A Whole Loterí­a

Take a deep breath, damas y caballeros. We are not doing this entire Best Of issue in Spanish. That doesn't happen until Phase IV of the Reconquista. (According to our official timetable, autographed by Hugo Chávez and Barack Obama, we're still in Phase III.)

The kitschy-cool-anachronistic imagery of the Mexican Loterí­a game—actually played kinda like bingo, only with images instead of letters—has undergone plenty of postmodern repurposing before: Check out the stylish tchotchkes at Cantera in Santa Ana or the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, for starters.

But in the gifted hands of painter Shaunna Peterson, our reimagined deck of the traditional 54 cards provides the perfect visual framework to laud all that is laudable, even iconic, about our own patria. We've also created a dozen new tarjetas in honor of some of our leading citizens—photographed by the aptly named Star Foreman for maximum iconic-ness—and asked them to name their most quintessentially OC person, place, idea, event, etc. And, as per usual, we've asked you to lay your cards on the table about your own local faves through our Readers' Poll.

Best of OC 2009: Bold, bright, beautiful . . . y ¡Buena!

To see all of our Loterí­a cards up close, click here.