Official Answers and Explanations
1. The “apparent contradiction” mentioned in line 29 refers to the discrepancy between the
A. legal status of Mexican women in territorial California and their status in the United States
B. unflattering depiction of Mexicans in novels and the actual public sentiment about the Mexican-American War
C. existence of many marriages between Californianas and non-Hispanic merchants and the strictures against them expressed in novels
D. literary depiction of elite Californianas and the literary depiction of other Mexican individuals
E. novelistic portrayals of elite Californianas’ privileged lives and the actual circumstances of those lives
Supporting ideaThe apparent contradiction in line 29 refers to the difference, noted in the previous sentence, between favorable literary portrayals of elite Californianas— that is, Mexican women of the California territory—on the one hand and novels’ generally unflattering depictions of Mexicans on the other.
A. The passage discusses the difference between the legal rights of Mexican women in the California territory and those of non-Hispanic women. The legal rights of Mexican women outside territorial California are not mentioned.
B. The passage suggests that there is no contradiction between unflattering depictions of Mexicans in novels and public sentiment about the MexicanAmerican War: such depictions of Mexicans served to stir up sentiment in support of the war.
C. According to the passage, novels expressed no strictures against marriages between Californianas and non-Hispanic merchants. Instead, the novels portrayed such marriages favorably.
D. Correct. Non-Hispanic novelists glorified elite Californianas based on the importance of forging economic alliances with them, whereas novelists depicted other Mexicans in unflattering terms.
E. The passage indicates that elite Californianas’ lives were in fact privileged, at least in comparison to those of non-Hispanic women. It does not suggest that there was any contradiction between elite Californianas’ lives and how those lives were portrayed in novels.
The correct answer is D.
2. Which of the following could best serve as an example of the kind of fictional plot discussed by Antonia Castañeda?
A. A land speculator of English ancestry weds the daughter of a Mexican vineyard owner after the speculator has migrated to California to seek his fortune.
B. A Californian woman of Hispanic ancestry finds that her agricultural livelihood is threatened when her husband is forced to seek work in a textile mill.
C. A Mexican rancher who loses his land as a result of the Mexican-American War migrates to the northern United States and marries an immigrant schoolteacher.
D. A wealthy Californiana whose father has bequeathed her all his property contends with avaricious relatives for her inheritance.
E. A poor married couple emigrate from French Canada and gradually become wealthy as merchants in territorial California.
ApplicationAccording to the passage, Castañeda focuses on a particular plot in which an elite Californiana is pursued by a non-Hispanic merchant or trader for the purpose of gaining economic advantage.
A. Correct. The story of a non-Hispanic land speculator wedding a Californiana who is likely, based on the inheritance rights granted her by the Hispanic law in territorial California, to inherit her father’s vineyard would precisely fit the plot that Castañeda discusses.
B. This description fails to identify the ethnicity of the Californiana’s husbandand the reason he married her, so there is no way to determine whether the story would fit Castañeda’s plot.
C. Castañeda’s plot involves a non-Hispanic male protagonist, so a Mexican rancher could not play the main male role in such a story.
D. The presence of a wealthy Californiana who inherits property might make this story seem to be an example of the fictional plot that Castañeda discusses, but there is no mention of a non-Hispanic merchant or trader who seeks her hand in marriage.
E. Simply taking place in territorial California would not make a story an appropriate example of the plot discussed by Castañeda.
The correct answer is A.
3. Which of the following, if true, would provide the most support for Castañeda’s explanation of the “stereotypical plot” mentioned in the lines 18–19?
A. Non-Hispanic traders found business more profitable in California while it was a territory than when it became a state.
B. Very few marriages between Hispanic women and non-Hispanic men in nineteenth-century territorial California have actually been documented.
C. Records from the nineteenth century indicate that some large and valuable properties were owned by elite Californianas in their own right.
D. Unmarried non-Hispanic women in the nineteenth-century United States were sometimes able to control property in their own right.
E. Most of the property in nineteenth-century territorial California was controlled by Hispanic men.
EvaluationCastañeda explains the stereotypical plot of a non-Hispanic merchant seeking to marry an elite Californiana based on economics: these women had property and inheritance rights equal to men. Novelists based their plots on the women’s reallife economic power, which resulted in men’s wishing to build economic alliances with them. Supporting this explanation requires supporting these economic ideas in some way.
A. The profitability of non-Hispanic traders’ business is not an issue in Castañeda’s explanation; thus the change described has no significant relevance to that explanation.
B. The lack of the type of documentation described, rather than providing support for Castañeda’s explanation, signifies a deficit in documentary support for that explanation.
C. Correct. If elite Californianas did in fact own valuable properties,Castañeda’s economic explanation gains force. The women did have the real economic significance upon which Castañeda suggests the novelists drew.
D. If it were true that some non-Hispanic women controlled property in this way, Castañeda’s explanation of Californianas’ uniqueness would be somewhat undermined.
E. If most of the property in nineteenth-century territorial California was controlled by Hispanic men, that suggests that Californianas were less likely to possess the kind of economic power described in Castañeda’s argument.
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