Editing Jorge Luis Borges (section)

===Multicultural influences===
At the time of the [[Argentine Declaration of Independence]] in 1816, the population was predominantly ''[[Criollo people|criollo]]'' (of Spanish ancestry). From the mid-1850s on, waves of immigration from Europe, especially Italy and Spain, arrived in the country, and in the following decades the Argentine national identity diversified.<ref Name="LRB"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1990/1/90.01.06.x.html|last1=Velez |first1=Wanda |date=1990 |title=South American Immigration: Argentina |publisher=Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute |work=The Autobiographical Mode in Latin American Literature |series=Volume I |access-date=24 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906012123/http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1990/1/90.01.06.x.html |archive-date= Sep 6, 2011 }}</ref> Borges was writing in a strongly European literary context, immersed in Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]] and [[Old Norse language|Old Norse]] literature. He also read translations of Near Eastern and Far Eastern works. Borges's writing is also informed by scholarship of [[Christianity]], Buddhism, [[Islam]], and [[Judaism]], including prominent religious figures, heretics, and mystics.<ref Name="Fiction">[http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exbelbor.html Bell-Villada, Gene, ''Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art''], University of Texas Press; {{ISBN|978-0-292-70878-5}}.</ref> Religion and heresy are explored in such stories as "[[Averroes's Search]]", "[[The Writing of the God]]", "[[The Theologians]]", and "[[Three Versions of Judas]]". The curious inversion of mainstream Christian concepts of [[Redemption (theology)|redemption]] in the last story is characteristic of Borges's approach to theology in his literature.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Jorge Luis Borges|last=Stabb|first=Martin S.|publisher=Twayne Publishers, Inc.|year=1970|location=New York|pages=99–100}}</ref> In describing himself, Borges said, "I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors."<ref name="profile">[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/10/jorgeluisborges Jorge Luis Borges profile], guardian.co.uk, 22 July 2008; accessed 15 August 2010.</ref> As a young man, he visited the frontier ''[[pampas]]'' which extend beyond Argentina into [[Uruguay]] and [[Brazil]]. Borges said that his father wished him "to become a citizen of the world, a great cosmopolitan," in the way of [[Henry James|Henry]] and [[William James]].{{sfn|Williamson|2004|p=53}}

Borges lived and studied in Switzerland and Spain as a young student. As Borges matured, he traveled through Argentina as a lecturer and, internationally, as a visiting professor; he continued to tour the world as he grew older, finally settling in [[Geneva]], where he had spent some of his youth. Drawing on the influence of many times and places, Borges's work belittled nationalism and racism.<ref name="Butterflies" /> However, Borges also scorned his own [[Basques|Basque]] ancestry and criticised the abolition of [[slavery]] in America because he believed black people were happier remaining uneducated and without freedom.<ref>(in Spanish) Rodolfo Braceli (1996) "Borges", in: ''Caras, Caritas y Caretas''. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. {{ISBN|0-7910-7872-8}}.</ref> Portraits of diverse coexisting cultures characteristic of Argentina are especially pronounced in the book ''Six Problems for don Isidoro Parodi'' (co-authored with Bioy Casares) and ''[[Death and the Compass]]''. Borges wrote that he considered Mexican writer [[Alfonso Reyes]] to be "the best prose-writer in the Spanish language of any time."<ref>Borges, ''Siete Noches'', p. 156</ref> Borges was also an admirer of Asian culture, e.g. the ancient Chinese board game of [[Go (game)|Go]], about which he penned some verses,<ref>{{cite web|title=El Go|url=http://gobase.org/reading/stories/?id=12|publisher=GoBase|access-date=26 August 2011}}</ref> while "[[The Garden of Forking Paths]]" had a strong Chinese theme.