In 2017, I left my job as a creative in Hispanic marketing. I was tired of seeing brands push narratives that felt out of touch with my life and the lives of other young Latinos in the U.S. As an immigrant from Guatemala, I knew that the Latino experience here is diverse and nuanced. Yet, the advertising world often reduced our stories to oversimplified cultural markers. Campaigns repeatedly relied on the same tired clichés—soccer, tacos, abuelas (grandmothers), piñatas, and Cinco de Mayo—alongside a constant focus on multigenerational families and Spanish-only messaging.
While these are aspects of Latino culture, they represent only a narrow slice of who we are. I realized that brands were missing the chance to connect with young Latinos eager for representation that reflected their modern realities. That’s when I decided it was time to create something different. And so, Millennial Lotería was born.
Building a game that reflects us
When I started working on Millennial Lotería, my goal wasn’t to create a card game about Latino identity—it was to capture the experience of being a young person navigating life in the U.S.
For reference, Lotería (lottery in Spanish) is a traditional Mexican board game similar to Bingo. The game is played on a deck of cards instead of numbered ping-pong balls.
I began by posting updated versions of classic Lotería cards on Instagram, making them more relevant to today’s world. Instead of outdated stereotypes like “La Dama” (The Woman) and “El Borracho” (The Drunk), I introduced characters like “La Feminist,” “El Intern,” and “La Student Debt.”
