Guatemala

After the Spanish arrival in the Americas, expeditions were sent to Guatemala from 1519 onwards. Contact was soon followed by epidemic disease, which devastated indigenous populations. During the colonial period Guatemala formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain and was administered as the Captaincy General of Guatemala (Capitanía General de Guatemala), with the status of an Audiencia. Although the region did not yield the mineral wealth of Mexico or Peru, it became economically significant for agricultural and dyestuff production, including sugarcane, cacao, indigo (añil), cochineal red, and fine woods exported for ecclesiastical and courtly use in Spain.

Playing cards (barajas) were most likely introduced into Guatemala in the early decades of Spanish colonisation, carried by settlers and soldiers for whom card play was a familiar pastime. As elsewhere in the Spanish Americas, cards were used in taverns, military quarters and other informal gathering places, often in connection with gambling and social drinking. Their arrival coincided with a period of profound cultural disruption: Maya elites — including intellectuals, priests, astronomers and record-keepers — were systematically persecuted, and many indigenous texts were destroyed as works deemed contrary to Christian doctrine. Within this context of conquest and suppression, the Spanish pack of cards formed part of the everyday material culture of the colonisers, embedding European recreational practices within a transformed social landscape.

In 1583 Alonso Martínez de Orteguilla was authorised to administer the manufacture and sale of playing cards in territories of New Spain, a jurisdiction that extended to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. Packs were imported from Spain and France, and were also produced in Mexico under licence.

Right: Spanish cards exported to new Spanish colonies, c.1550 onwards.

In recent years packs have been published in Guatemala by El Cuervo y Cia, Promotora Continental and ‘Juegos El Borrego’.

Above: box, Ace of Spades, back and extra card from French-suited pack manufactured by El Cuervo y Cia., Ltda, Guatemala, c.1970s. The extra card has a short text speculating about “the origin of the deck of playing cards”, which is stated as being either of German or Spanish origin, or possibly even as old as the game of chess, and also the origins of the four Kings, Queens, etc.

The Mayans lived in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, the southern part of Mexico and northern parts of El Salvador until European settlers arrived.

Above: Mayan Playing Cards - Baraja Maya - from Guatemala. 52 cards + 2 Jokers in box with explanatory leaflet in Spanish and English.   See more →