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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What makes the foreigner skeptical about Mexicans (Chapter Four)?
(a) Their poor economy.
(b) Their lavish festivals.
(c) Their unforeseen violence and cult of death.
(d) Their indiscriminate money spending for fiestas.

2. Why does the worker lack mystery?
(a) He is confined to a small space in the world.
(b) He is bound to time and space.
(c) He loses his communion with the Divine.
(d) He is identical to his fellow man.

3. Which of the following powers does the saying "I am your father" hold? (Chapter Four, page 80).
(a) The subtle power of the seemingly weaker person.
(b) The power of the closed person, the aggressor.
(c) The power of the Creator.
(d) The power of the justified and privileged person.

4. How do Mexicans perceive an opening-up of one's self?
(a) As a moment of truth.
(b) As a sign of strength.
(c) As a betrayal or weakness.
(d) As infidelity to the human spirit.

5. What familial relationship does Paz equate with solitude?
(a) Having no siblings.
(b) Being childless.
(c) Having no male relatives.
(d) Being an orphan.

6. What did Paz find in the actions and faces of North Americans?
(a) A faith in their society and confidence in its survival.
(b) A fear about the survival of their society.
(c) A faith in man's intrinsic goodness and its effects on their culture.
(d) An unrealistic optimism about the future.

7. In Paz's estimation, what vital word has the Mexican forgotten?
(a) The word that allows him to reach out to others.
(b) The word tying him to life forces of creativity and destruction.
(c) The word that gives him peace with all others.
(d) The word of love given to him by his mother.

8. In his obsession with hygiene, work, and health, what does the North American miss?
(a) Truth.
(b) True joy.
(c) True anger.
(d) All-consuming love.

9. Paz discusses the result of persecution on the pachuco. What is that result?
(a) It makes him stronger.
(b) It breaks his solitude.
(c) It makes him distrustful.
(d) It strengthens his anger.

10. What masculine trait enters into the idea of feminine modesty?
(a) Vanity.
(b) Strength.
(c) Protection.
(d) Love.

11. What connotation does the verb, chingar, carry?
(a) Failure.
(b) Mythical power.
(c) Violation.
(d) Disaster.

12. Aside from being an excess, what does the fiesta revolt against?
(a) Life.
(b) Death.
(c) Sadness.
(d) Form.

13. Paz states that a Mexican utters the words that are considered most evil when which of the following occurs?
(a) When he wants to invoke the evil contained in the words.
(b) When he is not in control of himself.
(c) When he is extremely angry.
(d) When he wants to get his point across.

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

15. In Paz's understanding of genders, how do Mexican women become like men?
(a) Through sacrifice.
(b) Through suffering.
(c) In love.
(d) Through self-denial.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the advantage of the North American view of women in relation to the Spanish view?

2. On which group of people were Paz's thoughts focused?

3. Above all other definitions, who is the Chingada?

4. What role does the Mexican man play in society?

5. When Paz first arrived in the United States, what surprised him most about the people?

(see the answer keys)

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