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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. What is the French sociologists' interpretation of the fiesta?

2. Why do Mexicans tell lies (Chapter Two)?

3. What makes the foreigner skeptical about Mexicans (Chapter Four)?

4. What duality does the pachuco represent?

5. What contributes to the power of the word, chingar, and all of its derivations?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the world of terrorism like? How is it different from the past world of conquest and war?

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

3. Why does the Mexican love Form? Other than in personal relationships, how does that idea express itself?

4. According to Alarcon, why does the liar lie to himself? Given what you know of the Mexican mindset, does that make sense?

5. What is the Mexican view of death? When does death become saddest?

6. How is the modern murderer different from a murderer of the past? How has modernity contributed to that difference?

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

8. What is the Mexican's ideal of manliness? How does it affect his interactions with other people?

9. 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?

10. What is left of the colonial world? Are those remnants the best or the worst parts that could be left behind?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

In Paz's arguments, how important is the Mexican sense of place? What affects it? What is its most important aspect? Explain the sense of place in the greater context of the Mexican mindset that Paz presents throughout the book.

Essay Topic 3

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

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