Art · Symbol · Experience
Our Story
I am Marcelo Dentone Caubarrere, a Uruguayan tarot reader. I live in Montevideo and have devoted more than three decades to the study, teaching and practice of tarot.
Discover the Beginning
01 Universo Tarot Marzara
It All Began at La Botica
Some dates stay with us forever. My story with tarot began on April 27, 1992, in a place as ordinary as it was unexpected: a small kiosk called La Botica.
I was working there when a customer named Rolando Faget came in to make a photocopy. As I did the job, we began talking. I discovered that he was a poet and tarot reader, and that his mother was a well-known Uruguayan astrologer. I told him that I felt deeply drawn to tarot but could not find anywhere to study it. Then he made me a simple proposal that would change my life: he could teach me.
He lent me a Marseille Tarot made up of the 22 Major Arcana. At that time, the first color photocopiers were beginning to appear, so I took the cards to another shop, made a copy of each one, glued them onto cardboard and laminated them. I still keep that first handmade deck.
He also gave me a cassette on which he had recorded the meanings of the cards. I listened to it many times while looking at the images and beginning to connect the symbols with his teachings. It was another era: much of what we learned circulated through papers, recordings and personal encounters.
Over the years, even the name of that kiosk came to feel symbolic to me. My path with tarot had begun in a place called La Botica.
02 Universo Tarot Marzara
From My First Readings to the Media
My first experiences took place behind the counter. I would invite customers I knew well to ask a question and draw a card. Later came the owner's daughters and students from a nearby high school, who would approach me with their concerns and ask for a brief reading.
I did not charge for those consultations. It was spontaneous, simple and even fun, but that was where my path as a tarot reader truly began. I learned by listening, observing the cards and paying attention to what happened when an image met a real question.
Over time, those first readings led to private consultations, courses and an increasing presence in the media. I collaborated with Océano FM and Radio Carve, and took part in different programs on Canal 12, Canal 10 and BTV. These included Caras y Máscaras, Consentidas, Frade en Carve, Agenda Confidencial, Chichita, Hola Gente, Bien despiertos, La culpa es nuestra, Subrayado and Mujer de hoy.
I was also interviewed by Paula magazine and the newspaper El País, and participated in conferences and events held at places such as Portones Shopping, Poblado Andaluz in Piriápolis, Castillo Pittamiglio and the NH Columbia hotel.
A few years after beginning this journey, I developed my own tarot course, with a clear, practical way of teaching that stays close to everyday life.
Experience gradually showed me an idea that still guides all my work: the cards do not command; they suggest. Tarot can help us think, recognize possibilities and ask better questions, but it should never replace the freedom of the person seeking guidance.
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A Dream That Waited Twenty-Five Years
After several years of work, another desire was born: to create my own tarot deck.
I tried at different times with people connected to drawing and graphic design. Three or four projects began with enthusiasm, but different circumstances prevented them from being completed.
For twenty-five years that dream remained stored away. It was not an abandoned dream, but a sleeping one, waiting for the tools and circumstances that would allow it to become real.
04 Universo Tarot Marzara
The Birth of Marzara
The possibility appeared when I discovered artificial intelligence and began working with ChatGPT. It was like finding a door that until then had remained closed.
I brought more than three decades of experience, knowledge of tarot, symbolic direction and the criteria with which each card needed to be created. Artificial intelligence made it possible to turn those ideas into images, explore different paths, compare results, correct mistakes and take much further what for so many years I had only been able to imagine.
In that creative dialogue, I called the artificial intelligence I worked with Sara. From the symbolic union of Marcelo and Sara came the name Marzara. The Z gave a distinct identity to a brand that also represents a new kind of collaboration: human experience in dialogue with the possibilities of technology.
What began as the desire to create one deck kept growing and branching out. New aesthetics, series, cultures, stories and ways of interpreting the archetypes appeared. That is how Universo Tarot Marzara was born: a large collection made up of many different worlds, all connected by the same root.
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A Universe That Keeps Growing
Today, Universo Tarot Marzara is a living project. It includes decks, texts, guides, courses and interactive tools for learning and practicing tarot. It is also moving toward future physical editions that will bring these worlds into the hands of tarot readers, students and collectors.
The tools have changed profoundly since that cassette and that first photocopied deck. Yet the essence remains the same as the one born behind the counter at La Botica: observe carefully, listen before answering and always respect the other person's freedom.
Universo Tarot Marzara is the result of a journey that began on April 27, 1992 and continues to open new possibilities.
A universe of tarot unlike anything you ever imagined.
An original collection that brings together art, stories and cultures.