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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