Coffee, music and a little history kicked off Brazilian Culture Week.

The Brazil Coffeehouse took place in the International House Great Room Monday night with culture lovers gathering to take a peek into Brazilian culture.

The event included a screening of the hour-long documentary, “From Samba to Bossa,” a film that depicts the country’s culture through native music. This three-part series revealed the story behind the styles and musicians of Brazilian music over the years, from the country’s slavery era to the ’60s. Though only part-one was shown, that didn’t stop the video from grasping the audience’s attention.

Jennyfer Gomez, sophomore in Latin American studies, is studying Portuguese, Brazil’s primary language, and enjoyed learning about the culture outside of the classroom.

“I thought that it was really interesting the way it showed the connection with the music and the culture and the history of Brazil,” Gomez said. “I really liked the video. I thought it was really interesting how it touched the key points about Brazil’s culture.”

Gomez plans on attending more of the Brazilian events this week to continue learning.

“I am really into the arts and culture, so this is the perfect way to learn about it,” Gomez said.

John Stewart, a senior in geology, also felt he learned a lot from the video along with discovering the beauty of Portuguese.

“I think that Portuguese is a beautiful language,” Stewart said. “The music was beautiful, and the women (were) beautiful as well.”

Professor Wanessa Martin is a native Brazilian and teaches Portuguese. She thought that this event would be a great way to expose Brazil’s culture to her students.

“When you teach a language, it’s not only just the language but the culture,” Martin said. “Teaching culture is part of our curriculum and music is something (Brazilians) love. My students, when I give them songs to listen to, they always mention in the evaluation that they enjoy the music the most.”

Martin helped select both the night’s presentation and the film.

“I thought, maybe show some history of the music because my students love the music and the rhythm of it,” Martin said. “So I think these documentaries are very interesting. I have seen three of them, and I thought this would be a great introduction for them to understand why music is so important in Brazilian culture and what it all means to our people and culture. And how the periods of history and how everything is interconnected and the music is developed there.”