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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 does Paz mean by the word, "community"?

2. What is Paz's solution for the lack of capital?

3. According to Jorge Cuesta, how has Mexico created herself?

4. What has history demonstrated through certain Contra authors such as Isaac Deutscher?

5. What was one factor that guided the Revolution to prioritize tradition?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. When did Independence begin in Mexico? How was it similar to or different from the Conquest?

5. What is the role of the Mexican intelligentsia within society? How does it differ from the function of the intelligentsia within the United States and Europe; and which one is a better role?

6. How does Paz define "Mexicanism"? How does it mesh with the individual whom he had described earlier?

7. 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?

8. How does unemployment on the farms affect the cities? How does it slow all of Mexico's development?

9. How did Catholicism reduce the Indian converts into passive believers? How was that a significant blow?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What inspired the author to write this book? What questions did he hope to answer, and did he answer them satisfactorily?

Essay Topic 2

What personal experiences did Paz pull from to write the book? How did he incorporate them into the broader scope of Mexican history? How did that affect the tone?

Essay Topic 3

Spain accepted all forms of the Renaissance and then closed itself off to further influence. How did that affect the Conquest? How does that continue to affect Mexico's philosophical and religious development?

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