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Lindsey Wilson University Spanish Department Builds Community with Food, Conversation

Students and faculty meet, greet and eat over homemade Spanish dishes.

by Duane Bonifer

COLUMBIA, Ky. (09/04/2026) — The tastes and sounds of Spanish culture were on display during the Thursday, Sept. 3, lunch hours in Lindsey Wilson University's Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center Board Room.

The university's Spanish program hosted a lunch with homemade Spanish food, compliments of Spanish professor Lorena Andueza.

While appealing to students' culinary cravings, the purpose of the event, which is held a couple of times each semester, is to encourage students to mix together while conversing in Spanish. And the event is not held exclusively for the university's Spanish majors and minors or students enrolled in Spanish classes.

"The idea is getting students together who don't normally interact with one another," said Spanish professor Derek Kotter. "It's open to Spanish majors, people in Spanish classes and people interested in Spanish. And everyone is encouraged to bring friends."

Andueza said the event is a great way for new Lindsey Wilson students, especially those whose native language is Spanish, to discover a support community.

"The idea is to come, try the food and speak in Spanish while interacting a little bit with each other," she said. "It also welcomes our newest students and lets them know there is a community here to support them."

The event was also a way to preview National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated annually from Sept. 15-Oct. 15.

Thursday's menu featured tortilla de patata and tortilla de patata con cebolla (tortilla with potatoes, and tortilla with potatoes and onions); empanadas gallega (empanadas with savory beef, peppers and onions); and tarta de queso vasca (a rich and slightly decadent Basque cheesecake, whose defining characteristic is a browned top that borders on being burnt).

"I cook what I know how to cook, more or less," said Andueza.

The gathering was also a cultural education as students learned that a Spanish tortilla resembles an omelet packed with potatoes rather than the kind of tortilla one might expect to encounter at an American restaurant.

And as Andueza explained, there is great debate within Spain as to whether it is permissible for a tortilla de patata to include onions, which turns it into a tortilla de patata con cebolla.

"The country is divided on that," said Andueza, who is a native of northern Spain. "They are fanatics about it."

But when pressed to name which version she prefers, Andueza embraced a Swiss approach.

"I like both," she said. "But the one with onion is a little bit sweeter, because that is what the onion adds."

No matter which side of the Spanish tortilla debate one chose, students agreed that the food was good. All of the dishes were gone well before the two-hour event was scheduled to conclude.

Lindsey Wilson University is a vibrant liberal arts university in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson offers 30 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The university's 29 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.

Media Attachments

Lindsey Wilson University human services and counseling major Fernanda Aleman ’27 of Tompkinsville, Kentucky, left, who is a Spanish minor, samples a tortilla de patata prepared by Spanish professor Lorena Andueza during the Spanish Department’s lunch on Thursday, Sept. 3, in the university’s Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center Board Room.

Lindsey Wilson University Spanish professors Derek Kotter, left, and Lorena Andueza chat with business graduate student David Requejo Hernández of Villamayor, Spain, as he enjoys a tortilla de patata prepared by Andueza during the Spanish Department’s lunch on Thursday, Sept. 3, in the university’s Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center Board Room.

A Spanish tortilla de patata (tortilla with potatoes), which resembles an American omelet, prepared by Lindsey Wilson University Spanish professor Lorena Andueza for the Spanish Department’s lunch on Thursday, Sept. 3, in the university’s Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center Board Room.

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