This week, students from the University of Texas at El Paso gathered at the Blumberg Auditorium to reflect on their summer trip to Spain as part of the ongoing Cultural Lecture Series taking place through the weeklong International Cultural Festival.

Hector Enriquez, a Spanish professor at UTEP, and Guillermina Gina Nunez-Mchiri, a sociology and anthropology professor, gave students who they took to Seville, Spain the spotlight, to speak about their video projects and overall experience traveling abroad.

The lecture was called “Re-encountering the History and Cultural Impacts of the Columbian Exchange: Student documentaries of Study Abroad in Spain.”

Brian Flores, a sophomore majoring in general business, started off the lecture by presenting his video project on nutrition in Spain. He talked about “tapas,” a traditional dish of the Mediterranean country, and its nutritional value as many of Seville’s citizens consumed it as a daily part of their diet.

“I tried to incorporate my experience, and I just really loved tapas,” Flores said. “One day, we found a place with 2-euro tapas and we ordered like twelve and just tried all the different ones they had.”

According to Marco Mendoza, a junior psychology major, a typical day after class in Seville included “lots of walking, being social, interacting with strangers or talking to people you didn’t know and making friends.”

Each summer, Enriquez and Nunez-Mchiri take students to a city in Spain, where they will then focus on a certain topic to complete a video project in regards to their education.

“We have a lot of similarities with Spain, and many of the people, don’t know where their roots come from,” said Enriquez.

The International Cultural Lecture series will continue on Thursday and Friday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.