In the Cards: A Collection of Memories Inspired by Lotería

By Christina Saballos

In the game of Lotera, we are each destined the cards that decide our fate as players.
A sensitive young man in mourning is visited by his dead mothers spirit. A girl is captivated by her brothers
melancholy music with no clue of the grim sadness his future holds. A trio of youngsters learn the meaning of
retaliation against the ultimate summertime rejection.

Beginning with a few pages of ghost stories told to her by her grandmother, Christina Saballos started a blog that
featured short memoirs based on family lore and personal experiences. For an amusing challenge, each story was
inspired by one of the iconic images of the popular Mexican card game Lotera. With fifty-four cards in the deck,
she flipped through the images until an idea sparked and a memory was awakened.

These memories, best shared around the dinner table, on long road trips, by letter, or those delicious one-on-one
conversations over coffee or beers, are intimate examples of pain, struggle, and love that build our identities and
make up our destinies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543430820

Christina Saballos

Christina Saballos received a B.A. in Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies from UC Berkeley, where she instructed, performed, wrote and directed for the Chicano/Latino Theatre Workshop. Two of her screenplays have placed as finalists in competition and, while pursuing a career in banking, she continues to write for her blog and work on a children’s book. Born and raised in East L.A., she currently lives in Pinole, California with her husband and two curly-hair sons. “Christina Saballos has a brilliant quirky mind and the ability to tell a story in one page. Her book, In the Cards: A Collection of Memories Inspired by Lotería, contains humor, mystery, and short stories that will warm your heart and sometimes allow tears to rise unbidden to your eyes. If you start this book, you will definitely finish it.” -Mary H. Webb Author of The God-Hustlers

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Las Jaras – The Arrows

Do you enjoy a good ghost story? The mystery and wonder of the circumstances. The goosebump-inducing details. Maybe you’re a believer who has had an experience of your own - or waiting for that day. Have you considered the underlying sadness that often accompanies these tales of the unexplained? Some believe grief over the loss of a loved one, like an arrow piercing your heart, creates a longing so intense that you call the spirit world to you. Who wouldn’t want to see that person once more, feel their presence beside them once more, or willingly go against all rational understanding just to heal the wound for that brief moment?

And yet, here is a story about a spirit who doesn’t let go. Doesn’t it make sense that they grieve, too?

*****

A pearl-colored glow dripped from the crescent that hung high against the black felt sky and seeped through the open window of the unlit bedroom. It wasn’t a noise or even one of those sudden jerks of the leg that yanked Isidaro from his pillow, or rather, a rolled up pair of pants. The light must have done it. The light, blinding and somehow deafening at once. And now, across the room, Miguel lay frozen in his makeshift bed, frantically blinking sleep away for a clear view. It had to be a dream. Or the moonlight playing tricks on their blood-shot eyes. The last few days had been terribly exhausting. Aching grief and worry had reached unexpected heights at the funeral, less than eight hours ago. Yet, here she stood before them, the two brothers would swear upon her blessed soul the next morning.

Their sister, Emilia Llamas Macias, was a strong woman, orphaned at age ten and shuffled around until she was of an age to fend for herself. She married a musician, gave birth to two children who were six years apart, then was left by the musician to raise their children alone. Everyone called Emilia’s daughter Pachita. The younger boy, born in 1903, was named Salvador. Years passed and Emilia enforced her strong Catholic views on the siblings. Pachita married, but Salvador grew into his twenties still without a wife or family of his own. He had moved from Guadalajara to Los Angeles when he was about sixteen years old and by 1929 he was a successful tailor with two or three employees of his own. That was the year the stock market crashed. That was also the year Emilia was diagnosed with cancer. She died in 1930. Salvador was twenty-seven years old, and he was devastated. Family members worried and wondered about him - how would he handle the loss especially because he was a single man without a wife to care for him? On the night of the funeral, Emilia’s brothers, Isidaro and Miguel, insisted on staying with Salvador. And what they saw that night, no one spoke about until the next morning.

She appeared before them, dressed in the same cream-colored lace in which she was buried. A blurred, over-exposed photo version of their sister appeared out of the moonlight and floated through the sparse room, past the brothers, straight toward her sleeping son. She hovered over Salvador’s bed, creating a veil of light around him, then slowly bent down to gently kiss his forehead. He never budged. And he didn’t hear a word about it until the next morning when his uncles assured him that he would never be alone.

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