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This episode, Keepers Bridgett & Evan discuss horror gaming ideas based on the culture, folklore, and history of Mexico with Carlos Salazar!

Patreon Plug & Update

Are you excited to be getting out into the world with us? Learning new things? Encountering previously-unimagined terror? Well. Honey. Doing that is not free. 

That’s correct! We didn’t all get good enough grades for a study abroad scholarship… I think I’ve taken the college metaphor as far as it can go. OK. The point is, YOU can be our spiritual, temporal, and financial benefactors, by heading over to patreon.com/MUP to subscribe. For as little as two bucks a month, you can help us pay our editors, pay for web hosting, and pay for storage. 

And hey, we get it. If monetary support isn’t possible, a like, a share, a nomination to your favorite podcast awards, or a review goes such a long way! Because if you don’t engage, or support, then we’re forced to include ads from our backers, like this unholy nonsense from backer James (Ibis):

[In obnoxious 90s commercial screech]: Nahum Gardner’s Ba-LAaaasted Heath Sunbathing, in the West Arkham Hills mini-mall! Get a tan that is out of this world! (Editors: Gnarly 90’s guitar riff here?) Funky fake tan colors? NO WAY! Nahum Gardner uses the power of the cosmos to help you achieve color that is OUT OF THIS WORLD! 

…OK. That’s as long as I can do that voice. James, thank you! And curse you.

The Discord Plug

MUP has a Discord and we are all there! We invite all of our listeners to come and enjoy the community of horror gaming and cute pet pics. Link in the show notes: MU Discord server invite link: https://discord.gg/vNjEv9D 

And thank you to our editor EQUINOX for editing this episode. 

Bridgett’s Pet Pic Shout Out 

Tonight’s Pet Pic Shout Out is of Jackson Elias, the puppers of Targard and Bev in Stitches! He’s got his eyes on you… he’s seen beyond sight… he knows beyond knowing… and hims still the bestest boy! Love you Targard! 

Main Topic 

Welcome everyone to the Main Topic! Tonight we are discussing horror gaming ideas based on the culture, folklore, and history of Mexico! Previously we’ve touched on the idea of looking into specific cultures for inspiration for your horror gaming, like when we dove deep into the Depression-era Mississippi Delta in our two Sinners episodes with our guest Quinn Murphy. And we’ve talked about the ways that the idea of “madness” evolves and shifts across cultures and across time. 

And just to revisit a couple of general ground rules here when we start to play with the Mythos and horror and real-life cultures: 

1. The Mythos is not responsible for factual, historical evils that humans commit.
2. We don’t mess around with tropes of backwards tribes who worship the mythos because they haven’t been enlightened by white man.
3. The stories and mythologies of real-world cultures are not “secretly, actually” referring to Mythos entities.
4. We don’t do misery tourism.
5. Define and deny racial fetishizing

OK! So! Carlos, let’s dive in!

1. Cosmic perspective in a Mexican and Mexican American tradition
   1. Curanderismo: Mexican-American Folk Psychiatry by Ari Kiev
   2. Curanderismo: Mexican American Folk Healing, 2nd Ed. by Robert T Trotter II, Juan Antonio Chavira, Luís D León
   3. Daily Life of the Aztecs
   4. Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya
   5. Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Gracia
   6. Fever Dreams of a Parasite, Pedro Iniquez
2. Folklore from different populations and how to use them as a jump off point for Mythos horror 
3. Mesoamerican systems of writing and the almost near destruction of Mesoamerican texts 

Also – yesterday was Mexican Independence Day! And we are just now entering Hispanic Heritage Month. Happy coincidences!

Homework

Dear listener, tell us – have you dabbled in horror gaming inspired by Mexico? Where would you like our Study Abroad program to go in the future? Let us know on the Discord, channel ep-359.