View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Whom did Paz call the "guardian of freedom and traitor to his country"? (Chapter Six, page 125).
(a) Valentin Gomez Farias.
(b) Jose Maria Mora.
(c) Benito Juarez.
(d) Santa-Ana.

2. In Jose Gaos' thought, what unique opportunity do young people have through their education?
(a) Rebuilding their political system.
(b) Creating their own philosophy.
(c) Moving Mexico into the world sphere.
(d) Modifying Spanish to meet the needs of the South Americans.

3. How did the Spanish Conquest treat religion?
(a) Spain was protecting the Mesoamerican religions.
(b) Spain was defending the faith.
(c) Spain was integrating Mesoamerican religions.
(d) The Conquest did not relate to religion.

4. What was Vasconcelos' philosophy regarding the material world?
(a) The supernatural world governs the material world.
(b) The material world cannot be understood nor explained.
(c) Emotions, rather than intellect, comprehend the world and create reality.
(d) Intellect, rather than emotions, comprehends the world and creates reality.

5. Mexico lacks basic industries except for one - what is it?
(a) Wool.
(b) Steel.
(c) Fishing.
(d) Forestry.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Paz see the 20th Century?

2. What is the value of Sor Juana's poem, "First Dream"?

3. When Paz sees that Mexicans return to their tradition, what do they remember?

4. What was the Mexican intellectual's goal?

5. In Asia and Africa, what two seemingly-contradictory ideologies are being used?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. 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?

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

5. What role did Catholicism play in the lives of the conquering Spaniards? Was that role contradictory?

6. 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.

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

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

9. Paz asserts that every revolution attempts to restore the order that an oppressor has twisted or disregarded altogether. How was that true in Mexico?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,856 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample