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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 philosophy, why must Mexicans face reality alone?
2. When did Spain begin to lose her hold on Mexico?
3. What has history demonstrated through certain Contra authors such as Isaac Deutscher?
4. Whom did Paz call the "guardian of freedom and traitor to his country"? (Chapter Six, page 125).
5. What should Mexicans recognize about their alienation from the world?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does unemployment on the farms affect the cities? How does it slow all of Mexico's development?
2. What is Paz's definition of "community"? How is that definition knowingly idealistic?
3. Throughout his career, what did Jorge Cuesta argue? What are the benefits and downfalls of his argument?
4. What happened when Spanish America separated itself from Spain? Given what Paz has stated throughout the book about that moment in history, draw your own conclusions about why that happened.
5. What role did Jose Vasconcelos play in modern education? From Paz's descriptions, what is his opinion of Vasconcelos?
6. Why was the Aztec nation able to unify so many diverse tribes? How were they quite skilled with that type of action?
7. Why did the new Constitution mandate that education be secular? How might that have made the Mexicans feel?
8. What does Paz say about the national differences among Central and South American nations? How does that tie into their relationship with Spain?
9. 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?
10. Mexico has entered a new phase of thinking and history. How does Paz explain that phase?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
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?
Essay Topic 2
"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 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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This section contains 1,992 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) |
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