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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. In Paz's example of the village near Mitla, how is their yearly income spent?

2. What did Paz find in the actions and faces of North Americans?

3. Through dissimulation, what does a Mexican attempt to do?

4. According to Paz, what is death in modern thought?

5. How does a man become "like the angels" (Chapter Three, page 61)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens during the fiesta? What is the emotional result?

2. How important are fiestas in Mexican culture? What relationship exists between the fiesta and the individual?

3. Who represents the conflict that Mexicans have not been able to solve? What effect does that conflict have on their culture?

4. In the author's parable, who is Nobody? Is it possible for Nobody to break the progression of his existence? Why or why not?

5. How did the Aztecs view sin? How does that idea explain the Conquest? What enormous change did Catholicism introduce?

6. What is the character of the Mexican's solitude? How does it differ from the solitude of the North American?

7. How does North American culture view the pachuco? Does the pachuco accept or reject that culture's perception of him?

8. In Chapter Three, the following idea is presented: "There is nothing so joyous as a Mexican fiesta, but there is also nothing so sorrowful. Fiesta night is also a night of mourning" (Chapter 3, page 53). What does that mean?

9. How do Mexicans view their bodies? How does their view contribute to their wish for privacy?

10. What is Paz's understanding of woman? How does it fit the Mexican mindset?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"Catholicism offered a refuge to the descendants of those who had seen the extermination of their ruling classes, the destruction of their temples and manuscripts, and the suppression of the superior forms of their culture; but for the same reason that it was decadent in Europe, it denied them any chance of expressing their singularity" (Chapter Five, pg 105). What does that mean? How does it fit in with the idea of conquered peoples being assigned a passive role?

Essay Topic 2

Who is the Chingada? What roots does she have in Aztec religion and history? Like her opposite, the Virgin of Guadalupe, is redemption possible?

Essay Topic 3

When does a Mexican come into conflict with his fellow man, especially another Mexican? What are the facets of the clash? How is it resolved?

(see the answer keys)

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