Community Gathering & Celebration

La Lotería Niuyorkina: An Educational Game to Explore the City’s Linguistic Landscape

Thu, Mar 12, 2026

6:00 PM–8:00 PM

Room 5414, CUNY Graduate Center. Free and open to all. Please register to attend.

Please join us for the “La lotería Niuyorkina: An exploration of the city’s Linguistic Landscape,” an event launching an educational board game La lotería Niuyorkina (bingo-like) created by a LAILaC student, Diana Higuera, alongside the illustrations of a Queens College junior student, Mateo Oldenburg. This pedagogical game/toolkit is available and accessible to all as an Open Educational Resource and was originally funded by the CUNY Adjunct Incubator Award in 2025, and developed for Spanish and Latinx studies adjunct instructors who juggle teaching multiple classes in the CUNY system. The game is made up of 24 cards depicting characters, places, and objects representing the Latinx communities in New York City.

The event will have four parts:

Interactive Gallery: a walk-up gallery of artworks and prints from the game
Presentation: a presentation of the game and the creative process of making it, as well as educational resources, including 5 lesson plans to use the game in Spanish, Spanish for heritage Speakers, and Latinx Studies courses
Game time!: we will collectively play a round the game together
Reception: we will end with a reception to chat, eat, and celebrate

Free and open to all, please register to attend. There will be food and drinks provided.

View images and illustrations by Mateo Oldenburg from the game La lotería Niuyorkina in the slideshow gallery below:

Please view the website where you can access the open-access resources for the game here.

Participants

Mateo Rafael Oldenburg

Mateo Rafael Oldenburg (he/him/él) is a young Venezuelan American artist based in Queens, NY. He is also a second-year student at Queen’s College, where he intends to major in Design and Philosophy. He enjoys drawing and illustrating using different techniques such as graphite, charcoal, and ink. In his free time, he explores his passion for metal music by playing the guitar, singing, and playing with his band, Dracolich.

Diana Higuera-Cortes

Diana Higuera-Cortes is a PhD student in the Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures (LAILAC) program at the Graduate Center-CUNY. A former CUNY Humanities Alliance fellow, Diana teaches Spanish at Lehman College.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the CUNY Adjunct Incubator, Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Culture (LAIaLC), and the Doctoral and Graduate Students’ Council (DGSC) at the CUNY Graduate Center.