Every time my extended family gets together (we don’t play it with my nuclear family) we have to play dominoes. The general rules are that you start off, everyone takes eleven pieces from the piles, you put it in the middle, theres this little board we made (a little cardboard octagon that you put the piece in the middle and it points at the people playing the game). Whoever goes first has to start their own train — you have one domino where one half of it matches whatever the starting piece was. Each person does this then you have to add to your train with matching ends. If you can’t add you eat from the pile and people yell “Neccesitas comer”. The point of the game is to get rid of all your pieces. You can open a public train to add to to. If you can’t add to your own, any one can add to yours. Everyone has a literal plastic train that you put on your train when it is open. When you have the last piece, you have to say “Ultimo” or you have to eat.

We’ve only ever played during holidays and when friends come over. My family is not very happy, but when we play that game everyone is happy and there is food. Good memories.

I think that the ‘train’ rhetoric and the very act of playing dominoes MIGHT be related to Mexican culture in the sense of they represent wealth in a way, but more importantly I think it brings multiple people (at least 8) together (which makes sense for big Mexican families). Her family used to be two rival families, so maybe it was a way of bringing them together.