The Extraordinary Life of Emiliano Zapata, a Mexican Revolutionary

Emiliano Zapata was born on August 8, 1879, in Anenecuilco, Mexico. He was the ninth of 10 children of Cleofas Salazar and Gabriel Zapata, who worked a plot of land in the village and also raised cattle and horses. Emiliano was an orphan by age 16. He was a Mexican revolutionary. The family was not poor, but luxuries and comforts were few. Emilianos father taught him to ride a horse at a young age and his uncle taught him how to use a firearm. These things he learned from his family provided skills that would help him for the rest of his life. At the age of 7 young Emilianos father sent him to school. Emiliano took advantage of his situation and learned to read and write, he also developed an interest in Mexican History.

When Emiliano was 9 years old, he saw his father cry because the government had unfairly reserved communal lands. Zapata swore that this would not happen again, and the future leader grew to see his dream of the Agrarian Reform be fulfilled in his native state.

Land was always a concern and ever since the sixteenth century sugar boom, haciendas were sprouting up all over the state. Zapata was raised on oral traditions of the long elemental struggle of his people against the hacendados. Growing up he had asserted himself against the hacendados, and because of this he was known to the authorities as somebody to keep an eye on. It was estimated by 1909, 28 hacendados controlled 77% of Morelos.

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In 1897 he was arrested for protesting against the farmers assuming of communal lands. In 1909 he declared the grievances of his fellow peasants, and was elected president of the board of defense for his village. On March 10th 1911, Emiliano and 72 peasants from Morelos proclaimed the beginning of their revolution. Their slogan, Land and Freedom, has been perhaps most famous of Zapatas phrases. One week later he entered Cuernavaca with 5,000 men.

In October 1914 Carranza called an assembly of all the revolutionary forces. War broke out between the Carrancistas and the Conventionist. On August 24, Zapata ordered his army (now called the Liberation Army of the South and numbering 25,000 men) to occupy two weeks later, Zapata and Villa met on the outskirts of the capital and then visited the National Palace. The two leaders promised to fight together until they put a civilian president in the palace, and Villa accepted the Pan of Ayala.

In April 1915 U.S President Woodrow Wilsons personal representative in Mexico met with Zapata: Zapata asked if Wilson received his delegation, but Wilson had recognized the Carranza government. Meanwhile, the war continued. Zapata occupied the city of Puebla and won various battles.

In 1917 a new U.S. envoy, William Gates, visited Zapata and then published a series of articles in the United States: he contrasted the order of the Zapata controlled zone with the chaos of the constitutional zone and said, The true social revolution can be found among the Zapatistas. When these articles were read to Zapata, he said, Now I can die in Peace. Finally they have done us justice.

But, underneath his picturesque appearance: drooping mustache, cold eyes, big sombrero, he was a passionate man with simple ideals that he tried to put into practice. Soon afterward General Pablo Gonzalez, who directed the government operations against Zapata, had Colonel Jesus Guajardo pretend to want to join the Agrarians and contrive a secret meeting with Zapata at the hacienda of Chinameca in Morelos.

There, Zapata was ambushed and shot to death by Carrancista soldiers. Colonel Guajardo, was promoted to General and given a reward of 52,000 pesos for this act, instead of being tried and convicted. After being shot, Zapata was loaded onto a mule and taken to Cuautla, where he was dumped on the street. To prove that he was really dead, flashlights were shown on his face and photographs taken. He was 39 years old.

This didnt destroy the myth of his death, because Zapata couldnt and wouldnt die! Like Commandante Marcos, he was too smart to be killed in an ambush.

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