Baraja (playing cards)
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The Baraja (literally deck/pack of cards) is a Spanish set of playing cards with some resemblance to the 52-card Anglo-American-French deck, but is usually made up of only 40 cards. It has a quite high resemblance to the Italian deck.
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[edit] Description
Traditional 40 cards spanish baraja is an ancient deck that existed in Spain since between the 1300-1500s, probably from Italian origin. The suits closely resemble those of Latin suited Tarot decks. It's often said that the Spanish deck is a direct survivor of the Tarot deck from the times of Spanish Inquisition. In fact, the Baraja, like the tarot, are used for both game playing and cartomancy. The Baraja have been widely considered to be part of the occult in many Latin-American countries, yet they continue to be used widely for card games and gambling, especially in Spain. Among other places, the Baraja have appeared in One Hundred Years of Solitude and other Spanish and Latin American literature (e.g., Viaje a la Alcarria by Camilo José Cela).
[edit] Cards and Suits
A normal Spanish deck consists of four suits of ten numbered cards. Very rarely the eights and nines are added to create a 48-card deck. It is more possible to find them in a normal 52-card Anglo-American-French deck style with Spanish pictures. Jokers are not used either, except in the rare 52 (that is, 54) cards deck (where they are called comodines). The four suits are bastos (clubs), oros (literally "golds", that is, golden coins), copas (cups) and espadas (swords).
The last three cards of each suit have pictures similar to the jack, queen, and king in an Anglo-French deck, and rank identically. They are the sota, which is similar to the jack and generally depicts a page or prince, the caballo (knight, literally "horse"), and the rey (king) respectively.
There are notices of ancient decks having both caballo and reina (queen), being the caballo of lower value than queen. These decks have no numbers in the figure values, not even letters like in the Anglo-American-French deck. They have been not common for playing in Spain, but some German decks retain the four different figures, albeit lacking most of the numbered cards.
[edit] Games that use the Baraja
The Baraja is used to play several games. Examples are:
- el mus (a very popular and highly regarded vying game of Basque origin)
- la brisca (a trick-taking game of Italian origin, very popular in Spain and Portugal)
- el tute (with many variations)
- el guiñote
- la escoba del quince (a trick-taking game)
- el julepe
- el cinquillo
- las siete y media
- la mona
- el truc (or truco)
- el cuajo (a matching game from the Philippines)
[edit] The Baraja in Portugal
The Baraja was also used in Portugal during the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. However, at some point, the Baraja went over entirely to the Anglo-French deck. Popular games like Bisca (Portuguese name for briscola) and Sueca, which were played with the Baraja, had to be adapted to the new-come French decks. Thus:
- the old suit names were attributed to the new suits - this is the reason why Portuguese names for suits don't match the suit drawings. In Portuguese, the Hearts suit is called Copas ("cups"), the Spades suit is called Espadas ("swords"), the Diamonds suit is called Ouros ("gold coins"), and the Clubs suit is called Paus ("clubs" or "sticks").
- the new face cards (King, Queen, Jack) had also to be matched with the old ones (King, Knight, Knave). The King match was an obvious one, but the Queen was mistaken by a maid, and so it was matched with the Knave. The Jack was thought to be the Knight. Thus, in typical Portuguese games, the cards usually rank King-Jack-Queen.
