Calaca Tarot Card Deck

During high school in the mid-1980s, my childhood friend Jimmy Lopez was getting involved with magic and inadvertently turned me on to the world of tarot cards. I would accompany him to Isis - a bookshop in Denver specializing in magic.

While he would be chatting with the owner about crystals and spells. I was captivated by the artwork on the various boxes of tarot cards sitting on the bookshelves and eventually bought a deck. I spent my junior and senior years learning how to read the cards. At seventeen, I lied to a tattoo shop about my age and got the Ace of Swords card on my shoulder!

Since then, I have remained fascinated by the imagery, the ability to use the cards for introspection, and the overall spiritual connection with the tarot. Nearly six months after releasing my book, Y Con Tu Espíritu: Palabras y Muertitos (Wake Up! Music, 2020) - a volume of calavera (skeleton) paintings & linocuts, and writings, I had a vision during a bike ride that it was time to create my own deck. With urgency, I managed to obsessively flesh out all 78-cards. All the images are hand-drawn/painted with high-quality acrylic inks on acid-free bristol paper.

The Calaca Tarot is primarily based on my interpretation of the Rider-Waite deck. My calavera figures are inspired by Mexican folk art such as Retablos, Ex-votos, Dia de Los Muertos nichos (shadow boxes), and illustrations from José Guadalupe Posada's broadsheets.

I have often proclaimed that I've been drawing skeletons most of my life – one of my first at the age of five on a Christmas tree box (the drawing also included an angel, devil, a police officer, and my family). I have also done a version of the Stations of the Cross in my calaca style. My calacas are engraved on our wedding rings… oh yeah, there is also the calaca mural on my house.

80 Cards
Tuck Box
UPC: 195893029006