El Pasoans Pay Homage To The Sun City In Fun New Loteria Version

Check out this fantastic version of the Loteria game that pays homage to our beautiful city of El Paso, TX, and the borderland.

The Loteria has been around for centuries, and it's as fun today as it was the first time playing as a kid. Throughout the years, the Loteria has influenced many artists here and across the border, including a Star Wars version to planters designed with Loteria characters. For anyone unfamiliar, Loteria is a popular Mexican board game similar to Bingo, but instead of using numbered ping pong balls, a deck of cards with images is used, along with pinto beans that are used to mark each matching callout. How a Fun Moment Led to A Big Idea As we all know, the pandemic lockdowns were challenging; however, during the lockdown, a group of El Pasoans took the traditional game of Loteria and spun it into an homage to El Paso featuring local celebrities and historical landmarks. During the lockdowns, Crystal Dominguez, her brothers Andy and Gabe Dominguez, and a family friend, Dan Corral, would keep in touch via Zoom. Together they would chit chat, sometimes drink (as most of us did), and during one of their virtual hangouts, they decided to play Loteria.

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Since not everyone on the Zoom call had a Loteria game, they decided to recreate their own, adding a twist to the traditional game by making it an El Paso-themed Loteria, and that's how Loteria del Chuco was born.

While the traditional Loteria game and Loteria del Chuco are played the same, the only variation is the characters. The new El Paso Loteria version celebrates our culture and highlights iconic figures and landmarks representing the borderland. The Loteria del Chuco game board version features historical people and places, such as the famous alligators at San Jacinto Plaza, Chicos Tacos and Western Playland, sports legends like wrestler Eddie Guerrero and Don Haskins, including old-school DJ Steve Crosno, and musicians such as the late Juan Gabriel and El Paso's #1 ambassador Khalid and many more.

On September 3, the Loteria del Chuco website went live and since has been selling dozens of gameboards and plans to include other merchandise such as T-shirts and mugs, serving as another great way to share a piece of El Paso's awesomeness with just about anyone, especially our younger generations.