CUBAN “ADDICTION”, (VICIOS), “LA CHARADA” AND “EL PARLÉ”. PHOTOS.
We go again on the Cuban “vicios”, but not without first clarifying to those that this word does not suit to him that, according to the Real Spanish Academy of the Language, VICIO is “special taste or too much appetite of something, that incites to use it Frequently and excessively. ” That is, if you play the lottery often … you’re a “vicious”, but that’s not bad …
As I said in the previous publication, the lottery came from Spain, the first drawing took place on September 11 of that year, with two major prizes of ten thousand and five thousand pesos, being awarded the numbers 13 406 and 13 380 , Both sold in Santiago de Cuba.
But in addition to the lottery tickets, there was the “ball” or “charade” of Chinese inspiration, games that were also part of the Cuban culture. Undoubtedly they were a tempting option, especially for the poorest, excited by a stroke of luck that allowed them to get out of destitution. Sometimes the dreams were related to the numbers of the charade, to be considered as a “signal” that the number associated with what was dreamed will be awarded.
At the beginning of the Republic, the North American interventors prohibited the National Lottery, which they identified as a source of vices and colonial corruption. It was subsequently reinstated, but new legal provisions were issued.
For the quantity and variety of prohibited games, we can have an idea of how much was played on the Island. Published in 1908 by the Press “La Prueba”, Obrapía 99. Havana:
THE CRIMINAL DISPUTE ACT. PROHIBITED GAMES AND RIFAS
They are prohibited games and therefore the following:
The Roman Billiards. The Picado. The Pocker. The Bacarat. The “31” and “41”. Banking falluta. The mountain. The Mus. The Board (of ladies and tinder). The Pitintín. The Morito. The Paco-piú. Iva Carteta. The Chirimbolo. The yy2. The 3 cards. The roulette. Lotteries (French or cardboard). The Julepe. El Burro, with plant and pass. The Gulf. Fish. The Cañé. The Pharaoh. The “30” and “40”. Raffles with Playing Cards. Box with 3 balls. The Raffle Chiffá. The needle. The Páticos. The dice. The Silo. The Buttons or Corn. Plates. Tape. The Bolita.
Two complementary and substitute products of the lottery in Cuba were the charade and the ball. The first one has a different origin and own, but the ball is something like an adoptive daughter of the Lottery.
A 1957 statistic of money invested by Cubans each year in lottery tickets, charade verses and hundreds and ball terminals, yields a fluctuating figure between $ 90 and $ 100 million. What were these games?
LA CHARADA
The Chinese introduced into Cuba as settlers in the middle of the nineteenth century, on this I already published them, are considered to have been the ones who expanded the game of “paco pío” and “cheffá”, which would later be called “charade”. This last one is a word of French origin and comes to be like a type of riddle.
It follows that the charade, applied to the game, is a riddle that theoretically gives the track of a number stored in an envelope and hangs in the eyes of the participants. The cabalistic symbolism of the charade comprises several animals or “bugs”, each of which corresponds to a number. Therefore, when the envelope with the winning number has not yet been opened, it was said that “the bug is hanging”.
In Cuba the charade is a table composed of 100 consecutive numbers from 1 to 100. The first 36 numbers are taken from the so-called Chinese charade or cheffá, the rest are products of popular imagination.
How was the charade played? When is it thrown? What is won?
It was thrown-in various places-twice a day: in the evening and at night. It was played by “quartiles” (three cents or two numbers per one half) that earn, $ 1.50, when the number comes out, although the public sometimes only receives as payment $ 1.40.
The roll is made one or two hours before the ball, to give opportunity to the players to make a “pass” to the latter. The charade is a riddle in which it tries to guess a word, giving indications about its meaning.
Let’s say the verse is … “a girl who gives everything”, and that there is a happy mortal who staples the 16 with a quart. Then, your prize ($ 1.40) or part of it, prior agreement with the target bank intermediary is automatically invested in a number of the ball.
EL PARLÉ
The game of the ball needed a revitalizing impulse, and the banks achieved something in that sense when introducing the “parlé”.
This new way turned the ball into an instrument that proved its flexibility over the charade, entwined in traditional types. Of course, the charade keeps its audience, because it gives more opportunities to win the player, even if the prizes are lower.
In the charade there are usually thirty-six numbers, and after a roll several of them can be “stuck”, so that they are eliminated in the next drawing and the number of probabilities to hit increases.
There are a thousand numbers in the ball. But you can play a “fixed” or a “run”, a “hundred” or a “terminal”, or several of them at the same time. A nickel, a “half”, fixed at a hundred earns twenty pesos, if it comes out. And the “medium”, run five pesos.
FIXED is the number that comes out on the first ball. RUN any of the other two.
Still today many Cubans play the Charade on the island. Few have SMS, Twitter or “cell phones”, but they manage to know these and other issues that interest them. The peculiar way of communicating goes unnoticed by a stranger or a policeman. Now there are not so many reservations. As Amaro does, a man who spends his money between the ball and the rum and every night on the wall of a store in Calzada 10 de Octubre, chalk the numbers that came out.
Agencies/MemoriasCubanas/Derubín Jácome/ Internet Photos/ Arnoldo Varona/ TheCubanHistory.com
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