Conexiones Spain

Students sitting on top of very large wood carved yellow block letters spelling Caceres

The University of New Mexico, through the Honors College and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, presents Conexiones- an intensive program of Culture and Language study at UNM and the field site, Cáceres (Extremadura). Conexiones offers students up to twelve semester hours' credit, with two orientation sessions at UNM and thirty days of field session.

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2025 Recruitment Video

Learn more about the summer 2025 study abroad program to Spain.

Conexiones Program History

Conexiones is an intensive Spanish language and culture study abroad program. Conexiones began in 1985 and has since become a premier language study program at the University of New Mexico.

Program Philosophy

Conexiones immerses students in the living, breathing reality of Spanish-speaking society. The main theme of the program is the connections between the U.S. Southwest and the host country, with emphasis on the local regions with strong historical and cultural connections to New Mexico.

The key to the Conexiones approach is integration. Intellectual, linguistic, and personal growth are seen as a unified process. The program is designed to expedite that process.

The support groups are a unique feature of Conexiones. These groups emphasize personal growth and help students to understand culture shock as a positive (if sometimes uncomfortable) growth experience.

Requirements

Applicants must have a minimum of 3.2 GPA. Students with a lower GPA may apply since all applications will be considered individually and exceptions may be made. Students with “Degree status” and “Non-degree status” can apply. Students must be able to enter a 200-level Spanish class, minimum. Once students are accepted to the program, they will be required to complete preparation materials, relevant to the country of excursion.

Conexiones offers students an extraordinary and unique experience.  Students will live with a host family in Cáceres, a city whose history and architecture represents in itself the history of Spain (from Iberians and Romans, Moors and Christians, to the famous Spanish nightlife and modern architecture). Students will attend Spanish classes at the Universidad de Extremadura's Instituto de Lenguas Modernas in downtown Cáceres. Weekly excursions are part of the program, including the visit to the medieval city of Trujillo and the Roman city of Mérida, the medieval town and monastery of Guadalupe and a day in the sister city of Alburquerque, with a visit to its medieval castle.

4 students smiling while sitting around a table

SUMMER 2025 IMPORTANT TRAVEL DATES
Travel to Spain: Thursday, May 29, 2025
Field Study in Spain: May 30- June 29, 2025
Travel Back to New Mexico: Sunday, June 29th or stay later and travel back independently


HOW TO APPLY

Applying to Conexiones Spain is easy! Attend an informational meeting on November 20, 2025 at 2pm in the Honors College Forum. All aspects of the program will be reviewed during these informational sessions. If you are unable to attend, email Dr. Gómez (myrriahg@unm.edu) and express your interest.

Once accepted into the program, you will complete the application form on the UNM Global Education Office website.
  • Click here to to fill out the application.
  • Application Deadline: Friday, February 21, 2025, 5:00 p.m.

Students accepted into the program will need to register with the Global Education Office and follow their procedures for providing the necessary documentation (copies of passports, health insurance, etc). 

caceres at night, old spanish city

 

Tickets/Airfare

Students travel to Spain at their own expense. Due to the rising costs of airline travel and to the fact that group discounts have been reduced, Conexiones is now encouraging students to find their own best airfare. We will provide recommendations, but students are responsible for making their own travel arrangements. We will also try to facilitate students traveling together. In order to ensure that you have made your reservation in a timely way, we will require that you provide a copy of your ticket or e-ticket by the date in the spring that will be communicated to you.

Room and Board

Part of the immersive experience in Conexiones is living with a host family. We work with our partners at the Universidad de Extremadura to house students with local families. The cost of room and board is included in the program fees.


student posing with a fake sword in front of a castle

 

A passport is required for traveling to Spain. Applicants who are U.S. citizens do not need a visa for a six-week stay. We encourage students to use the Passport Office on campus. For other ways to apply for a passport visit the U.S. Department of State's website. 

The Study Abroad office offers a GEO passport scholarship which supports the cost of students obtaining a passport. See if you are eligible here.

All students are required to have accident and medical insurance coverage for the duration of the program. The Global Education Office at UNM has information regarding insurance.

The program directors will also provide information on insurance.

Scholarships

Study abroad is a transformative experience for students and the honors college wants to help support as many students travel abroad as possible. Here are resources to help students secure scholarships for study abroad opportunities: https://studyabroad.unm.edu/getting-started/funding-and-scholarships.html

moon in spain at dusk over old spanish rooftop

 

COURSEWORK

Students taking Conexiones sign up for two Honors seminars (UHON 301 and UHON 401) and two Spanish courses (SPAN 301 and a UEx course) for a maximum total of 12 credit hours over the summer semester. Conexiones students attend small Spanish intensive classes and lectures in Spanish taught by faculty from the Universidad de Extremadura. Experiential assignments in Spanish dovetail with work in the Honors culture study course. Students will be required to complete pre-departure assignments in their Cuadernito.

arched stone passageway

UNM COURSES

UHON 301-030: SEM: Time, Space, and Culture (3 credits) Instructor: Margo Chávez-Charles

This course is an in-depth examination of Spanish culture and history and it is experientially based. It features investigative assignments to be completed in Caceres, and during the field trips within Extremadura. The richness of Cáceres's history and all the ages of its architecture make the culture study a unique experience in which students learn in the field the connections of time, space and culture of Spain’s past and present. Requirements for this class include field study in Spain with completion of Cuaderno activities. In addition, pre-departure, students will read several articles in order to complete work in the "Cuadernito" that will be submitted on arrival in Spain.

UHON 401: SEM: Conexiones Spain (3 credits) Instructor: Dr. Myrriah Gómez 

This course is part of a summer study abroad program taught in Cáceres, Spain. Students will live and study in Cáceres for the first four weeks of this course and complete the second four weeks online. Conexiones Spain explores the history of colonialism in Spain’s history. During this course we visit various cities in the Extremadura region of Spain, discuss the various social groups that occupied the region, and examine the social and political constructions of race, gender, language, and religion, specifically. We then move to discuss Spanish settler colonialism of the Americas so as to examine the historical relationship between oppressors and resisters and the development of contemporary society, particularly in New Mexico. We will investigate Spanish and Indigenous perspectives, in particular, to analyze the effects of settler colonialism in New Mexico. This will ask us to reflect on changes in and to Cáceres and Extremadura as well as New Mexico. This course requires students to interrogate their social position as a University of New Mexico student studying in Spain to critically reflect on their identity and social position.

SPAN 301: Hablantes Conectados: Speech Acts in Action (3 credits) Instructor: Dr. Damián Wilson Vergara   

This class will take a look at how speakers use language in order to accomplish interactive goals and co-create meaning in conversation. This class enhances our capabilities as Spanish speakers and raises questions as to what is the nature of language. Students will analyze the language used in the host culture and will focus on intentionality and sociolinguistics. Aside from learning a new perspective on language, the overarching goal is to interact with our host culture and understand it on a deeper level in order to better integrate into it.

ruins of an ancient bull fighting ring

La Universidad de Extremadura Courses

200-level SPANISH ABROAD
Profesora: TBA

Objectives: This course takes into account the abilities and needs of the student, with the principal objective of the course being to help the student to communicate from the very first days; to accomplish this, the student will learn to understand oral and written texts, to discover the grammar and vocabulary, and to speak about their likes, their lives, and their world.

300-level SPANISH ESPAÑA EN SU CULTURA
Profesor: TBA 
Objectives: The course España en su Cultura is a journey through Spanish culture in its different expressions. It deals with, on one hand, culture “with a little c”, essential so the learner can reach a certain level of cultural awareness to help in understanding the functioning of Spanish society and to negotiate within it. In addition, the course presents a wide and varied vision of Culture “with a capital C”, that is, in its various artistic and scientific manifestations which can help to explain and define the particular characteristics of the Spanish people.

400-level CONTEMPORARY SPANISH LITERATURE
Profesor: TBA
Objectivos: Esta asignatura supone un acercamiento a la literatura hispánica contemporánea a través de varios textos representativos. El objetivo no es que el alumno acumule conocimientos de un modo enciclopédico, sino que adquiera un panorama general sobre la literatura hispánica contemporánea y, sobre todo, que alcance el sentido profundo de los textos que se trabajen en clase, cuya selección se ha realizado atendiendo a todos los géneros literarios.

Margo Chavez-Charles, older woman

Margo Chávez-Charles, Co-Director
margocc2126@yahoo.com

Margo was an instructor in the Honors College for more than twenty years. She continues to work with the Conexiones Program, having worked with Conexiones Spain since its inception in 1995, serving as either Program Director or Co-director. She has also worked with the Conexiones programs in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Ecuador. Her special interests include language teaching and learning, and intercultural communication. She holds a Bachelor's degree from New Mexico State University (English) and Master's degrees from the School for International Training in Vermont and from St. John's College in Santa Fe. 

photo_damian.jpg

Damián Vergara Wilson, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

damianvw@unm.edu

Damián Vergara Wilson (Ph.D. University of New Mexico) is the coordinator of the Sabine Ulibarrí Spanish as a Heritage Language Program. His main areas of research and teaching are historical linguistics, sociolinguistics and sociology of language. One of his chief goals is to use these areas of study to support and inform the field of teaching of Spanish as a heritage language in the Southwest. A second goal is to advance research that examines the utility of usage-based theories of linguistic representation as accounting for language change and variation.  He also applies a combination of his expertise as an expert witness in federal court cases involving bilingual interactions with police that result in miscommunications and ambiguity.

Photo of Myrriah Gomez

Myrriah Gómez, Assistant Professor 
myrriahg@unm.edu

Dr. Myrriah Gómez, prior to joining the Honors College, was an Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Mexico – Gallup. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from New Mexico Highlands University and a Master’s degree from the University of New Mexico. She earned her Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in Latina/o Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2014.

  • "Conexiones was an invaluable immersive experience for me. I learned a lot about Spanish language and culture that I wouldn't have if I stayed in the U.S. Participating in Conexiones helped me develop as a language learner and to become more comfortable adapting to new sociocultural environments."
  • "Conexiones was an amazing way of being integrated into the culture and history of Spain. Living in Caceres was such a rich experience and I enjoyed being among the locals. It was the perfect way to spend my summer and I will treasure the memories and the relationships I made!" 
  • "Conexiones was my first experience traveling abroad, it allowed me to experience the country in a way traveling wouldn't have allowed. I got to live with an amazing host family and explore and learn about the local area. It gave me an appreciation for traveling since I've had many adventures!"