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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 Leonel think of Margarita's husband?

2. What is one of the things Leonel tells Forche Chacon does with his victims' bodies?

3. What does the American ambassador to El Salvador tell Forche when she asks him about Ronald Richardson?

4. How do the Mayans view time, according to Leonel?

5. Which of the following books did Leonel stay up late reading during his visit to Forche in the U.S.?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Forche come to understand about the nature of a person's life when that person joins a death squad?

2. Why does Margarita suggest that Forche borrow a dress and good shoes from her?

3. What did Forche come to think about Leonel during her many trips to El Salvador during the 1980s?

4. What does Forche tell Chenco, the young priest who comes to say mass at the poor village she stays in briefly, about why Leonel cares what North Americans think about El Salvador?

5. What does seeing Leonel with a mysterious woman seem to make Forche realize about her feelings for him?

6. In San Salvador, what did a white handprint on a door or wall signify?

7. What does Leonel tell Forche when she rebukes him for not giving some of his land to the peasants?

8. What happens to Forche that lands her in a Salvadoran hospital and produces hallucinations?

9. What does Forche see in the prison Ahuachapan that shakes her to her core?

10. What does it mean to hang things on a tree in certain parts of El Salvador?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Forche describe the fear she eventually begins to feel in El Salvador? How is it different from fear and from fearful situations she experiences both before and after her trips to that country? Write an essay explaining your answer.

Essay Topic 2

How does Forche's relationship with Margarita Herrera change over time? What does Herrera help Forche understand better about El Salvador and the people there? Write an essay explaining your answer.

Essay Topic 3

What does the reader learn about Forche's childhood and upbringing from her flashbacks during her first experience using a latrine in El Salvador? (83). Write an essay explaining your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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