Celebrating some of the final events of this year’s Latino Heritage Month, the Spanish Honor Society Sigma Delta Pi hosted Loteria and Game Night in the Cultural House on Ninth Street on Monday at 7 p.m.

Spanish professor Kristin Routt said Loteria, which is the Spanish term for bingo, is a game that a lot of Latino families play at gatherings.

Routt said the committee decided on Loteria being the main game of the event because the concept is easy to understand, and people do not need to know Spanish well.

“If you come and hear some Spanish, that is good, some people grew up playing Loteria and (students) get all excited,” Routt said. “Other people that have never played or even if they don’t speak Spanish it’s super easy, there is no chiste(point) to it, it’s like bingo.”

Students from the Spanish classes and other culture organizations like the Spanish Club sat around the living room in the Cultural House as everyone got a game board to participate.

Two female students would then take turns saying the card name in Spanish, and everyone played a few rounds of Loteria.

Jenna Wasso, a sophomore childhood education major, said she had attended a previous culture event about the Chicago journalist Vanessa Perez, who is an EIU alumna.

Wasso said compared to this Loteria event, the guest speaker event was a little more interactive because it was informational.

“(I will learn) probably more (Spanish) vocabulary terms,” Wasso said.   

Maria Amill, a senior studying interpersonal communication, said she had at first come to the Loteria event because her professor Dr. Routt was offering her class extra credit.

Although, she said she attended other Latino Heritage events like the Chicago journalist event as well.

“I really liked them, especially the guest speaker that had graduated from EIU,” Amill said. “I like hearing how far they have come from just being a student to how successful they are. That’s my favorite part, and I get to meet new people.”

Routt said the Latino Heritage month overall has been very successful, especially with the Taco Truck being their most popular activity.

“An event that really had an impact was our discussion Latinx Identity that gave students opportunities to reflect on their own identity, that includes both the student panelist and everybody in the audience,” Routt said.

Amil said since she has attended the Latino Heritage events she has learned more about what Latino Heritage is about and that it is not just events for the Latino community, but for the outside community too.

“I appreciate and am glad (the Latino events are) open to everybody; that’s really cool,” Routt said. 

Routt said next year she would like to reach beyond their regular audience, like students from Spanish department or people from Alpha Psi Lambda.

“Outside of that, it’s kind of hard to convince people, to show people, that it would be rewarding, and when people do come, I think they are glad they’re coming,” Routt said.

Valentina Vargas can be reached at 581-2812 or vvargas@eiu.edu.