UPDATE (2/5/2018): When I originally interviewed Mike Alfaro and published this post in July of 2017, he was not selling complete sets of the Millennial Lotería, but things have changed since then. The Millennial Lotería: Limited Edition set is now available for purchase. It comes with 42 reimagined cards, 8 boards, and a pack of organic Guatemalan “playing” coffee beans. There are only 1,000 sets available for purchase at $45 each. Details on where to buy are at the bottom of this post.
UPDATE (10/23/18): The Millennial Lotería is now available to buy here.
Hola Chulas y Chulos! How are you? My chancla and I feel like we won the lottery because we came across Mike Alfaro’s Millenial Lotería artwork, which is basically an update of the artwork on the Mexican lotería game that so many of us grew up playing.
In case you don’t know what lotería is, it’s kind of sort of like bingo or at least that’s what everyone compares it to. The truth is that bingo is to lotería like an American BBQ is to a Mexican carne asada. They’re kind of the same, but with a totally different flavor, you know what I mean?
Alfaro now calls Los Angeles home, but he grew up in Guatemala where he was heavily influenced by American TV shows on cable. He has great memories of playing lotería when he was growing up, but now that he’s an adult and all he realized that the old cards could use a bit of an update and since he’s a bicultural product it makes sense that his recreations reflect that cultural fluidity.
It’s not like there haven’t been other reimaginings of the classic lotería game because there have been many. What sets Alfaro’s apart is this sort of tongue-and-cheek cleverness, a bit of social consciousness, the use of Spanglish and a big shout out to millennials.
My chancla and I asked Alfaro the following questions and he graciously answered:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BN_DRhphsmH/
Will you be recreating all the cards or just the ones you think need updating?
At this time, I’m focusing mostly on creating the cards and putting them on my Instagram for my followers to enjoy. Right now, my artwork falls under parody, if I were to make a real millennial lotería set, I feel like that would compete against the original lotería and I don’t want to dilute their profits. Now, if Lotería would ever approach me about collaborating on a set with them, I would think that is fantastic. So many people wanna buy the game, they would probably find it profitable. I’ve seen some sites reporting that I’m selling the complete set, that is not true jaja. I wouldn’t even have enough cards right now. I do have prints of my parody work available. (This is no longer true. There is now a limited edition set that has been made for purchase.)
Where’s my “sana, sana colita de rana” card? I’m kidding, but only kind of ’cause I totally want a print of one.
Then you’ll love what I’ve got coming up. You’ll have to follow to see what that one becomes. 🙂
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He’s nice, no? So excited. Now heck out some of the Millennial Lotería updates Alfaro has created:
From La Escalera to La Border Wall.
It’s not clear yet who will be paying for the escalera propped up against the wall.
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From La Dama to La Feminist.
I’m pretty sure I saw her at the most recent Women’s March demanding equal rights all the GÜEY.
From La Muerte to El Hipster.
The modern day dandy.
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You can buy some of Alfaro’s artwork here and you can buy the Millennial Lotería here.
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