Lotera Cards and Fortune Poems: A Book of Lives

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Description

Loteria is a traditional Mexican card game whose rules are similar to bingo, except that the announcer always improvises a short poem before calling out the name of the card that has been selected. It was introduced into Mexico in the 18th century and is still popular today. This book is a collection of exquisite and haunting linoleum-cut prints by the young Mexican artist Artemio Rodriguez paired with mysterious, seductive poems by Chicano poet Juan Felipe Herrera.

Reviews

"The gorgeous black and white line art inside this hefty little book instantly caught my eye. These linocut drawings were not the regular loteria images. They were modern adaptations, made with painstaking detail (think of a turn-of-the-millenium, wired Posada) and showing a distinctive sense of humor and pathos. The poetry, commissioned especially for the drawings, also showed a fresh and modern take on the icons of Mexicanismo and Chicanismo."--Frontera Magazine

"Narratives, the stories we tell as we propel through our own lives, are fundamental and inextricable from existence. This is why people, I include myself, fight in the name of civil rights, of all kinds. Juan Felipe Herrera is a cosmic warrior for us all, the closest kin to Walt Whitman walking."--David Tomas Martinez, Los Angeles Review of Books

Author Bio

JF Herrera has received numerous awards and fellowships The author of 21 books, including fourteen collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and children's book, he is also a community arts leader, working with at-risk youth and migrant communities. He is also a dynamic performer and actor who has appeared on stage and in film.