Name: ______________________ Class: _________________ Date: _________ ID: A

"Blaxicans" and Other Reinvented Americans

Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Comprehension
Read each of the following questions. Then choose the letter of the best answer.

____ 1. Which word is closest to Rodriguez’s intended meaning of undoing in the sentence “Immigrants seem
to be bent on undoing America” (line 3)?
A changing
B destroying
C overtaking
D leaving
____ 2. What is the Mexican model that Rodriguez proposes America begin to imagine?
A mixed races
B multiculturalism
C democracy
D racial diversity
____ 3. In lines 79–81, Rodriguez says that “‘Hispanic’ is . . . a definition of the world according to European
patterns of colonization.” Based on this definition, Hispanic refers to people who
A were born in Spain.
B identify with Spanish culture.
C live in Latin America.
D speak only Spanish.
____ 4. What does Rodriguez mean by “ASSIMILATION HAPPENS” (line 144)?
A Cultural groups fight to retain their identity.
B Government policies require a common culture.
C Immigrants absorb the culture around them.
D Schools impose American values on children.
____ 5. Through the anecdote of the girl who identifies herself as “Blaxican,” Rodriguez makes the point that
young people
A generally identify with one parent’s race.
B prefer to identify themselves by race.
C think beyond traditional concepts of race.
D want to be part of the racial majority.

Vocabulary
Choose the answer that best explains the meaning of each underlined word.

____ 6. What does culled mean?

A approved by a group
B barred from a group
C rejected by a group
D selected from a group

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Name: ______________________ ID: A

____ 7. Factors are

A characteristics.
B ideas.
C mixtures.
D statistics.
____ 8. Something that is predominant is the most
A aggressive.
B important.
C improved.
D necessary.
____ 9. Denoting means
A building.
B creating.
C meaning.
D opposing.
____ 10. Circumvented means
A bypassed.
B entered.
C followed.
D questioned.

Short Answer

Written Response
Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of the argument.

11. Why does it tend to take American citizens several decades to “romanticize the immigrant” (line 13)?
Cite evidence from the argument to support your answer.

12. What does it mean for people to identify themselves culturally rather than racially? Cite examples
from the text to support your answer.

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"Blaxicans" and Other Reinvented Americans

Answer Section

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. ANS: A PTS: 8
2. ANS: A PTS: 8
3. ANS: B PTS: 8
4. ANS: C PTS: 8
5. ANS: C PTS: 8
6. ANS: D PTS: 8
7. ANS: A PTS: 8
8. ANS: B PTS: 8
9. ANS: C PTS: 8
10. ANS: A PTS: 8

SHORT ANSWER

11. ANS:
Rodriguez argues that American citizens are often focused on how recent immigrants are different
from them and how they might bring unwanted change (lines 7–8). Over “a generation or two,”
these immigrants no longer seem threatening because they have assimilated and represent the
“American mythology” of the hardworking immigrant who comes to the United States seeking
freedom (lines 10–22).

PTS: 10
12. ANS:
People no longer identify themselves by the color of their skin or their racial ancestry but by things
associated with the way they live. Students may cite these examples of cultural characteristics:
“language or fashion or cuisine or literature” (lines 110–111), religion (lines 130–137), “tattoo or
ornament or movement or commune or sexuality or drug or rave or electronic bombast” (lines
179–181).

PTS: 10