Students learned about Venezuelan culture last Thursday night through food, lecture, and film.

Sigma Delta Pi and the Spanish department organized the event, which included arepa — cornmeal cake — cooking classes, and a screening of an excerpt from the documentary “The Twilight of Magical Socialism.” After the documentary, Associate Professor of Spanish Víctor Carreño spoke about his experience escaping Venezuela.

“Hillsdale College has students from 14 foreign countries and some faculty members are from foreign countries as well,” Víctor Carreño said. “Therefore, it is very important for the Hillsdale College community to learn firsthand about the culture of different countries.”

Víctor Carreño began the event translating for his wife, María Eugenia de Carreño, while she taught the cooking classes. 

“Gastronomy serves as a gateway to understanding a country’s history, so people could learn about Venezuelan history through its cuisine,” he said. 

Through the class, students learned  Venezuelan culinary arts firsthand. 

“My favorite thing about the event was seeing the Carreños share their culture and their food,” junior Rachel Schroder said. “Watching Mrs. Carreño prepare each dish gave me goosebumps.” 

After the cooking classes, students learned about the darker parts of Venezuela, watching the excerpt from a film which focused on the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and listening to Carreño’s account of life there. 

“The documentary ‘The Twilight of Magical Socialism,’ by Michele Calabresi, and my personal experience allowed me to show the audience the collapse of the economy and the increase in the poverty rate under Maduro’s socialism,” he said.

Carreño said he wanted those attending to fully understand the oppression of the Venezuelan regime as well as the necessity of protecting democracy in this nation.  

“In Venezuela there is a totalitarian regime that has been in power for 25 years. This regime did not seize control of the country overnight,” Carreño said. “Only a minority could see that we were losing the democratic freedoms that we had during the second half of the 20th century, but when most of the people understood what was at stake, it was too late to react against it.”

One of the biggest difficulties of his move to America was convincing others of the dangerous circumstances in Venezuela. 

“It was really challenging to survive, to leave the country, and to convince people outside of Venezuela of our real situation,” Carreño said.

But through this event, many students got to hear his story.   

“It was sobering to hear firsthand how horrible living under socialism truly is. I can hardly imagine how families could survive on just a few dollars a month,” Schroder said. “No one should have to scrimmage through trash to find a bite to eat.”  

His firsthand account made the stories personal for the students. 

“It was tough to hear the struggles that pushed him out of the country,” sophomore Avery Nowowiejski said. “But I am thankful that he is here at Hillsdale and that we can learn from him.”

Carreño said the night was a success and he was grateful to Sigma Delta Pi and the Spanish department for organizing it. 

“We faced desperate situations, and we are very grateful for being in the United States, many people were not able to escape political persecution and extreme poverty,” he said. “I think the audience understood the importance of defending democracy after hearing my testimony.”