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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When does the pachuco become his true self?
(a) When he is surrounded by fellow Mexicans.
(b) When he is in Mexico.
(c) When he is alone.
(d) When his life explodes.

2. According to Paz, what does it mean when a person is alone?
(a) He can never relate to other people.
(b) He is inferior.
(c) He is superior.
(d) He is different.

3. What is the novelty of the pachuco clothing?
(a) Its disregard for current fashion.
(b) Its impracticality.
(c) Its exaggeration.
(d) Its colors.

4. What mentality does Paz attribute to the Mexican?
(a) Leader.
(b) Victim.
(c) Master.
(d) Servant.

5. How are the evil words a sign and seal?
(a) They pull men out of their solitude.
(b) They project the result that they will bring.
(c) They seal the intention of the speaker.
(d) They identify fellow Mexicans among strangers.

6. What happens when the Mexican dissimulates?
(a) He merges with the common people.
(b) He becomes estranged from society.
(c) He nearly ceases to exist.
(d) He preserves his individuality intact.

7. Above all other definitions, who is the Chingada?
(a) A mythical mother.
(b) The representation of virginity.
(c) The representation of violated womanhood.
(d) A living mother.

8. On which group of people were Paz's thoughts focused?
(a) The Mexican nation as a whole.
(b) Those who are focused on making Mexico a part of the world.
(c) Those who are seeking a better philosophy as Mexicans.
(d) Those who are conscious of themselves as Mexicans.

9. Why did Catholicism drastically change the Aztec view of life?
(a) It saw life linearly rather than cyclically.
(b) It emphasized man's humanity and personhood.
(c) It placed a merciful God in charge.
(d) It placed man's salvation outside himself.

10. To which of the following does Paz reduce the Mexican character? (Chapter Four, page 73).
(a) The Mexican is himself only in the crowd of a fiesta or ceremony.
(b) The Mexican does not dare or want to be himself.
(c) The Mexican is stronger when he is alone.
(d) The Mexican only lives when he faces death.

11. What does the Mexican value in art, religion, and politics?
(a) Originality.
(b) Purity.
(c) Equality.
(d) Form.

12. What duality does the pachuco represent?
(a) A fiend whose trademark is hearty laughter.
(b) A clown whose purpose is terror.
(c) A victim obsessed with revenge.
(d) A saint deeply involved in scandal.

13. What does the pachuco represent in Paz's writing?
(a) The typical Mexican living in North American culture.
(b) The modern-day religious saint.
(c) One extreme at which the Mexican can arrive.
(d) One step along the path that a Mexican can take.

14. Through dissimulation, what does a Mexican attempt to do?
(a) Share his individuality with others to make it real.
(b) Withdraw from society to save his individuality.
(c) Become himself in contradistinction to others.
(d) Become invisible and save his individuality.

15. How does a man become "like the angels" (Chapter Three, page 61)?
(a) By entrusting everything to God.
(b) By running from death to an embracement of life.
(c) By valuing life to its final moment.
(d) By opening fully to death, as well as to life.

Short Answer Questions

1. What connotation does the verb, chingar, carry?

2. How do Mexicans avoid the dangers of romantic relationships, according to Paz?

3. How does solitude assume a purifying, almost purgative, quality for the Mexican?

4. According to Paz, what is the Mexican's relationship with his fellow man?

5. Paz discusses the result of persecution on the pachuco. What is that result?

(see the answer keys)

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