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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. During the Revolution, whom did the intelligentsia make the focal point of its activities?

2. Why was unemployment high in Mexico at the time that Paz was writing?

3. What was the main philosophical objective of the Revolution?

4. What was the Mexican intellectual's goal?

5. In Jose Gaos' thought, what unique opportunity do young people have through their education?

Short Essay Questions

1. Mexico has entered a new phase of thinking and history. How does Paz explain that phase?

2. How does Paz explain the suicides of the Aztec people? Is it a reasonable explanation?

3. Who was Sor Juana? Why was she an unusual person both in South America and in old Spain?

4. When did Independence begin in Mexico? How was it similar to or different from the Conquest?

5. Paz asserts that every revolution attempts to restore the order that an oppressor has twisted or disregarded altogether. How was that true in Mexico?

6. What happened when Spanish America separated itself from Spain? Given what Paz has stated throughout the book about that moment in history, draw your own conclusions about why that happened.

7. How did Catholicism reduce the Indian converts into passive believers? How was that a significant blow?

8. What role did Jose Vasconcelos play in modern education? From Paz's descriptions, what is his opinion of Vasconcelos?

9. What role did religion play in ancient South American cultures? Did Catholicism change that role?

10. What does Paz think of the Soviet Union? How does it compare to Mexico?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Use this quote as the foundation for your essay: "We have been expelled from the center of the world, and are condemned to search for it through jungles and deserts or in the underground mazes of the labyrinth.

Essay Topic 2

Find the deaths that are mentioned in the book. According to the Mexican criterion for a worthy death - the death suits the life - how many of those people died a worthy death? How many of them died a death that did not suit their lives?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the organization of the book. How is the material organized? What are the chapter titles? Do the titles prepare you for the material presented?

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