Torres, Sarahy (week 5)

 One piece of art that stood out to me from the Cortez book is Loteria—Primera Tabla by Carmen Lomas Garza in 1972. The painting reminds me of my childhood playing loteria in family parties especially with my grandmas. The loteria represents a part of the Latin@ culture by showcasing a bingo in our language with an incentive at the end. We use beans to cover our tabla if we do not have spare change such as pennies. Beans make the game more interesting and fun since they could easily slip out of the tabla and make a player lose their chances of winning. It also demonstrates the competitiveness of our culture with winning at something such as the loteria. It shows we are in control of our own games and could benefit from entertainment without needing a lot of money for it. 

When I think of loteria I automatically think of spending the afternoon at my grandma's house and playing for hours. I would automatically choose my tabla which is lucky number 12 and win mostly all rounds. By the end of the night my sandwich bag would be full of spare change I had won with my family. My family likes getting the loteria that is big so it is easier to see the cards since the average size gets confusing when putting beans/pennies. Everyone cheats at one point in the game since they do not want to lose the spare change they had put in the game to play. It is interesting to see how everyone plays since some are slower than others in putting the beans/pennies down on the cards. Nevertheless, loteria is something familiar and comfortable to me since it represents the bonding I share with my family by playing it for hours.