Señor, Señor - Bob Dylan and The Myths & Legends of Spanish America ‘Senor, Senor, can you tell me where we’re heading?’ implores Dylan as he introduces his allegory on Post Vietnam America by articulating fundamental questions about the Nation’s contemporary identity, haunted by the specter of a violent past. Although the song draws on multiple historical allusions, it is embedded in the rich iconographic landscape of Spanish America which is a recurrent theme in his work. The Spanish America imagined and reinvented by Dylan embraces many forms. At its core, it reveals him as a cultural historian, revisiting the characters, legends, places and scenes which are etched across the ‘Manifest Destiny’ of the United States. This is an America in which the Border, the Frontier and The South are never far away. Dylan’s journey through the land’s Spanish roots raises seminal questions around ethnicity and cultural identity, which continue to resonate in our troubled times. The lecture seeks to focus on four songs; Billy, Romance in Durango, Senor and Brownsville Girl, contextualized within the mosaic of references around the construction of Spanish America, which cut across Dylan’s work, from Spanish Harlem Incident on ‘Another Side of Bob Dylan’ to the spirit of the Mexican border which infuses and envelops ‘Together Through Life’. Each of these songs makes potent use of the characters, locations and stereotypes which shape and define the Spanish American legacy in the United States. The study seeks to provide a detailed analysis of these four songs as pivotal examples of Dylan’s penchant for exploring many of the myths and legends of the symbiosis between Spanish America and the United States. Dr. Jim O’Brien, Barcelona, July 2017 This event will take place at Bookstop,19 rue Victor Hugo, 24310 Brantome in the sculpture riverside garden. There will be the possibility to take refreshments during the interval. The contact details follow: email: bookstop24@gmail.com, telephone: 09 51 45 57 49.