Playing games to heal wounds in Spain

Rachel Levin Producer • E-mail

MADRID - It's not every day that you have to dodge the police, run away from drug dealers, or figure out how to maneuver a medieval bureaucracy to get a work visa.

Surviving such pitfalls would be exhausting and frustrating if you had to do it on a daily basis. But that's just what the creators of "Border Games," an interactive video game want you to feel.

The game is based on the real-life experiences of young Moroccans here and allows players to put themselves in the shoes of the nearly 3.6 million immigrants living in Spain. To win, the player needs to get working papers and a job; failing to do so means getting deported, and losing the game.

"I want Spaniards and Moroccans to understand how we live," says Abdullah El-Araoui, 19, who works for "Border Games" and lives in the immigrant neighborhood Lavapies in Madrid.

Although one of the oldest quarters in the capital, it's where people converse in Arabic, Chinese and Hindu more often than in Spanish. Pakistani grocery stores and Moroccan tea shops line the narrow streets.

The Old World feel was jolted two years ago by a New World reality. Lavapies is where three people were arrested in connection with the March 11, 2004, bombings that killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500 in Madrid.

Nowadays, Middle Eastern music blares from kebab stores as police officers randomly stop teenage boys to check their ID’s.

3-D scenarios
Those same teenage boys can help Jordi Claramonte, who conceived of “Border Games” while studying in the United States and working with young Latino kids in south-central Los Angeles.

"People have to learn that young immigrants have the same rights as Spanish people," he said.

Claramonte and a team of graphic designers, animators and educational experts hold workshops where young Moroccans learn how to program, edit and produce 3-D scenarios which are later transformed into the characters and plot lines for "Border Games."

El-Araoui participated in one of the original workshops and now leads seminars to teach other immigrants how to play and program the game.

His own story is typical of the migrants in Spain. When he was 13 years old, El-Araoui hid underneath a truck to make the perilous journey from Morocco to Spain.

His motivation was simple. His mother had left home when he was 7 to work in Madrid, and he wanted to rejoin her and find a better life than in Morocco. He was surprised at some of the reactions he got in Spain.

"When people see us they think we (Moroccans) are all thieves."

During a recent stroll through the main plaza in Lavapies, El-Araoui pointed out where the drug dealers hang out and which policemen on patrol should be avoided.

But despite the heavy security presence in his neighborhood he can't imagine living anywhere else.  “It's just like back home," El-Araoui said as he gestured toward the fresh pita bread in his favorite grocery store. ¨I can buy the same tea, dates, and nuts I used to buy in Morocco."

MORE FROM ISLAM IN EUROPE

Islam in Europe Section Front

Resentment and fear Islam à la française? Readers respond to Islam series Islam in Europe Section Front   Add Islam in Europe headlines to your news reader: