VOA文化艺术2025--Game Born in Mexican Prisons Brings People Together

On a Sunday afternoon in Mexico City's Roma neighborhood, Rosa María Espinosa joins about 80 men in a park to play poleana. The almost 100-year-old game was created in a Mexican prison and requires luck and thinking skill.

Poleana still carries a stigma¹ connected to its birth as a prison game. However, it is growing popular as people from different backgrounds discover its appeal.

Espinosa says she like the excitement of the game. "But sometimes," she adds, "the dice² aren't lucky."

Playing for freedom

Poleana is played with four people and a square wooden box with a sunken center for dice rolling. Each player has four pieces that they race around the box. They use dice combinations and math to govern how to move their pieces strategically³. At the same time, they must also try to block moves by their competitors.

The board represents the limits of a prison and getting out of it before others. Winning freedom is the game's goal.

"People used to say, 'these folks know how to play because they've been to prison,'" said the 62-year-old Espinosa. "Thank God I've never been, but I like to play."

That was the first time she had competed against anyone besides her family or friends. She usually plays on Tuesdays and Sundays in the small church in her apartment building.

Ancient roots

Alejandro Olmos studies ancient cultures at the National Anthropology⁴ and History School. He has studied and played poleana for years.

He has followed the game's roots to the Indian game chaupar (or pachisi). He found evidence of the connection dating back 1400 years. After British colonization⁵ of India, the game spread to Western countries under different names, including Ludo, Aggravation⁶ and Parcheesi.

In 1915, the American company Parker Brothers marketed a similar game. Parker Brothers named it "Pollyanna" after a popular 1913 children's book by Eleanor H. Porter.

Sometime around 1940, the game spread to prisons in Mexico City, including Lecumberri. That prison's physical structure is very similar to the design of the game board. So experts say Lecumberri may have been the birthplace of modern poleana and its new set of rules.

Olmos said that in Mexico, "the game reflects the roughness of prison life: mistakes are not pardoned."

Poleana breaks out

Six years ago, Jonathan Rulleri started a family business marketing⁷ poleana. His goal was to bring together people from different backgrounds.

One of the early difficulties was establishing common rules for the game, which in Rulleri's words, "has been spreading from below, from prison to the street and from the street into neighborhoods."

The 37-year-old man learned to play while serving a sentence in a prison outside Mexico City, the capital. After his release, he struggled to find work.

He and his wife launched a food delivery service. However, the business proved unsuccessful. This led him to accept an offer to make a poleana board for a friend. Then came another offer. Soon he began to post his creations⁸ on social media. He said they gave up the food business and started making poleanas instead.

The business, Poleana Cana'da Frogs, has organized 55 poleana tournaments. They are family-friendly, including people of all ages.

"We want to remove the game's stigma ..." Rulleri said.

In the 1980s, the game began to spread beyond the prisons and into Mexico City's neighborhoods. Tepito is one of the neighborhoods where people are almost always playing poleana.

Fernando Rojas is 57 years-old and learned poleana when he was 18. But it was in prison where he really got good at the game.

"It really helps you escape the reality of being a prisoner and that's how it started," Rojas said. "No one can understand what it's like to be a prisoner ... you don't see the end of your sentence. There are people who have to do drugs as their way to escape. Poleana is very important in prison."

Now the game helps Rojas cope with life's difficulties. "We all have problems, in prison and in the street," he said. "So a lot of people come here for a distraction⁹."

While luck plays a part in the game, math understanding is also important.

That is why Diego González and Dana López are very happy that their 7-year-old son Kevin is learning to play poleana. He has fun and his math skills are improving.

González also runs a family business making poleana boards. He started the business after serving a three-year sentence 10 years ago. His boards are popular birthday and Christmas gifts. Some are personalized and might include images of loved ones who have died, or playful pictures for players who are children.

Sales of the board game sharply¹⁰ increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. People were stuck at home and found that the game was a good way to pass the time.

"They realized it's not a bad game," González said, "it's a game of strategy and getting the family together."

I'm Anna Matteo.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

The Associated Press reported this story. Anna Matteo adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

stigma - n. a set of negative and unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something

dice - n. small cubes marked on each face with from one to six spots

strategically - adv. to use a careful plan or method to achieve a goal : strategy - n. the art of making or employing plans or tricks to achieve a goal

reflect - v. to make (something) manifest¹¹ or apparent¹²: to show

delivery - n. the transport and handing over of something to someone

tournament - n. a series of games or contests that make up a single unit of competition

distraction - n. something that directs one's attention away from something else

1 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

2 dice   

n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险

参考例句：

• They were playing dice.他们在玩掷骰子游戏。
• A dice is a cube.骰子是立方体。

3 strategically   

adv.战略上，战略性地

参考例句：

• The fence is strategically sited to prevent anyone getting onto the beach. 这个围栏的地点选择得很有策略，可以阻止任何人到海滩上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are candles strategically placed—just in case we have another power cut. 我们把蜡烛放在合适的地方，以防再停电。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

5 colonization   

殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖

参考例句：

• Colonization took place during the Habsburg dynasty. 开拓殖民地在哈布斯堡王朝就进行过。
• These countries took part in the colonization of Africa. 这些国家参与非洲殖民地的开发。

6 aggravation   

n.烦恼，恼火

参考例句：

• She stirred in aggravation as she said this. 她说这句话，激动得过分。
• Can't stand the aggravation, all day I get aggravation. You know how it is." 我整天都碰到令人发火的事，你可想而知这是什么滋味。” 来自教父部分

7 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

8 creations   

创造( creation的名词复数 )； 创造物； （尤指所述由上帝）创造天地； 宇宙

参考例句：

• This artist's creations are worth collecting. 这个艺术家的作品值得收藏。
• The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. 各民族的精神产品成了公共的财产。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

9 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

10 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。

11 manifest   

n.载货单，运货单，旅客名单；adj.显然的，明白的；vt.显示，证实，出示

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• That is manifest to all of us.那对我们大家来说是显而易见的。

12 apparent   

adj.表面上的，貌似真实的，显然的，明明白白的

参考例句：

• The apparent truth was really a lie.表面上看似实话，实际上是个谎言。
• His guilt is apparent to all.他的罪恶尽人皆知。