This blog post is by Samantha N., Latinx Services Librarian.
Summer Reading is here!
This year, our Summer Reading program is a Lotería board we created inspired by the “Color Our World” theme. You can learn more about how to participate at this link. Get ready to have lots of fun on your summer adventures!
Lotería is a game of chance similar to Bingo. One of the main differences between Lotería and Bingo is that, while each square on a Bingo board only has a number, in Lotería each square has a number and an associated image. For example, card number 46 in the Lotería deck is “El Sol” (The Sun), and there is an image of the Sun on every Lotería board with card number 46. Wikipedia has a full list of the cards in a traditional Lotería set.
How to play Lotería
Each player gets a Lotería board with a different random selection of 16 cards out of the 54 cards in a Lotería deck. One person calls out the cards. In my family, this person is called El Gritón, The Cryer, or El Corredor, The Runner. To be the Gritón for a game of Lotería is an art. There are many styles of calling out the cards. You can simply say the name of the card, read the phrase associated with the card (yes, the cards come with phrases too), or you can make up a rhyme, riddle, joke, or mini story inspired by the card. For example, the phrase associated with The Umbrella card is “para el sol, y para el agua,” or “for the sun, and for the rain.” (The Spanish word for umbrella is paraguas, which is the words “for” (para) and “water” (agua) mashed together, so the phrase is a very clever little play on words. Plus, can you guess what a parasol (para sol) is for?) When each card is called out, if a player has the matching card on their board, they mark it off. Traditionally, people use beans as markers. In the version my family plays, the game is won when the first player fills their entire board with beans and shouts “¡Lotería!” before anyone else can beat them to it. Of course, it is possible to play a modified version where the winner is the first person to fill out four squares in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) or any predetermined configuration of four squares.
How Lotería came to be
Like many elements of Mexican culture, Lotería has connections to both European and Indigenous traditions. I learned about the fascinating history of this game by watching a video from LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes that features Dr. Gloria Arjona. According to her, the earliest recorded ancestor of Lotería in Europe is “Il Gioco del Lotto d’Italia” from the 1500s, a game that involved bets and gambling, and it spread throughout the continent and across the ocean from there. The traditional Lotería we know today was originally created by a French immigrant known as Don Clemente Jacques who lived in Mexico. He saw games of Lotería that existed in Mexico and standardized the game to have 54 cards total and 16 squares on each board. However, Indigenous cultures in Mesoamerica had their own game of chance, too, with its own similarities to Lotería.
Indigenous Mesoamerican cultures played a game called patolli. The Tūhura Otago Museum has an informative article about patolli that explains that “black beans with a hole drilled in one side were used as dice; this is why patolli is sometimes called the bean game. Boards were painted on matting.” (Remember that Lotería is played with beans.) The article further states that “the game had a strong focus on gambling.” This is something that patolli has in common with the Italian lotto and with the U.S. lottery. Lotería can also be played for a cash prize, which adds an element of gambling to the game. Patolli wasn’t just about gambling, though. According to Rupert García in the introduction he wrote for Loteria Cards and Fortune Books by Juan Felipe Herrera, “Patolli had astronomical and religious significance.” The American Library Association’s article about patolli describes how it was played: “Patolli is a fast-paced action board game, where players compete to be the first to successfully maneuver 4 game pieces around the playing board. Players must avoid being captured because they will have to bargain with their captor to be released. The game is also heavily influenced by the luck of the dice, and a player’s strategy must change from minute to minute because of this.” It should also be noted that game board in patolli has 52 spaces, so it is interesting that Lotería has 54 cards.
The imagery is beautiful
One of the most distinctive parts of Lotería is the imagery. It’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words! The images on the Lotería cards we know today have various influences, including Tarot cards and the Zodiac. In Italy, there was also a practice of interpreting dreams and translating them into numbers and images. The numbers could be used to play the lottery. The images from these dream interpretations are another source of inspiration for some of the Lotería cards. These influences are why there is a mystic quality to some of the Lotería card images (i.e. The Star, The Moon, etc.) that also remind me of the spiritual aspect of patolli. Of course, several Lotería cards are iconic Mexican symbols, including such cards as “El Nopal.” Nopal is the Spanish word for prickly pear cactus, and it has become a marker of Mexican heritage. In Mexico, and in diaspora communities, if people say that someone has “el nopal en la frente” (a nopal on their forehead), that means they are Mexican. This phrase has had a negative connotation related to internalized stigmas within the Mexican community, but many people are reclaiming the phrase with pride. This is a great essay on the subject. Nopales are a staple part of Mexican and Indigenous cuisine, too, and there is a Nopal cactus on the Mexican flag. Incidentally, card number 16 in Lotería is “La Bandera,” the flag – specifically, the Mexican flag.
A living, breathing tradition
Lotería is a living, breathing tradition. While some of the original Lotería cards were based on stereotypes, many versions of Lotería have evolved in recent years that reimagine the cards for new generations. In fact, not only is there a Millenial Lotería, but there is a Lotería La Gen Z Edition, too. The Gen Z edition includes cards such as “La Ring Light,” “La Spill the Tea,” and “El Vintage.” (The “vintage” card has an image of an iPod. I’m still not sure that’s vintage.) There’s a Boricua Lotería that draws from Puerto Rican culture. Lotería has become so popular that there are games inspired by movies and franchises like Coco, Encanto, Harry Potter, and Hello Kitty. There are Lotería sets that you can play at bridal showers. Google even designed a Lotería Google Doodle that functions as a game you can play digitally. The Pima County Health Department made their own Lotería set, too. Now Pima County Public Library has joined in the fun!
We hope you enjoy playing Library Lotería this Summer Reading season and checking off the squares on your board by visiting the library, making art, going on adventures in your community, and more.
Also, if you’re looking for more Lotería content, check out this list of Lotería-inspired books in our catalog. (Please note that while some of the books on this list are for kids, others are geared toward tweens, teens, or adults.)
