Emiliano Zapata

A short History Lesson – required reading:

Emiliano Zapata Salazar, 1879 – 1919 was one of eleven children of one of the very few “middle class” families of his time. They were neither rich Hacienda owners nor landless peasants, but they owned a piece of land large enough to work and independently support their family, although frequently were on the verge of poverty. Zapata had very little formal education and there is argument that he could neither read nor write. He was however fluent in both Spanish and in the Aboriginal language of Nahuatl. As a young man, Zapata was a bit of a fancy dresser and was often seen at bullfights and around town in his prized elaborate “charro” outfits. Despite this, he was highly respected by the indigenous peasant population and was elected to the position of head of the Defense Committee of his village of Anenecuilco, a post which made him, at 30 years of age, the spokesman for the village's interests. He held this position during the autumn of 1909, a year before the start of the Mexican Revolution.

At the time, Mexico was ruled by the dictator Porfirio Diaz, who maintained the Hacienda system in which unbelievably large parcels of land were awarded to people favoured by the Government. Hacienda ownership gave the owners or, Hasiendados, the power of life and death over the indigenous and mestizo people who had formerly lived independently on these lands. These people were now forced into debt slavery working the lands for the Hasiendados.

Zapata became an annoyance to this system as, using his elected position, he kept going to the courts with things like deeds which proved previous ownership of the lands that were being handed out as political favours. At the same time Francisco Madero was challenging Diaz politically. Zapata quickly joined Madero in the dispute that quickly became an armed revolution.

Madero, with the help of Zapata, who commanded the Ejército Libertador del Sur (Liberation Army of The South) and Pancho Villa, commanding the División del Norte (Division of the North) defeated Diaz in May 1911 in the Battle of Cuidad Juarez on the border of what is now Texas.

Soon Madero, fearful of Zapata’s popularity amongst the indigenous and mestizo people, ordered Zapata to lay down his arms. Zapata, unhappy with Madero’s slow actions on land reform, refused, calling Madero a Traitor to the Revolution and taking himself and his men into hiding in the mountains where they came up with their own agrarian reform document, the "Plan de Ayala" which dispersed hacienda lands back to the people. Hacienda owners who cooperated with Zapata forfeited a significant portion of their land to the peasants working it. If they did not cooperate, they lost all of it and possibly their lives. Zapata was very successful in this undertaking and continued to elude the army sent to capture him.

On April 19, 1919, Zapata was lured into a meeting with Mexican Army General Guajardo who indicated he wanted to join Zapata’s movement. When Zapata arrived for the meeting he was ambushed and killed. Little is known of the actual assignation, except the gate where Zapata evidently tried to escape is riddled with dozens of bullet holes. These bullets missed by such a wide margin that it is speculated that many of the soldiers ordered to shoot that day purposely aimed away. The bloodstained clothes worn by Zapata on that day are still displayed in his museum and clearly show that most of the bullets struck him in the back. These clothes are also very small, indicating that Zapata was a very small man. I like to think of him in that way, a very small man with a very big heart and fighting spirit.

Zapata (right) with Pancho Villa

Zapata (centre in charro outfit)

His spirit still lives in The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), an armed revolutionary group based here in Chiapas, the poorest State of Mexico. I now sport one of their t-shirts and a clearer knowledge of their cause.

This sign reads, in Spanish: Top sign:

"You are in Zapatista rebel territory. Here the people give the orders and the government obeys." Bottom sign:

"North Zone. Council of Good Government. Trafficking in weapons, planting of drugs, drug use, alcoholic beverages, and illegal sales of wood are strictly prohibited. No to the destruction of nature." Federal Highway 307, Chiapas.