Narrativizing Identity Through Play: A Case Study Based on The Tropical America Project
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7494/human.2026.25.1.8052Keywords:
Tropical America, video game of the oppressed,, spect-actor, modding, representation, education, South and Central AmericaAbstract
The paper present and analyzes an educational project initiated and conducted in 2001-2002 by Jessica Irish and Juan Devis at Belmot High School in Los Angeles, which resulted in a flash game titled Tropical America, available until the end of 2020 at https://jessirish.com/tropical/. The project and the game are analyzed in the article from several different perspectives: as a product situated between art game and serious game and constituting an important voice for the second-largest cultural community in the United States, which is still underrepresented in mainstream media; as an implementation of the spect-actor concept, which fosters audience engagement while simultaneously making them co-creators of the narrative; from the perspective of the game as a vehicle for violence, which can be both creative and cathartic; and in terms of the game’s graphic design and the ways of representing Central and South America, which stands in opposition to the exoticization of this region and its inhabitants that dominates universal, and especially American, culture. The various perspectives adopted in the analysis serve to paint a possibly comprehensive picture of how the Tropical America project and game constituted not only an educational experiment, but also an important tool in building a sense of self-identity among young people representing the first generation of immigrants.
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