El Juego de Lotería

The game of lottery is as much a part of Mexican popular culture as is bingo in the United States. Although it is played in a similar way, lotería is more than “Mexican Bingo”—the game offers a window into the country’s vibrant culture. Where a bingo board has numbers, lotería has pictures including a calavera (skull) and nopal (part of a prickly pear cactus). The images of most popular lotería game boards today date back to the late 19^th century and are themselves a part of Mexican popular culture. The Library holds several prints related to the lottery game, including this board designed by renowned printmaker José Guadalupe Posada in the early 20^th century, as well as prints created in the late 20^th century by artist Artemio Rodríguez.

These items can serve as the basis for your own version of lotería. Print the Posada version of the game and rearrange or remove items and add images of places, people, or ideas that matter to your family to create your own board. For younger players, the game can serve as a means of practicing reading or vocabulary in English or Spanish.

What you need to play lotería:

• Cards for each player, each with a different set or configuration of images.
• Pieces of something small to mark the cards when they are called. You can use beans, pebbles, or something similar.
• A deck of all the images on the cards. A traditional lottery game has about 50 or so cards.

Rules of the game:

• Each person has a board and also small items to mark the squares on it.
• The leader (or caller) has a set of cards with each picture that appears in the game.
• The leader (caller) shuffles the cards and calls out the picture, sometimes with a distinctive phrase that represents the card and serves as a clue.
• The first player who has a complete column, row, or square wins the game. That player then shouts “lotería!”.  

Or, try this version of lotería based on items on view in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building—with a special appearance of artwork by Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, held in the Library’s collections.

Library Lotería/Lotería de la Biblioteca

The torch/La antorcha	The Librarian/La Bibliotecaria	The mark/La estampilla	The president/El presidente
The fountain/La fuente	The desk/El escritorio	The putti/Los putti	The map/El mapa
The goddess/la diosa	The dome/La cúpula	The mural/El mural	The skull/La calavera

Clues:

1. Goddess of wisdom and goddess of war, her mosaic welcomes you to the Library’s main floor.                [Image: Mosaic of Minerva by Elihu Vedder within central arched panel leading to the Visitor’s Gallery. Photographer Carol M. Highsmith, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]
2. Carla D. Hayden, pictured in the Great Hall, is the first woman Librarian who inspires us all.                  [Image: The 14th Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress.]
3. Chubby like cherubs but without any wings, these little putti love to paint, farm, and sing.                       [Image: View of putti on Grand Staircase by Philip Martiny. Photographer Carol M. Highsmith. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]
4. José Guadalupe Posada, artist extraordinaire, made calaveras like this one to print and to share.         [Image: Calavera Oaxaqueña. José Guadalupe Posada, artist. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]
5. The Library’s main desk is surrounded by nooks and by desks for researchers who request thousands of books!  [The Library of Congress Main Reading Room, December 1, 2017. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress.]
6. This president’s bust greets you when you arrive, to visit the Library that his book collection revived.  [Image: Bust of Thomas Jefferson. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building. Photographer Carol M. Highsmith. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]
7. The fountain of Neptune sure makes a splash with all of the visitors who happen to pass.                              [Image: Neptune statue in Neptune Fountain by Roland Hinton Perry. Photographer Carol M. Highsmith. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]
8. These little circles offer something unique, the mark of a printer when such work was boutique.             [Printer’s mark of John Day in Thomas Jefferson Building. Photographer Carol M. Highsmith. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]
9. This map of the world is one of the Library’s top treasures; its value for research is far beyond measure. [Image: Universalis cosmographia secundum… Cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress]
10. These beautiful sculptures with torches alight, show the triumph of science and ensured these spaces were bright. [Image: View of grand staircase and bronze statue of female figure on newel post holding a torch of electric light. Photographer Carol M. Highsmith. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]
11. Of the many wonders in the Great Hall, this mural of baseball is the most fun of all!                                   [Image: Mural depicting baseball by Frederic C. Martin. Photographer Carol M. Highsmith. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]
12. Above it all rises this magnificent dome, showing contributions of cultures from Egypt to Rome. [Image: Main Reading Room. Interior of dome. Photographer Carol M. Highsmith. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress]

Pistas:

1. Diosa de la sabiduría y la guerra, su mosaico da la bienvenida a todos quuienes quieren cruzar las puertas del conocimiento en la Sala Principal de Lectura.
2. Nuestra Bibliotecaria del Congresso, la Dra. Carla D. Hayden, aparece aquí en el Gran Salon (Great Hall). La Dra. Hayden es la primera mujer Bibliotecaria del Congreso.
3. Gorditos como querubines, pero sin alas, a estos putti les encanta pintar, cultivar y cantar.
4. José Guadalupe Posada, un artista extraordinario, dibujo las renombradas calaveras que conocemos hoy en día.
5. El escritorio principal de la Biblioteca está rodeado de rincones y escritorios para que investigadores soliciten miles de libros.
6. El busto de este presidente te saluda cuando llegas, para visitar la Biblioteca que revivió su colección de libros.
7. La fuente de Neptuno seguro que salpica a todos los visitantes que pasan.
8. Estos pequeños círculos ofrecen algo único, la marca de un impresor cuando ese trabajo era boutique.
9. Este mapa es uno de los principales tesoros de la Biblioteca, nombra las Américas mucho antes de que así se conocieran.
10. Estas hermosas esculturas con antorchas encendidas, muestran el triunfo de la ciencia y nos iluminan.
11. De las muchas maravillas del Gran Salón, ¡este mural de béisbol es el más divertido de todos!
12. Por encima de todo se eleva esta magnífica cúpula que muestra las contribuciones de las culturas desde Egipto a Roma.

¡Disfruten! / Enjoy!