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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. How did the Spanish Conquest treat religion?

2. How did the Revolution relate to reality?

3. What was the most radical period of the Revolution?

4. Why did the Spaniards not exterminate the Indians after they were conquered?

5. In Paz's estimation, why do the common people follow their revolutionary leaders?

Short Essay Questions

1. Despite Mexico's advancements, where does she still stand on the world spectrum? How can she change her placement?

2. What role did religion play in ancient South American cultures? Did Catholicism change that role?

3. Mexico has entered a new phase of thinking and history. How does Paz explain that phase?

4. Why did the new Constitution mandate that education be secular? How might that have made the Mexicans feel?

5. How was the Revolution similar to a fiesta? Because of any existing similarity, why do the people cling to that time in history? Can that be considered healthy?

6. Why was the Aztec nation able to unify so many diverse tribes? How were they quite skilled with that type of action?

7. Who was Sor Juana? Why was she an unusual person both in South America and in old Spain?

8. Pulling from the ideas of Jose Gaos, Paz, speaks of the physical duality in Mexico. What does that mean? What significance does that idea have?

9. What did Article 3 of the new Constitution mandate? What troubles did that Article cause?

10. Throughout his career, what did Jorge Cuesta argue? What are the benefits and downfalls of his argument?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the Mexican view of privacy? Why does Paz defend it at such cost? What part does lying play in his defense? Is that accepted?

Essay Topic 2

Use this quote as the foundation for your essay: "We have been expelled from the center of the world, and are condemned to search for it through jungles and deserts or in the underground mazes of the labyrinth.

Essay Topic 3

What are the gender roles explained throughout the book? Given the culture and the time, what are the gender expectations? Who acts against those expectations?

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