Nowadays most Mexicans tend to pooh pooh traditional hand-made wooden toys as suitable seasonal gifts for young ones. But foreigners in search of a “cultural alternative” for their young children or grandchildren can find a wealth of inexpensive toys with both educational and practical value at some of Guadalajara’s covered markets, in particular, the Mercado San Juan de Dios (or Libertad) in the city center.
Many toys considered traditional in Mexico are the same as those enjoyed by kids all over the world, such as kites, marbles and yo-yos. But Mexican toy makers have their own specialties, including a variety of different sized dolls, puppets, vehicles, musical instruments, houses and furniture (these are often in miniature).
Although most of the articles are made out of wood, toy makers also use papier maché, clay, gourds and other materials.The most distinctly Mexican toys are the matraca, sonaja and trompo. The matraca is an “instrument” most commonly seen to make noise in soccer stadiums, but it is also a traditional children’s toy and used occasionally to scare off bad spirits. They work by spinning the large heavy part around the handle which produces a noise that can be deafening depending on the size of the matraca. These toys range in size from eight centimeters to one-meter in length. The majority are still made out of wood, but modern-day versions often have plastic components.
Sonajas are the traditional baby rattles of Mexico, used to entertain infants and get the attention of parents. Some are made out of fruit which is dried, hardened, painted with a varnish and filled with seeds. Others are made out of wood or even beaten metal, but indigenous legend has it that the original came from cutting the rattles off rattlesnakes for the children to play with.
Possibly the most popular of all Mexican traditional toys is the trompo, a spinning top. Most are made out of wood in a rounded cone shape and come to a metal point. At the base, children wrap a heavy string around it and envelope the trompo to its top. Once wrapped, the trompo is thrown, and skillful users can make it spin for relatively long periods of time and perform various tricks with the toy.