If you happened to walk by the BCM the night of April 10 you may have heard students and members of the Hispanic Culture Organization yelling Spanish words and numbers at Loteria.

Loteria is a Mexican game similar to bingo.

“We thought about it last semester when we were planning Latin Dance Night,” said Jhoana Patlan, president of HCO. “It’s kind of one of the most popular games that we play so we just thought that it was something that we wanted to share with UNA too.”

When Loteria began there were many open seats, but as the night went on the room quickly filled up.

“I didn’t think that people would get as involved as they are now,” said junior Katie Bagwell, a member of HCO.

Though Patlan liked the turn out she thought HCO could have promoted the event more beforehand.

“I think we could have had more people but we didn’t do as much promoting as we could have, but I’m really excited from what we did promote,” Patlan said.

Students who did attend were prompted to participate in pronouncing the items on the bingo sheet.

“It was interesting to dive into some of the basics of the Spanish language,” said sophomore Richard Stubbs. “It reminded me a lot about when I took it in high school.”

HCO also focused on providing authentic Mexican food for Loteria.

“At certain events you can go buy the food, but for us it’s more of making the food,” Patlan said. “It’s not something that you can just go buy at the grocery store. We put a lot of effort into finding chicharones (pork rinds).”

HCO strives to bring diversity to all of their events, Patlan said.

“Our biggest thing is diversity — that’s what we want to put out there,” Patlan said. “UNA is a very diverse campus, and we have people from all around the world. This is bingo, but it is also a different way that it can be played, a different style, everything is different.”

Stubbs agrees it is important to look at other students’ cultures, he said.

“There is a lot of people from other countries that are here and it wouldn’t be fair to make them get used to our culture without being willing to learn more about theirs,” Stubbs said. “It’s a two-way street.”

With the success of Loteria, HCO plans on continuing some of the same events they planned this year.