When it comes to visiting the Mexican capital, rife with world-class cuisine, museums and an endless amount of day trips within driving distance, pinballing might not be at the top of your list. And maybe it shouldn’t be. But, if like me, you enjoy discovering the many different angles of communities and subcommunities across Mexico, then you might enjoy a day in Mexico City through the eyes of an avid pinballer.
For starters, you can visit Pinball México, the country’s only official pinball distributor and private showroom — at least according to them. Located in Polanco, the small room is hidden within a larger coworking office building that you’ll need to have an appointment to get into. Just reach out to Pinball México in advance, and they’ll be happy to let you in.
Once inside, you’ll be able to tap into your inner 1980s and ‘90s child by playing four different machines all imported from Stern Pinball in Chicago, one of the most prominent pinball manufacturers in the world. Neon lighting and quirky comic book aesthetics give the extremely tiny showroom its outsized character and vibrancy, and someone will attend to your needs and answer your questions.
Pinball México is run by a group of Mexican pinball aficionados who sell, operate and fix machines in addition to hosting off-site tournaments by supplying machines from their abundantly-stocked warehouse, which is tucked away outside of the city. According to them, it’s the only one of its kind in the city and in the entire country. In my lifetime of visiting family members throughout Mexico, I don’t recall ever seeing a space strictly dedicated to celebrating and selling pinball machines, so I don’t doubt it.
Though it lacks the sheer volume of a real arcade, the spirit and soul of Pinball México is vibrant and inviting for an afternoon visit. Strolling around Chapultepec park, walking distance from the showroom, doesn’t hurt, either, and Pinball México is around the corner from the excellent Taquería El Turix, which specializes in Yucatecan dishes.
Currently, this pinball haven has four brand new pinball machines for use: “John Wick,” “Venom,” “Godzilla” and “Jaws.” Everything is digitized, so you don’t need physical pesos to play. Instead, you download a quick app and set up your account before using a QR code to connect to any machine and launch gameplay. 100 pesos gets you a half hour, and though you don’t need coins to play, they will charge you in cash upon entering.
Pinball’s popularity was at its global height from the 1950s to the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, when newer video games and other technologies began to outpace the analog pleasures of yore. Though Mexico has never been particularly known for pinballing, Italian pinball manufacturer Zaccaria once paid tribute to the nation with “Mexico 86,” a classic pinball machine based on the 1986 World Cup, which Mexico hosted.
The game features a stereotyped rendition of Mexico — Aztec patterns, sombreros and an attractive Mexican woman inside of a soccer ball — over a soccer field backdrop. Though it’s unclear when pinball itself arrived in Mexico, it never fully took off in the way it did throughout the United States. But it has some roots here, and despite being miniscule, there is a map of where to play pinball in the sprawling metropolis of 22 million.
If traditional pinball isn’t really your thing, you can also nerd out by visiting the Museo Banco de México, a museum about the country’s central bank located across the street from the Palacio de Bellas Artes and near the entrance of Torre Latinoamericana. There, you’ll find a surprising pinball-adjacent beauty known as “Dual Coincidence.”
Commissioned by the museum in 2021, Andy Cavortorta — who holds a Masters degree from MIT and owns an arts studio in Brooklyn — designed and assembled what may be “the world’s most complex electromechanical game.” “Dual Coincidence” resembles a pinball machine on steroids in terms of its functionality and presentation, but is meant to simulate economic concepts to museum visitors with its five-player gaming system in which users trade resources with the use of interactive pinballs. As if that weren’t enough, the game is inspired by “2001: A Space Odyssey.” If it sounds like a lot, that’s because it kind of is.
But who knows? Maybe it’ll bring out the secret pinball player in you.
Alan Chazaro is the author of “This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album,” “Piñata Theory” and “Notes From the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge” (Ghost City Press, 2021). He is a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and a former Lawrence Ferlinghetti Fellow at the University of San Francisco. His writing can be found in GQ, NPR, The Guardian, L.A. Times and more. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, he is currently based in Veracruz.
