The history of the popular game Lotería takes us from cigar manufacturing to tarot readings to the modern day. This week we take a look at changes to the game over the years and this game’s influence in Chicano culture. We also ask: is there ever a time you should try to lose a game?

Topics: Lotería, Mexican bingo, card games, tarot, Spanish history, Mexican history, colonialism, history of games, competition, pinto beans, Mexican games, hispanic, latino, latinx, latine, cultural games, international games

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If you grew up in the United States, chances are you played one or two classic board games with your family. Monopoly, Scrabble, Battleship, Parcheesi. Well, on top of the pile of classic board games in my house was a game called Loteria. Until recently, I assumed this was just another staple for families everywhere. I hadn't really given it much thought, at least not until I was chatting with a few friends about games they used to play.

Loteria, they asked, "what's that?"

And I said, “It's like bingo with pictures. It has a mermaid, the shrimp, watermelon…?”

Blank stares all around.

It turns out Loteria is more popular in Hispanic households. I've heard it referred to casually as Mexican bingo, but I've definitely seen this game around and becoming more popular. There are even a few modern variations on it.

Take a look online and you'll see there's a millennial Loteria that first came out in 2018. In 2019, Google created an interactive doodle game with the pictures updated and reimagined.

Well, today we take a closer look at the history of Loteria, how cigar merchants helped popularize it, and ask just how essential is it to have a bag of raw pinto beans on hand when playing?

Rebeca

And the bag of beans, pinto beans that we kept to play Loteria, because apparently there is no copy of Loteria in existence that also provides the pieces, the play.

Monica

Welcome to Knucklebones, a narrative podcast where we talk about the impact of games in our everyday lives. I'm your host, Monica Felix, and for today's episode, we have a look at the popular game Loteria, or Mexican Bingo.

Since this game was such a big part of my childhood, I decided I needed a little help to tell this story. I reached out to my sister Rebeca and asked her if she had a copy of the game lying around.

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We talk to Matthew from Milwaukee who has been running a game for 10 years. This week we ask: what is it like to play without having a sense of an ending? And can games teach us to be better humans?

Topics: role-playing games (RPGs), gameplay and ethics, sense of an ending, cooperative vs competitive play, long games, imaginative play, decision making, behavioralism, masks

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For today's episode, we took a deep dive into a game that became more than just a pastime. It becomes a second life, a fully fleshed out experience lasting 10 years or more with its own chronicle.

I had a chance to sit down with Matthew from Milwaukee who has a pretty unique relationship with games. Now, in just a few minutes, we'll hear about how Matthew has managed to create, maintain, and chronicle a game with a group of friends that has run for 10 years. And not just once, but actually twice.

Two 10-year stints for these games.

But before we get to that, you have to understand what games mean to him. It all started with trying to organize a game night with a group of friends, something that ended up being a lot harder than it sounds. Finding games that everyone would be comfortable playing was always a challenge.

Matthew: Because you have the competitive people, you have the very uncompetitive people like myself, you have people who like weird, gnarly rules to explore. And people who want things to be simple so they can sip a glass of wine in peace and not worry about messing things up.

Monica: But for everyone, part of the fun of playing the game is you get to be someone different from who you normally are. As Matthew puts it:

Matthew: The way that we present ourselves normally is just a mask. And you can take that mask off and put on a different mask of choice. And that freedom to experiment, to extrapolate, to experience different aspects of the world.

Monica: And so what Matthew ends up building for his friends is this dynamic place where they meet every week or every now and then. And while they're there, they get to experiment with this alternate version of themselves.

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