Slow violence in a digital world: Tarahumara apocalypse and endogenous meaning in Mulaka

The Tarahumara people of Northern Mexico are not strangers to environmental degradation. As recently as 2017, they witnessed the assassination of environmental activist leaders in their community who protested illegal logging and continue to survive a decade-long drought that exemplifies the environmental degradation brought on by climate change. With a Latin American games industry that mostly facilitates American, Canadian, and European games and a Latinx population represented, but for the most part scattered, through Northern game companies, neither of which particularly promotes uniquely Latinx themes or environments in games, Chihuahua-based game development team Lienzo seeks to raise awareness of Tarahumara culture and folklore through the video game Mulaka. Deploying industry-standard mechanics reifying certain forms of violence, the game’s endogenous meaning nonetheless conveys an ecocritical message about slow violence-Rob Nixon’s term-and the outcome, should we chose inaction. Indigenous games like Mulaka demonstrate that in spite of being plagued by many forms of toxicity, our deeply interconnected lands and peoples are worth fighting for.