Move over El Diablo and La Sirena. Los Angeles-based Guatemalan artist and self-described nerd Mike Alfaro has created another version of the popular Lotería card game, and DC Comics fans should be overjoyed.
Alfaro, who created the Millennial Lotería in 2017, has teamed up with Warner Bros. to design a Lotería game based on the characters from the anti-superhero movie The Suicide Squad. The film stars Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Sylvester Stallone, and others as a team of supervillains who are sent on a mission to destroy a Nazi laboratory.
“There are so many iconic characters in this movie,” Alfaro told Remezcla during a recent interview. “I thought it would be really cool to turn them into Lotería cards. It was fun to give them all different names to represent them.”
For Robbie’s character Harley Quinn, which she portrays in past movies like 2016’s Suicide Squad and last year’s Birds of Prey, Alfaro labels her as “La Wildcard” (“The Wildcard”). Elba’s character Bloodsport is designated “El Asesino” (“The Killer”). Stallone’s character, a CGI shark named King Shark, is identified as “El Rey” (“The King”).
Then, there are also the Latine characters in the film. Brazilian actress Alice Braga plays Sol Soria, a rebel soldier and the leader of a resistance (“La Valiente”), and Mexican actor Joaquín Cosío portrays military general and dictator Mateo Suarez (“El General”).
“I wish there were more Latino characters out there representing us,” Alfaro said. “Hopefully, when people see this movie and this Lotería, they’ll want to see more Latino characters. Latinos are so passionate about these movies and the characters we love.”
So, is it possible to get abuelitas everywhere to replace their original Lotería card game with The Suicide Squad version? When he was creating the game, Alfaro said he was thinking about what a Latina grandma would call some of these characters. That’s why he calls Weasel “El Sinvergüenza” (“The Scoundrel”).
“Lotería is cross-generational,” he said. “I think an abuelita would appreciate that El Valiente is now La Valiente and the moving forward of the culture.”
The Suicide Squad is currently playing at theaters and streaming on HBO Max.