Santo Mexico playing cards
Santo Mexico playing cards designed by Cédric Volon with Mexico-associated symbols.
Designed by the Belgian Cédric Volon (known as “Le Fils de Luc”), at the Mexican graphics gallery “La Sonrisa de la Muerte”, this non-standard pack was published in 2018 by Calaveras in Belgium. See the box
While his earlier pack Gallia Belgica is associated with Belgium-associated symbols, the suits in this Santo Mexico pack have been replaced by Mexico-associated symbols: agaves (spades), nopal / prickly pear cactus (clubs), Aztec and Mayan pyramids (diamonds) and flaming hearts (hearts). The court cards feature masked Luchadors (masked Mexican wrestlers), Catrinas (symbolizing the Day of the Dead “Dia de los Muertos” ceremonies) and Charos (Mexican cowboys) instead of classic kings, queens and jacks. The jokers portray two skeletal horsemen.
Above: Santo Mexico playing cards designed by Cédric Volon and published by Calaveras in Belgium, 2018.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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