Latinx Artist Calls Out Target For Stealing His Loteria Design

The Mexican Loteria is not just a bingo-style game but it’s an iconic part of Mexican culture. The game embodies our traditions, our imagery, and our culture. However, the game has been transformed in a variety of ways by Latinx artist to fit and inspire the woke generation. One such artist, Felix d’Eon created his version of the Loteria game by depicting imagery that pays tribute to the gay community.

One of his designs — a creative take on the Bandera card — is the signature gay flag that features the rainbow colors. Apparently the people at Target were quite taken by Felix’s designs, because the chain superstore is being accused of trademark infringement.

Felix called out Target in a tweet, saying: “Target stole a design of mine and printed it on a tshirt. Is this how you support the queer Latinx community, @Target , by stealing the art of a gay Mexican artist? I’m curious to hear what you have to say!”

https://twitter.com/FelixdEon/status/996601738080727045

If Target hadn’t done anything wrong, Target wouldn’t have responded the way they did. Here’s what the corporation said in a response via Twitter: Target “respects the design rights of others and expects our vendors to do the same. We have removed this shirt from our online assortment and we are in contact with the vendor,” the statement continues. “We spent a lot of time selecting Pride merchandise that celebrates the LGBTQ+ and ally community, so we appreciate this being brought to our attention.”

Felix responded to that by saying: “Your apology rings hollow so long as the t-shirt is available in your brick and mortar stores; you are still profiting off my work, and appropriating from the queer, Latinx community.”

In an interview with Business Insider, Felix said: “I am a gay, Mexican-American artist, and the painting stolen was from my Lotería game, a traditional Mexican game of which I made a queer version. The particular image was of a flag, which in the original game is a Mexican flag, but which in my version was re-painted as a gay flag, to invoke pride in my heritage and of other members of the queer, Latinx community.”

And while Felix is doing his own kind of reproduction from the original Loteria flag, he is Mexican and has an authentic new version, as oppose to a mainstream company.