Reinventing a classic

IN MID-MARCH, AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SWEPT THROUGH THE U.S., Rafael Gonzales Jr. watched the news, and all he could do was call the virus by a Spanish swear word: cabrona, the bitch. But the worldwide crisis also sparked his creativity, giving birth to an idea that has brought joy to many as the pandemic wears on. “I had a small idea of basically getting out the frustration of having to deal with COVID-19,” he says.

That small idea was a joke, a play on words comparing cabrona and corona. He went on to illustrate the joke in a format recognizable to millions of Latinos around the world: Lotería.

Although by