The game of " la placa"

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asopao

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I used to play " la placa" ( also known as la latica in other regions of Quisqueya) alot when I was a kid in Quisqueya. Anyone here knows of the origins of this game?

I suspect that is a derrivative of cricket, which I think was brought over by the cocolos. Can anyone shed some light here?
 
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El Tigre

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Wowwww I haven't heard that name in a while. In Santiago where I grew up we called it la placa as well.
 
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Chirimoya

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I've got a photo taken in Samana of some children playing it, and it looks a lot like cricket. I'll try and dig it out.
 
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suarezn

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This was one of my favorite games growing up. We used to play almost every day. At the time I had never heard of Cricket, but now it looks like it is a dominicanized version of it, meaning we don't do the gay looking throw (no offense to the gays), we don't use a "paddle" but a real bat, etc.:cheeky:
 
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El Tigre

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Asopao I don't mean to hijack your thread but while on the topic of traditional Dominican games there is also two others that I recall playing while growing up - El Paralizao and La Minga. lol

What fond memories of my childhood!!!
 
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Stodgord

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suarezn said:
we don't use a "paddle" but a real bat, etc.:cheeky:
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A real bat? You must have been a rich kid then. In my callejon, we used a piece of log or a piece of burnt coconut leaf (penca).
 
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Talldrink

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We called it La Plaquita... And yes, I played it as well.
My son discovered it in his last trip there this past Christmas - another reason he loves to go down there!
 
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asopao

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pkaide1 said:
It is the dominican version of cricket
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That's what I suspect, it is a kind of smaller version of it. I've never played cricket before, I've never seen a game of it, but would like to play it to see what are the differences ( main difference, obviously, is that la placa is played with 4 players while cricket is with 11 each team( I think).

I know that cricket is a sport widely played in the former British colonies that got independence in the last century. But is La Placa uniquely Quisqueyan?

La Placa is hard to be placed as a bona fide sport because it has some elements that can be conflictive.

The way I used to play it was with bushes around. When the ball dissapeared into the bushers, the pitchers could go to the placa with his hands concealing the ball by his belly. He challenges the batters, with " cerrao or abierto",(don't remember the exact words). If the batter says " abierto" and the pitcher has the ball, then the pitcher can knock out the placa. If the batter says " cerrado" and the hitter doesn't have the ball, the pitchers have to go to the bush and help the pitchers find the ball.

We usually used to play with a green tennis ball, so as to confuse the pitchers when looking for the ball in the green bush. Sometimes you couldn't even find the ball at all. This trickery was part of the game. Now cricket doesn't have that. Cricket is played on an open field like baseball, where the ball is always visible.
 
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macocael

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I dont want to hijack this thread either but this subject fascinates me, because the games that children play here hark back to the old days in the States as well, when kids played a variety of sandlot games that no longer exist. I photograph the kids here whenever I can. So I have two questions:

1. is the La Placa/La Latica universal here in Quisqueya or are there regions where maybe it is not played? I noticed that a couple of the posters were Cibae?os,s o I thought to ask. Btw, my wife's family is from the Bonao area, and I havent seen this game played there, but I need to pay more attention.

2. I could start another thread -- actually I think I will --but I would like to know more about the variety of childrens' games here, the names and how they are played. Also I collect childrens' songs. One of my favorites i heard in San Juan: "debajo de la cama hay un perro muerto, a el que diga ocho, se le come el muerto" Do you think you guys would be up for contributing some info to a different thread?

Also do you think these games are dying out, or are they still going strong?

I will give you an example of what I mean: everywhere here you see the kids playing with a stick and hoop of some sort, rolling the hoop along the ground with the aid of the stick. Well believe it or not, when I was a kid we used to do this too. But I bet you you cannot find any example of it today in the states.
 
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suarezn

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Stodgord said:
A real bat? You must have been a rich kid then. In my callejon, we used a piece of log or a piece of burnt coconut leaf (penca).
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It was tongue in cheek comment. We had bats that we made ourselves. Take a piece of wood such as Higuero and make your own bat. It was not Louisville slugger, but it worked. We also used pretty much anything we could get a hold of (pencas, all kinds of sticks, etc) and for gloves made out of milk cartons, or any kid of carton we could get a hold of.

Maco: Two other games I used to play a lot were Trompos and fufua. Trompos are home made tops, made out of wood with a sharp point (nail) at the end and you'd throw it and try to hit the other guy's trompo. Sometimes if you had a really good one you could split the other trompo in half.

For fufuas we would take a bottle cap, flatten it out and make two hole in it. We would file the sides of the bottle cap and make it as sharp as possible. Put a string through the holes, wind it and pull on it back and forth until you got it spinning really fast. Then you'd try to cut the other guy's string...
Looking back this was actually very dangerous as the sharp flattened bottle cap would fly off the string at a very high speed, but we were kids and didn't care about minor things like safety...
 
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macocael

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Thanks suarezn, I have in fact seen both these games, and i have pix of Trompos. When I was a kid I played a similar game, but the tops were not homemade. This is a good start. I havent got round to posting the new thread but will do so this week. This is great stuff.

One of the things I love about these childhood games is that the kids here, even today, still make their own toys -- they fashion bats out of whatever they find,they make their own tops, wheels and other playthings. I was just like these kids when I was young -- I even made my own "go-cart" at one point. It is said that Necessity is the mother of Invention. The fact that these kids still "invent"for me is a healthy sign of their imagination -- su listeza. I dont take it as a sign of misfortune, as many outsiders might. It is part of what makes for a rich childhood.

you know, I was back in NYC briefly last Spring, and one couple at a gathering of parents was complaining that their four year old did nothing all day but play on the computer, and thus had no social skills whatever. There is a point at which having all these luxuries entails the loss of one's soul. Can you imagine a child who cannot interact with other children?
 
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induveca

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in my little village, near bonao, kids still play all those "old time" games. guayubinas,trompos carro de caja de bola,vuelan chichiguas etc...
 
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Chirimoya

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Better late than never - the cricket thread reminded me I'd promised to dig out the photo. Couldn't find it, but then I remembered that Mr C had sent it in to the BBC Spanish site. Look in this photo gallery: Photo number 3.

Is bitilla yet another work, or did he get his games mixed up? I thought bitilla was like baseball, only played with a stick and bottle tops instead of a bat and ball.
 
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Stodgord

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Chirimoya said:
Better late than never - the cricket thread reminded me I'd promised to dig out the photo. Couldn't find it, but then I remembered that Mr C had sent it in to the BBC Spanish site. Look in this photo gallery: Photo number 3.

Is bitilla yet another work, or did he get his games mixed up? I thought bitilla was like baseball, only played with a stick and bottle tops instead of a bat and ball.
Click to expand...

You are right, they got it mixed up big time. The photo shows the game of "la placa".
 
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Chirimoya

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Silly old Mr C! I'll have to put him right.

BTW my post should read "Is bitilla yet another word".
 
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