Loteria

Join the fun for a rousing game of Lotería, with Ajo native Jose Castillo serving as the cantor (caller or singer).

The game, Lotería, originated in Italy in the 15th century and was brought to New Spain (Mexico) in 1769. It is a Mexican game of chance, similar to bingo, but using images on a deck of cards instead of numbers on ping pong balls. During the Mexican War of Independence (1810 - 1821), it became a common pastime with the soldiers and, as they returned home after the war, the game's popularity spread to all of Mexico. Since the late 1800s, Lotería has been played extensively by Mexican families in their homes.

This is no cost to play. All ages welcome!
This program is part of Nuestras Raíces: a celebration of Mexican-American authors, arts and culture.

Children's Storytime

Parents/caregivers and children interact through stories, songs, and rhymes. Stories fit the child's attention span. Storytime can last between 20 and 45 minutes.

Traveling Arizona with the WPA

Travel with writer/editor Gregory McNamee through the pages of a 1940 guidebook to Arizona and down the roads of Arizona long before the interstate highways came into being, when a trip from Wickenburg to Prescott meant driving your car up a mountain in reverse gear, when Phoenix had a population of 48,000 and Scottsdale, Green Valley, Sierra Vista, and Lake Havasu City had yet to exist.

The guidebook has its own story: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) put western novelist Ross Santee to work, and he assembled other scribes to prepare the anonymously authored guide.

This program is made possible by the Arizona Humanities Council.

McNamee is a writer, editor, photographer, and publishing consultant. He is the author of thirty books and more than three thousand articles and other publications. He is a contributing editor to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a research fellow at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona, and a lecturer in the Eller School of Management, and the University of Arizona.

Bilingual Family Storytime / Hora de Cuentos

This is an opportunity for parents to introduce their children to reading and language in a fun way.

Se presenta en español y en inglés. Es una experiencia excelente en los dos idiomas para niños bilingües y monolingües.