As an alternative to the current digital video game market, students at Belmont Senior High School in Los Angeles, California created their own.  Tropical America is a free online game, created by students, that explores Latin American history.  The project was funded by a media grant from the Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts. 
 
Throughout the project, which took two years to complete, students at Belmont High School, with a largely Latino student population, explored their own histories.  With assistance from local artists and arts organizations, students studied new media and demonstrated how they wanted to represent themselves with the tools, creating their own archetypal characters and narratives for a digital game.
 
The project was pioneered out of a recognized need to connect Latin American students to their own history and to share that history with others.  The completed free digital game is accessible online and can be played by students everywhere. The game promises to be an engaging and informative learning tool for everyone.
 
To access the game, visit http://www.tropicalamerica.com/.  For more information about this project and other endeavors through new media to bridge the digital divide, educate students and enrich our world, visit the Digital Divide Network at http://www.digitaldivide.org/.