Attendees at Recetas con Amor paint while enjoying Latin American food and drinks Oct. 3 in Salón Cassia on the Brownsville campus. Azenett Valdez/THE RIDER
UTRGV continued to observe Hispanic Heritage Month with Recetas con Amor, an event in which students learned about and ate different foods from Latin American countries.
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
“I am super excited for students to learn a little bit more about Latin American countries,” said Raul Leal, program coordinator for the Center for Student Involvement at UTRGV.
Leal said the food at the event was delicious and believes students also enjoyed the food at the event.
“We have brought three restaurants … today,” he said about the event held Oct. 3 in Salón Cassia on the Brownsville campus. “La Garrafa, with a Jalisco-style ice cream. We also brought Que Chevere, with the Venezuelan food, and Cafe Canasto, with the Colombian food.”
Leal added that food can connect people to other cultures and others.
“When we were coming up with the theme of the event, we really wanted to think about what makes us feel at home and a big thing for me and for our students working in the event was comfort food,” he said. “Food is that unique thing that binds and connects people together.”
Each station at the event had recipes for attendees to learn how to make a dish from a specific country. Leal said if he could keep one dish from the event it would be the Jalisco-style ice cream.
He said he hopes students feel included and represented with the event even though some may not be from the three countries.
“Students who are a little bit more outgoing can have fun and engage with the music and for people who are more quiet, like myself, [they] can color and paint,” Leal said. “So, there’s different things for students to do.”
Luis Aguillon, a biomedical sciences sophomore, was among the students who attended the event.
“It’s very good,” Aguillon said. “It’s very good to have free food.”
He found out about the event from some girls at the Student Union who were advertising it.
Aguillon said the event is helpful for the students to take a break for their day-to-day routines.
“I think it is very important to keep promoting Hispanic Heritage Month since I am a Hispanic myself,” Aguillon said.
He hopes to attend the event next year as well. He recommends other students attend to have fun, but also hopes next year it will be even bigger.
Javier Rodriguez, a computer science sophomore, also attended the event.
“I like to see people sharing these types of moments,” Rodriguez said.
He said at first he was not sure about attending but saw it as a good opportunity to eat and try new foods from different countries.
“The empanadas were some of the best foods in the event, especially the one with chicken,” Rodriguez said.
He said it is important for people to be connected to their roots, especially in the Rio Grande Valley and U.S. since they may not always have access to certain foods or ingredients.
“People were very nice; everyone was super friendly, especially the people working in the event,” Rodriguez said. “They took the time to answer your questions.”
He would like to attend the event next year and recommended that all students make an effort to do so, too.
One addition Rodriguez said he would make to the event would be including aguas frescas or tamales.
Recetas con Amor also took place Oct. 5 in the University Ballroom on the Edinburg campus.
