Mexican Gothic Trivia Quiz

Answer: A small Mexican town

El Triunfo ("The Triumph") is a town located in Baja California Sur, Mexico, at an altitude of 483m above the sea level, which in the past was the largest city in the region. At the end of the 1700s, the first gold and silver mines were found in the region. In 1878, an English mining company that had been established in the region was successful, attracting up to 10,000 Mexican, American and other foreign miners. The city became a cultural center and was the first to install electricity and a telephone system.

With the closing of the mines in 1926, a large part of the population went looking for work in other regions. Today, El Triunfo has less than 500 inhabitants and is one of the best preserved old mining communities in North America. Two smokestacks are seen in the city, which were part of the original smelter; one of them was designed by the famous French architect and engineer Gustave Eiffel, although he was never on site.

Answer: Red volcanic rock

Tezontle is an igneous rock formed when volcanic eruptions solidify when surfacing. It is black or reddish in color due to iron oxide. In the United States tezontle can be found in Death Valley, and in Mexico it is found in the Western and Eastern Sierras. It is a combination of pommels, sand and magma rock. With a porous texture, it has the properties of maintaining heat, even though it is neither permeable nor insulating.

Often tezontle is mixed with concrete to form lightweight concrete blocks or to create stucco finishes. Tezontle is a common construction material used in the Historic Center of Mexico City.

Answer: A type of shawl

Rebozo is a large garment, similar to a shawl, very popular in Mexico and the Andean countries. They are rectangular pieces 1.5m to 3.5m long and 70cm or more wide. Traditional rebozos are made manually; they can be made of wool, cotton, silk or rayon; the patterns used vary widely and in general the colors are cheerful. The rebozos have a fringe as a finish. Their price varies according to the fabric, process of manufacture, and designs used.

Rebozos have two main functions. They can be used on the head or torso to protect from the cold, the sun or serve only as an accessory. They are also widely used as a carrying aid. In this case they are tied around the head or on the shoulders to carry large bundles or a small baby.

In traditional medicine, a rebozo is also used as a support for a woman in later pregnancy and delivery labor. Its use became popular around the world among future mothers, especially those who have doula support (doula: a person who provides emotional and physical support to women during pregnancy and childbirth).

Answer: A tropical fruit

"Zapote" also spelled as "sapote" (Pouteria sapota), mamey sapote, red mamey, is a plant of the sapodilla family (Sapotaceae) and its edible fruit has the same name. It is a tree that sometimes reaches more than 20 meters in height, its flowers are white and the fruits are 5 to 10 cm in diameter.

The fruit has a velvety rusty brown peel, the pulp has a creamy consistency and each fruit has a brown seed. The pulp can be eaten fresh or used to make jellies, puddings and ice cream.

Answer: Mexican

The Mexican José Pedro Infante Cruz (1917-1957), known as Pedro Infante, was a famous actor and singer, loved by the Mexicans. His career as an actor began in the late 1930s and his career as a singer began in 1943. He participated in more than 60 films and recorded more than 300 songs. Pedro Infante received the "Silver Bear" as the best actor at the 1957 Berlin International Film Festival.

He died at the age of 39 in an air accident on a flight he was piloting.

Answer: Africa

The Azande ("Azande" is the plural of Zande in the Zande language) is an ethnic group in Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic.

In the book "Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among Azande" (1937) the anthropologist Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) presented the results of his ethnographic research among the Azande in Sudan. The study made it clear that, when the Azande cannot understand or control certain events they resort to magic, witchcraft and oracles. In reality, the magic elements are inherent in their religion and culture.

Answer: Episodes of extreme anxiety, fear and suffering caused by a traumatic experience.

In Latin American countries and the Caribbean, "susto" is described as a condition in which the person, after experiencing a very frightening and traumatic experience, usually linked to perceived supernatural causes, starts to have chronic somatic symptoms such as loss of appetite, diarrhea, mental confusion, apathy, symptoms that are attributed to "soul loss". "Nervios", "Ataque de Nervios" and "Susto" are classified as a culture-bound syndrome, which occurs and is recognized within an ethnic group. In Latin American medicine and health databases, there are not yet enough studies to allow the inclusion of these cases in the International Classification of Diseases.

The treatment for "susto" used by the indigenous people is totally natural, with the use of plants as medicine, massages to stimulate blood flow and prayer. In addition to praying, healing rituals such as placing a cross from the sacred palm on the patient's head are also used.

Answer: Mary Shelley

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) was the daughter of politician and philosopher William Godwin and of the writer Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother died shortly after her birth and she was raised by her father, receiving an education considered advanced for women at that time. Mary became famous especially for her first novel "Frankenstein" or, "The Modern Prometheus", published in 1818.

Mary met the poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) who was a friend of her father. When Mary was 16 years old and Shelley was 21 and married to Harriet Westbrook, they began to meet secretly at Mary's mother's grave in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church. Some scholars and biographers claim that she lost her virginity in the churchyard.

Answer: Uruguayan

Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937) was a Uruguayan playwright, poet and short story writer. Quiroga had a tragic life: at the age of four his father died, some time later his stepfather committed suicide, he accidentally killed a friend, his wife committed suicide, he was diagnosed with cancer and finally at age of 57 he committed suicide.

This background was reflected in his tales that reported fantastic, macabre situations, depicting hallucinatory states. Most of these tales were set in the jungle where he lived most of his life.

Many scholars understand that he was influenced by the works of Edgar A. Poe and also that his work had an influence on the writers Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Julio Cortázar.

Answer: Anthropologists

The Americans Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead are considered great anthropologists of their time. Ruth Benedict (1887-1948) went deeper into the study of the relationship between culture and the personality of individuals. Always making clear that the analysis of behaviors must always be made from the point of view of the culture in which they occur.

Margaret Mead (1901-1978) is well known for her studies of the peoples of Oceania regarding sexual behavior, character and cultural changes. Margaret Mead had great exposure in the media and was emphatic on various issues such as women's rights, sexual morality, and early childhood education.