Traditional Mexican handcrafted toys

Traditional Mexican handcrafted toys are those made by artisans rather than manufactured in factories. The history of Mexican toys extends as far back as the Mesoamerican era, but many of the toys date to the colonial period. Many of these were introduced as teaching tools by evangelists, and were associated with certain festivals and holidays. These toys vary widely, including cup and ball, lotería, dolls, miniature people, animals and objects, tops and more—made of many materials, including wood, metal, cloth, corn husks, ceramic, and glass. These toys remained popular throughout Mexico until the mid-20th century, when commercially made, mostly plastic toys became widely available. Because of the advertising commercial toys receive and because they are cheaper, most traditional toys that are sold as handcrafts, principally to tourists and collectors.

The origin of toys in what is now Mexico is not clear, but the oldest are considered the ball, dolls, and toy animals. There have been finds of what may have been toys from the Mesoamerican period, including ceramic figures of dogs and jaguars with wheels at Olmec sites, a musical instrument called a sonaja, whistles and dolls with movable arms and legs. Multiple possible ceramic toys have been found at Zapotec sites including small and medium sizes dolls and toy animals. These dolls are called Tonka or Tangu-yu in Zapotec. Some of these dolls carry a child on their shoulders or a basket with food on their heads. Animal figures include deer, monkeys, coyotes. Modified versions of these are still made today. However, since these have been found at grave sites, they may have had ritual purpose instead of recreational. According to the Codex Mendoza, Aztec games for children were geared towards incorporating them into society and many imitated adult activities. Toys included smaller versions of tools, with boys receiving weapons and agricultural implements and girls receiving those used for domestic chores. One known game from the Aztec period is cocoyocpatolli (“hole game”). A hole is created and from a certain distance, children competed tossing small stones or fruit pits into it. Another is chichinadas, from the word meaning to hit, and very similar to marbles. Mapepenas (“hand catch”) is a game, where a stone of a certain color is chosen, with more hidden on a mat. The winner is the first to get another stone of the same color. Many of Mexico’s traditional toys have their origins in the colonial period, when new crafts and European style playthings were introduced by missionaries. As they were often part of the evangelization process in the early colonial period, a number of toys became associated with religious celebrations. One examples are wood and bone ratchets made for Holy Week and generally given to children. Other important days with toys associated with them include Carnival, Corpus Christi, Las Posadas, Day of the Dead and various saints’ days. On Corpus Christi, toys called tarascas were sold. These were winged dragons made of wood with wheels sold outside churches. The toy is related to a medieval legend to this creature that ate maidens and of the knight that slayed it. Other toys related to this day included small burros made with corn husks, decorated with paper flowers. June 24 is the feast of John the Baptist, once celebrated by children with turbans and swords made of cartonería and wood. For the feast of Anthony the Great, small cages with crepe paper birds were popular and sold outside of churches, but this tradition has disappeared. Oriental influence on the toys later came from trade through Manila Galleon .

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Wikipedia