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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why was Diaz's regime in a precarious position regarding positivist philosophy?
(a) Because the common people vehemently opposed the philosophy.
(b) Because it could not afford to support such a philosophy when the regime itself was so new.
(c) Because it adopted rather than fathered the philosophy.
(d) Because only about half the regime favored the philosophy.

2. Why have Mexican culture and politics vacillated from one extreme to another? (Chapter Seven, page 157).
(a) Because Mexicans deny their Spanish and Indian heritage.
(b) Because Mexicans have difficulty synthesizing experiences.
(c) Because there has never been a strong Mexican leader.
(d) Because Mexicans cannot invent their history from the beginning.

3. What was Vasconcelos' philosophy regarding the material world?
(a) Intellect, rather than emotions, comprehends the world and creates reality.
(b) The supernatural world governs the material world.
(c) Emotions, rather than intellect, comprehend the world and create reality.
(d) The material world cannot be understood nor explained.

4. Why did the Church support Spanish power?
(a) The Church was threatened by Spain.
(b) The Church owned large portions of land.
(c) The Church was bribed by the Spanish monarch.
(d) The Church owed its Mexican existence to the Spanish Conquest.

5. Why is a study of colonialism important in understanding Mexican history?
(a) The nation was founded by a Spanish conquest of Indians.
(b) The nation was founded through a peaceful Spanish immersion into Indian culture.
(c) The nation began through the colonization of several surrounding nations.
(d) The nation's beginnings were heavily influenced by North Americans.

6. What happened to the people annexed by greater world powers?
(a) The material gains that they made balanced the loss of voice.
(b) They became more active in the world sphere.
(c) They became passive in the world sphere.
(d) They were forgotten.

7. What event precipitated Spain's complete loss of power?
(a) The loss of her naval supremacy.
(b) Her strong monarch's death.
(c) Her faith losing all potency.
(d) Mexico's revolt against her.

8. In Paz's philosophy, why must Mexicans face reality alone?
(a) They have alienated themselves from the world.
(b) They do not have a comprehensive philosophy of the self.
(c) The modern world no longer has any ideas.
(d) They are not in step with the rest of the intellectual world.

9. Why did the Spaniards not exterminate the Indians after they were conquered?
(a) They respected the Indians.
(b) They wanted to learn from the Indians.
(c) They needed labor.
(d) Their Catholicism prevented mass slaughter.

10. Following the Revolution, why was socialist education not widely implemented in Mexico?
(a) Socialism was not the philosophy adopted by Mexicans.
(b) The government could not agree on a socialist curriculum.
(c) Training was not available for teachers for providing a socialist education.
(d) Socialist education was highly unsuccessful.

11. According to Paz, who is most fascinated by death?
(a) The infant.
(b) The old.
(c) The youth.
(d) The dying.

12. In Paz's argument, how have tradition and religion always been presented to the Mexicans?
(a) As things to be held lightly or discarded.
(b) As things that stifle their individuality.
(c) As things leading to their spiritual salvation.
(d) As things that will solidify their national identity.

13. What did positivism do with the ideals of the Reformation?
(a) Blurred them into vague, utopian dreams.
(b) Pushed them into the background.
(c) Made them irrelevant to Mexican life and culture.
(d) Made them reality.

14. What has happened to the former plurality of ideas and customs? (Chapter Seven).
(a) It has been replaced by a single civilization.
(b) It has splintered into even more segments.
(c) It has grown to accommodate special-interest groups.
(d) They have become richer.

15. What did Manuel Gomez-Morin accomplish for the Revolution?
(a) He wrote the Plan of Ayala.
(b) He led the greatest contingent of soldiers.
(c) He formulated the property laws.
(d) He helped draft the new Constitution.

Short Answer Questions

1. On what does Paz blame "the rather zigzag progress of the state"? Chapter Eight, page 181).

2. What was sacrificed when Porfirio Diaz took power and subdued anarchy?

3. How did the Spanish Conquest treat religion?

4. How did the Revolution relate to reality?

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

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