Traditional Mexican Bingo Game - Loteria

This beloved game is still sold in flea markets and 'mercados' throughout Mexico and a large part of the Western United States. It's essentially in the very same version manufactured since 1887 by Don Clemente Jacques, who is widely known as the principal promoter of the game.

It most often comes as a packaged set of ten boards (game cards), an eighty card playing deck, and a joker, known as "un naipe."

Loteria is played much like bingo, except we use beans (most commonly) or chips, or coins or stones...or whatever you want... as place markers on the game cards, and the name of each playing card is called out during the game. In Mexican homes everywhere, you can hear the cards being called out: "La Muerte! La Catrina! La Sandia! La Campana!"

The person who calls out the cards is supposed to make up a rhyme about the picture on the card and the other players guess which card the person is talking about. "Para el sol y para el agua," For the sun and for the water. That's an example of a riddle that can be used to guess the card being called. The answer: El paraguas, the umbrella. Anyone with an umbrella image on their game card would place a marker on it, no matter who answered the riddle.

To the side of this paragraph, you will see an image of two Loteria game cards. Before the game starts, the players decide the different ways to win the game.

For example, just as in regular bingo, you can win by marking the images in a horizontal row, OR a vertical column. This is the usual basic way to win.

One of the "extra" ways to win is to be the first player who has the outer four corner images marked on a game card. This option is called "las esquinas," the corners.

Another way to win the game is to be the first player to mark the inside four squares, called "el cuadro".

Yet one more way to win in the game is to be the first player to have all of the images covered.

When the cards are filled in the pre-determined manner, the winner shouts "Loteria!" and wins a prize. This prize can be a "pot" of pennies wagered by each player. You have to find your own place markers - and typically people use beans, small stones, bottle caps, coins, buttons - anything that seems handy.

The more experienced the players, the more the above methods are combined for more chances to win. For example, there may be four 'pots' where people can wager for the game. I can say I'm putting in for corners, inside corners and full card, as well as the row or column that would be required. That's a lot of chips, buttons or pennies!

The most experienced players will also play multiple cards! My grandmother and my older aunts were CHAMPS at playing multiple cards with multiple ways to win! They were so good, they had their own game cards with their names on the back!

Loteria

Loteria Mousepad

Loteria Tote Bag