution towards a more structured legal and administrative order, initiated under Carlos V between 1535 and 1543, was marked by stronger metropolitan centralisation and the creation of the Viceroyalties of New Spain (Mexico) and Peru as arms of the royal treasury. This process was consolidated in 1573 with the reorganisation of the Council of the Indies and the viceroyalties, together with the codification of colonial law (Derecho indiano). Viceroys governed their respective territories and subordinate provinces, overseeing the collection of royal revenues and the treatment of Indigenous peoples.

These viceroys were drawn from the highest echelons of the Spanish nobility and served as the monarch’s alter ego, holding supreme authority in the American territories. The viceroy exercised legislative powers (drafting ordinances subject to royal approval), fiscal duties (auditing accounts, ensuring timely payments and collections), and administrative responsibilities (assessing taxes, appointing personnel). Subordinate to the viceroys were superintendents and petty officers overseeing sub-branches of the treasury, including taxes, customs duties, state monopolies, and coinage. Nevertheless, the viceroys remained the supreme authorities. They received an annual salary, and local iterations of a royal court gradually developed around them, complete with a palace, viceregal guard, administrative offices, bureaucracy, and the inevitable intrigues and corruption. Over time, unsurprisingly, this system grew unsatisfactory. In response to petitions to the Crown, legal reforms were introduced to prevent revenue streams from being farmed out and instead bring them under direct administration.

Historians have expressed widely differing views and reservations on the character and conduct of the Spanish viceroys. Among the most notable viceroys were Antonio de Mendoz, the first viceroy of New Spain; Luis de Velasco; the Count of Monterrey; and the Marquis of Montesclaros. In Peru, Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete, and Francisco de Toledo stand out, the latter one of the most significant figures among all the viceroys of Spanish America, governing from 1569 to 1581. In Mexico, responding to news of some irregularities, the duque de Alburquerque, viceroy in 1704, passed a decree banning gaming houses. The viceroy marqués de Casafuerte likewise banned card games on work days (see example ).

Moral prohibition and fiscal exploitation

Yet from as early as the mid-16th century, Spanish authorities had already begun pursuing a two-pronged strategy toward playing cards: alongside prohibitions targeting social vice, they simultaneously shifted toward regulation and taxation, a more pragmatic, revenue-generating approach that benefited the treasury. Playing cards became a taxable commodity, and by 1552 royal monopolies for their manufacture and sale had been established, beginning in Mexico and later extending further south toward Peru. What was still being condemned as a moral hazard was now also exploited as a source of revenue. However, because production relied on imported paper and materials, cards remained expensive; this, coupled with taxation, encouraged contraband and smuggling (see example ), which in turn necessitated further royal decrees to reinforce and replace the earlier ones.

As the illusion of «El Dorado» and the early legends of easy wealth faded, colonial society adopted a more pragmatic outlook. Agriculture and livestock farming emerged as the foundations of everyday sustenance, followed by the systematic exploitation of mines, and ultimately playing cards, all becoming sources of income for the royal treasury, whose fiscal regulation extended into the smallest details.

Above: the former playing card factory at Macharaviaya. Photo credit: © 2017 Diputación de Málaga.

Real Fábrica de Macharaviaya

In 1776, the Royal Factory at Macharaviaya near Málaga in Spain, was established not for traditional grape cultivation but to supply playing cards to overseas markets in the Americas. By September 1777 some 15,000 packs had been shipped "for the Indies". The venture, however, soon declined and the factory closed in the early 19th century. Its failure opened the market to local manufacturers, who began to supply cards independently and to develop their own export networks. At the same time, Spain’s American colonies were fighting for and winning their independence.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, an era shaped by steam power and enterprise, Italian card makers (such as Pedro Bosio, Agostino Bergallo and Giuseppe Cattino), and French manufacturers (Louis en Burdoes) were shipping playing cards to Spanish colonies in South America. By the 19th century the main market of the Cadiz naiperos became exporting to Latin America, the Philippines, and Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. A long list of European and U.S. manufacturers (including Fournier, Comas, Dondorf,  Dougherty,  Goodall,  Grimaud,  Müller  USPCC and Wüst) all began to export cards to The Indies.

The first Latin American manufacturers began to appear in the early 19th century (among them Gandarillas, Quercia y Possi, Solano García, Bartolo Borrego), at the time of the wars of independence (c. 1810–1825) when Spanish royal monopolies began to be disrupted and trade restrictions weakened. Although the Spanish National pattern was still preferred, having been produced at the Royal Factory at Macharaviaya until its demise, other patterns began to gain favour, particularly the Cadiz pattern produced by Andalusian makers, and the Catalan pattern, associated with Barcelona. Also, the ‘Parisian’ Spanish pattern became associated with Uruguay. Several importing agents were also bringing Spanish and American cards into the market (including Fló Hermanos, Bertrand Domec, Gath & Chaves). At the same time, immigrants relocating to Buenos Aires opened playing card factories there (including Francisco Girbau, Igor Domicelj, Luis Fourvel & Justo Rodero), often bringing new techniques, designs and know-how with them. So there was a gradual shift from importation towards local production.

Above: Spanish National pattern by Manuel José Gandarillas, Buenos Aires, 1816. Independence (from Spanish government) is represented by the rising sun.

Above: Naipes Artiguistas based on Spanish National pattern published in Concepción del Uruguay in 1816, with political slogans on some cards.

Above: Naipes ‘Tito’, Camilloni Hnos, Montevideo, c.1950, based on designs produced in France for export to South America during the 19th century.

Above: Naipes ‘La Criolla’ designed by Uruguayan graphic designer Anabella Corsi, 2008, inspired by the archaic Franco-Spanish pattern used during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Above: Catalan pattern by Francisco Girbau, Buenos Aires,c.1900. This design was also used by Fourvel, Cappellano and Justo Rodero.

Above: Cadiz pattern by Igor Domicelj, Buenos Aires, c.1955 based on Segundo de Olea (Cadiz) which had been imported into Argentina since the 19th century.

Independence transformed the market, dismantling Spanish monopolies and encouraging the rise of local manufacturers and new patterns. The rich visual and material legacy of Pre-Columbian civilizations continues to shape cultural identity. Elements of indigenous daily life, costume or representations of rulers and deities are often incorporated into the imagery of 20th century decks themed around Aztec, Maya and Inca cultures, as well as in regional traditions such as gaucho decks or bullfighting. In some cases, indigenous communities themselves produced playing cards modeled on the Spanish pack; Native American cards, particularly those associated with Apache groups and other tribes, represent a distinctive spin-off and adaptation of Spanish cards.

Above: Spanish-suited playing cards made on rawhide by the Mapuche Indians, Chile, XVI-XVII century.

Above: Poker Taurino bullfight pack with paintings by Carlos Ruano Llopis, published by by Clemente Jacques y Cia, S.A., Mexico, c.1950.

Above: Naipes Casino Estilo Argentino by Justo Rodero, c.1950.

Above: Naipes Victoria gaucho-themed pack, manufactured by Compañia General de Fósforos Montevideana, c.1975.

Note: Spanish-suited and French-suited (Anglo-American) cards followed largely separate historical paths in Latin America, overlapping only later. Anglo-American cards are discussed in Ken Lodge's blog here & here►

References

1. Aritio, Luis Blas : “Vasco Núñez de Balboa, La Crónica de los Cronistas de Indias”, Ediciones Balboa, Panama, 2014, p.322.
2. Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra : Spanish Deck►
3. Teresa Lozano Armendares : Los Juegos de Azar ¿Una pasión Novohispana?►
4. Gorostiza, M. Llano : Naipes Españoles, Ediciones Indubain, 1975, p.113 ff.

Archivo General de la Nación (México), La administración y dificultades del estanco de naipes de la Nueva España ►

Cuello Martinell, María Angeles : La Renta de los Naipes en Nueva España, Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, 1966 digital version►

Carl Grimberg : La Hegemonía Española, Ediciones Daimon, 1968.

Muñoz Machado, Santiago : Sepúlveda, cronista del emperador (chapter VIII), Edhasa, 2012.

Sanz Tapia, Ángel : Culturas Precolombinas, Ajuntament de L'Hospitalet, 1994.

British Museum : uncut sheet illustrating the costumes of South America►

Traditional Andean Divination : Teaching Ancient Inca & Andean Cultures ►

Wikipedia : El Requerimiento►