Hispanic Heritage Activities - Papel Picado & Loteria

Join us for a Hispanic History Month themed celebration featuring a traditional Hispanic folk art craft that will be used to decorate The Center and a traditional Mexican game of chance (similar to Bingo) for prizes!

Papel picado ("pecked paper") is a traditional Mexican folk art craft made by cutting elaborate designs into sheets of tissue paper using a template and, in our case, scissors or craft knife (similar to cutting snowflake art). We will string the sheets together to create a banner to decorate The Center for Hispanic History Month.

Lotería (Spanish word meaning "lottery") is a traditional game of chance, similar to bingo, but using images on a deck of cards instead of numbered balls. The traditional Lotería card deck is composed of a set of 54 different cards, each with a different picture and each player uses a tabla or board with a randomly created 4 x 4 grid of pictures with their corresponding name and number.

To start the game, the cantor (Spanish for "singer") shuffles the deck. They then pick a card and announce it to the players by its name or sometimes use a riddle or verse instead. Each player locates the matching pictogram of the card on their board and marks it off using a chip or other marker. In Mexico, it is traditional to use small rocks, corks or beans as markers. The winner is the first player that shouts "¡Buena!" or "¡Lotería!" after completing a tabla or a previous agreed pattern such as column, row, diagonal, four corners, or a pozo — a group of images in a square.

The winner of each game will get their choice a free book prize.

This is a drop-in event so no registration or tickets are required. Stay as little or as long as you'd like.

This is part of HCLS' Hispanic Heritage Month series. Click here for the full schedule of classes and events for all ages. 

FAM: Fun At Miller