Exam topic 8 of 10
Art, literature and film, for the exam.
Names and what each one is famous for. This topic rewards recognition rather than analysis.
What this topic gets asked about
The exam names people and asks what they did, or names a work and asks who made it. Pair each name below with one thing and you have covered this topic.
Mexican muralism is the movement that followed the Revolution: public art on public walls, commissioned by the state through José Vasconcelos at the SEP.
The three great muralists are Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco.
Frida Kahlo is Mexico’s best-known painter internationally, known for her self-portraits. The Casa Azul in Coyoacán is her museum.
Rufino Tamayo, from Oaxaca, and José María Velasco, the great landscape painter of the Valley of Mexico, are the other painters most often named.
José Guadalupe Posada created La Catrina, the engraved skeleton figure that became the emblem of Día de Muertos.
Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990. His best-known essay is El laberinto de la soledad.
Juan Rulfo wrote Pedro Páramo and El Llano en llamas.
Carlos Fuentes wrote La muerte de Artemio Cruz and La región más transparente; Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is the great writer of the colonial period.
Rosario Castellanos and Elena Poniatowska are the women writers the exam most often names; Poniatowska wrote La noche de Tlatelolco.
Amado Nervo and Octavio Paz are the poets; Alfonso Reyes the essayist.
The Época de Oro of Mexican cinema ran roughly from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Mario Moreno "Cantinflas" is its comic icon; Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete its singing stars; María Félix and Dolores del Río its leading actresses.
Luis Buñuel made Los olvidados in Mexico. Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro are the contemporary directors, all Oscar winners.
Luis Barragán is Mexico’s most celebrated architect, a Pritzker Prize winner known for colour and light. Juan O’Gorman designed the mosaic-covered central library at UNAM.
The Museo Nacional de Antropología in Chapultepec holds the Sun Stone and the country’s main archaeological collection; the Palacio de Bellas Artes holds murals by all three great muralists.
A practice question from this topic
In Spanish, like the real exam. Open the answer to read the Contexto, or pick an option first.
Question 1 of 1 · Art, Literature & Film
¿Qué actriz fue una gran figura de la Época de Oro del cine mexicano y fue apodada La Doña?
Show the answer
Answer
María Félix
Contexto
«La Doña» tomó su apodo de la película Doña Bárbara. Su imagen de mujer fuerte y sofisticada la convirtió en uno de los símbolos más reconocibles de la Época de Oro.
The other 626, with an explanation each.
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Questions people ask
Which Mexican won the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Octavio Paz, in 1990. He is the only Mexican laureate in literature.
Who are the three great muralists?
Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. Frida Kahlo was not a muralist.
Does the exam ask about contemporary film?
It can name the contemporary directors, but the Época de Oro is the safer ground. Know Cantinflas, Pedro Infante and María Félix first.