The first inhabitants of America must have come from Siberia, from the extreme north of Asia, and entered the American continent during the last glaciation, which began 110,000 years ago and ended around 10,000 BP. They had a magical worldview, felt closely connected to nature, and expressed their way of thinking through various rituals, ceremonies, offerings, songs, melodies and dances, while the new environment prompted them to create traditions, cults, and myths about their origin. At the same time, the indigenous people of America introduced a pantheon of deities for each event, for each fact of their existence, hence demonstrating that although humans are different because they are mortals, they speak the same language as their deities and ask them for sustenance and protection. In Mesoamerica and the Andean region, there are groups that still perform ceremonies and rituals to honor different deities. The indigenous world of America has been sustained in a parallel dimension where magical traditions and rituals help people to adapt and survive in the modern world. However, the religious interference of the Catholic Church during the Spanish colonial period affected indigenous groups, even the most radical ones, and led to a syncretism based on a new understanding of traditions. Nowadays, people perform rituals in the same snow-capped mountains where their ancestors worshipped deities and communicated with them. Images of Christian saints and the liturgy conducted in temples built by the Catholic Church were combined with the magical ideas of the indigenous population about common origin and the world. Thus, Christian doctrine transformed by incorporating traditional beliefs and ceremonies of the indigenous peoples, as it is these rituals that help them live harmoniously.

The diversity and heterogeneity of onomastic concepts is a driving force behind research into anthroponymy, one of the most important areas of scientific knowledge. The art of studying and describing linguistic and extralinguistic characteristics by systematizing proper names, deserves the attention of linguists, ethnologists, culturologists, cognitive scientists, sociologists and other specialists. The anthroponym is a phenomenal component of the onym, a symbolic and unique construction, which is inextricably linked to a person’s outlook and ethnocultural world view. The proper name, whose functions include identification and differentiation, is a tool for self-understanding and recognizing one’s individuality. Anthroponymy, in turn, has an anthropological, historical, sociological and linguistic dimension and plays an important role in people’s understanding of their past and present. Until early eighties of the 20th century, onomastics was terra incognita for Ibero-Romance researchers, although the concept of anthroponymy was introduced in 1911 by the Portuguese ethnographer J. Leite de Vasconcelos Pereira de Melo, who pointed out that it was essential to study the multifaceted semantic content of Ibero-Romance personal names, patronymics and surnames. The semantics of the anthroponymic model involves cultural and historical characteristics typical of the current period, pinpoints telltale signs that the name bearer belongs to a certain social class, and contains information about local traditions or ideology. With that in mind, Russian and foreign researchers of the 21st century maintain that anthroponymy expands the boundaries of linguistics and has the potential to unite many humanities, as it provides a starting point to analyze particular aspects of various disciplines.

Traditional folktales are an essential part of the Spanish folklore heritage. Folktales have echoes of the ancient mythological worldview and people’s experience accumulated over centuries. In Spanish, the term cuento is used in combination with the following adjectives: cuento folclórico, cuento popular, cuento tradicional. The traditional features of a folktale include a concise prosaic form, fantastical elements, a special chronotope, static characters, a fixed composition, language rich in traditional elements and mnemonics. Animal tales are considered the most ancient, then other types of folktales arose. Spanish folklorists distinguish such genres as cuentos novelescos, cuentos maravillosos, cuentos humanos varios, chistes y anécdotas, cuentos ejemplares y morales, cuentos religiosos, cuentos de nunca acabar, cuentos de fórmulas fijas. Spanish researchers’ interest in folktales grew in the 19th century, when a substantial body of folklore was accumulated thanks to the work of costumbrists and positivists. The philological study of Spanish folktales begins with the collections of A.M. Espinosa. Animal tales, as well as magical ones, are similar to the texts of the European tradition. The former often have a plot derived from antiquity and medieval bestiaries, while the latter share a unique compositional structure analyzed by V. Propp. The language of Spanish folklore is rich in formulas. The initial formulas open the world of the folktale, the intermediate ones serve to develop the plot, and the final ones emphasize the fictional features of the story. Household tales highlight national peculiarities the most as they depict traditional Spanish occupations and details of everyday life, explore moral issues and popular humor.

National symbols, such as flags, coats of arms and holidays are an essential part of national identity and a fundamental tool for forging collective identity. Catalan intellectuals who participated in the Renaixença movement with a view to reviving the Catalan language and literature sought to establish Catalan national symbols in the second half of the 19th century, although it was not until 1920s that the symbols system of Catalan nationalism was fully developed. The symbols of the rich and diverse Catalan cultural heritage include the National Day of Catalonia, or Diada (September 11th), the senyera flag, the anthem «Els Segadors», the sardana dance, the traditional hat called the barretina, the Montserrat Abbey and mountain, the cult of Saint George. When Miguel Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship was established in Spain in 1923, restrictions were imposed on Catalan intellectuals, which affected their professional life and the development of the whole region. The situation changed in 1931 when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed and the country experienced a cultural boom. Following the victory in the Civil War of 1936–1939, Franco’s regime implemented a repressive policy towards Catalonia, its cultural autonomy, language and traditions. As a result of the measures taken to unify and centralize the state many Catalan symbols took on a tragic meaning. The democratic transition, the new cultural boom and the liberal discourse that dominates contemporary Spain marked a new stage in the evolution of Catalan symbols. The national symbols that emerged in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century are still important for Catalan society, its identity, historical and cultural heritage.

Since the first half of the 19th century, Russian theater appears to be genuinely drawn to Spanish dramaturgy, starting to convey the ideals of Spanish culture and incorporating Spanish mythologems. This intense and long-lasting passion for Spain can be attributed to the Russian culture seeking to acquire some of its features. Thus, Pedro Calderón’s play «The Surgeon of his honour», staged in 1830 by the great Russian actor Vasily Karatygin, was a manifestation of Russian «hispanophilia» in the 1820s, nurtured by the Russian Romantics’ interest in the revolutionary events in Spain. In the 1860s–1870s, during the era of liberal reforms initiated by Alexander II of Russia, performances based on the works of Lope de Vega resonated with the most pressing socio-political issues of Russia. In 1915, in the midst of World War I, Vsevolod Meyerhold staged Calderón’s play «The Constant Prince» which highlighted the world’s beauty and vulnerability. The success of Spanish comedies in the late 1930s and 1940s stood in stark contrast to the era of harsh trials. The directors of the second half of the 20th century sought to distance themselves as much as possible from the stereotypical way of staging Spanish performances that emerged in the USSR in the 1940s: Andrey Goncharov wanted to present Spain as a country of «dusty roads and braying donkeys», while Sergey Barkhin alluded to Spanish mannerism in Leonid Jeifets’ performance «Jealous of Herself». Consequently, the tradition of staging Spanish plays in Russian theaters manifested itself in attempts to go beyond the «popular» Spain, to find another Spain and new forms of portraying it on stage.

This paper analyzes the concepts of time and consciousness in three works by Jorge Luis Borges. In «The Garden of Forking Paths», the phenomenon of a rhizomorphic labyrinth produces a limitless net of times, forking, converging and parallel to each other. It supposes a huge series of events, developing and coming out simultaneously as a multiplicity of scenarios. Since such kind of a labyrinth has no primary vector, its every point can generally connect to any other point. That is why the inner novel, a world of pure fiction inserted by the author into the main story can interfere with the life of its main characters. «A New Refutation of Time» is at first glance supposed to prove in all possible ways the inexistence of time at the level of metaphysics. However, as a human being, Borges declares himself unable to oppose and resist its implacable course. The third work considered here, «The Rose of Paracelsus», is distant from «The garden of forking paths» as regards the time of publication; nonetheless, it helps to establish unexpected intertextual relations, while the representation of facts as a myth is among its highlights. The reality of creation and destruction constantly present in the work of Borges is described and interpreted as a series of events that occur in the course of time; hence the tale «The South» is also discussed from this point of view. Generally, the works examined emphasize the complexity of time as a multifaceted phenomenon and make the reader think about how unique every moment is.

Rodeo is considered an important national symbol in Chile. The evolution of this cultural phenomenon throughout history reveals that it has not always enjoyed the recognition it has today. The first rodeos in Chile were held in the second half of the 16th century, but this word used to have a different meaning at the time. In the colonial era of Spanish America, «rodeo» referred to herding cattle (derived from the verb rodear meaning «to surround»), a hard and dangerous task in the vast expanses of the New World. Four centuries later, on January 10, 1962, the Chilean Olympic Committee officially recognized rodeo as a national sport that nowadays means a lot more to Chileans than a mere spectacle. Reflecting on how and why Chilean society, especially the intellectual elite, changed its attitude towards rural life helps to understand the fundamental characteristics of Chilean national identity. In the late 19th and early 20th century, when Chilean society sought national self-determination, criollista writers turned their attention to rural life and found that the huaso rider, the protagonist of the rodeo, embodied Chilean ethnotypic spirit. The idealized image of the Chilean cowboy, born on the pages of books and immortalized in early 20th-century cinema, resonated with different strata of society. Today rodeo, which used to be a key element of everyday life in Central Chile, has become part of the entire country’s intangible cultural heritage and a significant symbol of the Chilean nation, which began to take shape in times of the Conquest.

In Colombia and Peru, national music and national musical instruments are essential elements of cultural heritage, yet their importance goes beyond culture. The promotion of national musical instruments also pursues the two countries’ social, economic and political development goals. Traditional music, shaped in Colombia and Peru by the customs of indigenous peoples, African rhythms and the legacy of the Spanish Empire, embodies the rich history and culture of the indigenous peoples, helps to preserve traditions and national identity. The study seeks to answer the following questions related to the development and implementation of national instruments in Colombia and Peru: what are the key features of the national instruments in these countries? How are they developed and implemented? What are the challenges and opportunities arising from using them? How do they contribute to achieving the two countries’ development goals? The popularization of national music and musical instruments fosters the feeling of belonging and social cohesion, promotes tourism and plays an important role in education. Music is also related to political processes, as it has become an element of electoral campaigns and a factor to be taken into account when elaborating a national policy on culture and tourism. At the same time, the promotion of music and national instruments poses a number of challenges, including insufficient state funding, lack of official structures to promote local traditions, social and political barriers. Still, music is of paramount importance for Colombia and Peru: musical instruments are not only part of the entertainment industry but also national symbols that harmonize development and cultivate cultural pride.

The synchronic analysis of the contemporary cultural life in the Latin American communicative community shows that the art of embroidery, traditionally transmitted from generation to generation mainly by women, undergoes significant changes in terms of values. Embroidery has come to be perceived not as an applied art but as one of the fine arts as it has evolved from a simple decorative process toward the transmission of meanings, emotions, and ideas through methods of working with fabrics and threads specific to a particular nation. Since the second half of the 20th century, the «intimate» art of embroidery has become collective. It has spread beyond people’s homes to be practiced in garment workshops, hence fostering a space of communication between artisans and allowing them to work together, in unison. The public space created around embroidery gradually goes beyond workshops and begins to embrace broader sectors, encouraging numerous dialogues, namely those between seamstresses and authorities, between artisans from different workshops, from different towns, cities and countries. By exposing injustice and the denial of human rights embroidery has become an international instrument of social and political struggle. The authors of this study examine embroidery within the framework of Latin American artivism and define it as a traditional form of protest art in the region. The diachronic analysis of Latin American embroidery of the past century is instrumental in shedding new light on certain events of regional history. Thus, embroidery has become an invaluable encyclopedia of people’s heroism in their struggle against inequality and oppression.

Book review: Catlos B.А. Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Muslim Spain. – Moscow: Medina ID, 2024. – 608 p.

The Muslim period in the history of Spain is mostly associated with Moorish art and the brutal but just Reconquista that culminated with the fall of Muslim Granada. However, the book «Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Muslim Spain» by B. Catlos tells a very different story of the Muslim Spain known as al-Andalus. The author intends to offer a new vision of the Arab-Berber conquest of Spain with readers who might not be closely familiar with this period, focusing on the sociocultural interaction of the religious communities that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula at the time. The work combines well-known and little-known historical facts into a single narrative line that encapsulates nine centuries of Iberian history, from the Muslim conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom in 711 to the expulsion of the Moriscos (Muslims converted to Catholicism) from Spain in 1614. This is a review of a book that reconsiders common myths about the Arab-Muslim state of al-Andalus, Reconquista and the phenomenon of convivencia.