Hispanic Heritage Month with Loteria Night

Nevaeh Brown

The Center of Student Involvement and Inclusion kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month just one day early, the festivities began Sept. 15, with Loteria Night.

Loteria is a Spanish version of bingo with cards and kidney beans—the whole bit. In this variation the cards are limited to 16 spaces, numbered, and the pictures are captioned in Spanish. For example: El Corazon with a picture of an anatomical heart, or La Bota, with a picture of a boot.

This is the organization’s fourth year of hosting the game night where the caller calls out pictures on a deck of cards and you place a dried bean on the corresponding box.

The goal is to get four in a row diagonally, vertically or horizontally. Even the end result varied from either a couple of rows or the whole card while keeping up with the speed of the caller.

With big and small prizes given out with each “Bingo,” and a swag bag if you fill all 16 spaces.

But West Georgia’s festivities will end on Oct. 12.

In recent years, it had been reported by the university’s demographic statistics that 6.9% of students identify as Hispanic in the time frame of 2019-2020, the same span that Loteria night was introduced.

“Being a part of the Hispanic Latin Students we hope to share our culture, the pride we have in our culture and they can learn to embrace it in ways that are respectful,” says  CSII’s Student assistant Dannya Pacheco.

That mission is definitely well on its way to being achieved, with a diverse range of events being hosted by the different Hispanic Latin American organizations on both the Carrollton and Newnan campuses.

These organizations will be going to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for an Atlanta United Soccer game on Sept. 27 against the Montréal soccer team.

For the next event, in connection with UWG’s International Languages and Cultures, the movie “Ixcanul” (2016) will be shown. “Ixcanul” means volcano in Kaqchikel, the language of the quiche-Mamean branch of the Mayans’ language family. But “Ixcanul” is a Guatemalan drama produced, directed and written by Jayro Bustamante. 

Concluding the festivities with a reading and talk with poet Ricardo Pau-Llosa in the Campus Center ballroom.

Student Associates like Dannya Pacheco act as ambassadors on behalf of the university’s Hispanic-Latinx demographic going out to “feeder” high schools in the area and persuading Hispanic and Latin American students that there is a place on this campus where their traditions are upheld and celebrated. 

Through events like these and the Latino fraternities and sororities here on campus, they create an extended connection lasting longer than a few weeks during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Ambassadors even aid these students in the college application process.

 “With every single year we do have more Hispanic and Latino students coming every single year so it has contributed to the event getting bigger,” said Pacheco. “However, the student body of West Georgia is also very excited and very ready to learn about the Hispanic culture and that also helps to grow these events.”

Pacheco was right about other students coming out to events such as Loteria Night, there was a massive turnout, nearly every table was filled and everyone loved the game.

The celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month goes on until Oct. 15 nationally, introducing new traditions and community relationships. There are plenty of festivities occurring over the next month for students to enjoy.