Emiliano Zapata

Mexican revolutionary leader

• Born: August 8, 1879
• Birthplace: Anenecuilco, Morelos, Mexico
• Died: April 10, 1919
• Place of death: Hacienda Chinameca, Morelos, Mexico

Zapata was a notable rebel leader of peasant guerrillas in the Mexican Revolution who became a legendary folk hero among the poor Mexican farmers of Morelos because of his idealistic devotion to land reform and his brilliant guerrilla tactics during the revolution.

Early Life

Emiliano Zapata (ay-meel-YAHN-oh sah-PAH-tah) was the ninth of ten children, only four of whom survived, born to Cleofas and Gabriel Zapata. The Zapatas were a proud family of primarily Indian heritage. They owned a modest ranch and lived in a small adobe-and-stone house, but they were better off than many of their neighbors who, owning no land, had to work on the lands of the wealthy sugar plantation owners in a state of virtual peonage. Zapata, with little formal education, attended an inadequate school at the nearby village of Ayala. When he left school at the age of twelve, he could barely read and write.

Orphaned at the age of fifteen, Zapata and his elder brother, Eufemio, inherited the ranch although his brother soon left home, as did his two sisters. Zapata worked the land and even sharecropped a few acres from the local hacienda, supplementing his earnings by buying and selling mules and occasionally horses. Zapata developed into a skilled horseman and a well-respected horse trainer. The characteristics of the native peoples were reflected in the young Zapata he was quiet, honest, courteous, gentle, and distrustful of strangers. Zapata’s own attachment to the land and village was evidenced by his people, who saw the land as belonging to the villagers since they, like their Indian ancestors, had no clear concept of private land ownership.

As a young boy, Zapata learned to hate the rich landowners in Morelos as he witnessed evictions of peasants from their huts and small plots of land. The sugar planters, who needed more land for expansion into world markets, were supported by the Mexican government, which was headed by the despotic dictator, Porfirio Díaz. Zapata was a popular young man; he was something of a dandy and often dressed on holidays in black with tight-fitting trousers completed by an enormous sombrero. His appreciation for the fine life extended to riding a black or white, silver-saddled horse. His single life would end with his marriage, at the age of thirty-two, in 1911. His wife, Josefa Espejo, was the daughter of a successful livestock dealer from Ayala.

Conflict with authority was not unusual for Zapata, as he often defended fellow villagers against the oppressive landowners or the rural police. This conflict not only hardened him and won for him respect from the villagers but also helped to prepare him for the leadership role that was thrust on him in 1909 when he was elected, at the age of thirty, president of the village council and defense committee of Anenecuilco. He was about to participate in the cataclysmic Mexican Revolution, which would forge for him a place in Mexican history.

Life’s Work

Zapata became immersed in regional politics in 1909, when he supported an anti-Díaz candidate for the governorship of Morelos. The corrupt Díaz, however, used his influence, along with federal troops, to get his own candidate “elected.” Zapata continued to fight for peasant land rights and unsuccessfully sought legal assistance on behalf of the villages. In 1909, unrest in Morelos led to the formation of small, poorly armed guerrilla bands seeking redress against the oppressive policies of the government. Disappointed at the futility of legal means, Zapata urged direct action and led villagers in taking the disputed fields. Others in the area followed Zapata’s example and began reclaiming disputed lands.

In 1910, the ruthless Díaz, swept aside by the tide of revolution, was replaced by Francisco Madero, who promised sweeping reforms for Mexico. Madero called for the various revolutionary leaders, including Zapata, to disband their guerrillas and support him. Zapata was willing to comply with Madero’s request, but when Madero’s promised land distribution did not occur, he and other dissatisfied leaders throughout Mexico rose in rebellion against Madero. The guerrilla chieftains elected him supreme chief of the revolutionary movement in the south. He later became General Zapata, head of the Liberation Army of the South. His efficiency, honesty, and popular appeal led to large numbers of followers in the ranks of his ragtag army. He proved to be a strong leader, who inspired his troops through quiet persuasion.

Unlike Madero, who seemingly wanted only middle-class political and economic reform for Mexico, and other revolutionary leaders who supported narrow self-interest, Zapata passionately sought social justice for the mistreated landless peasants of Morelos and neighboring states in the south. This position placed him out of the mainstream of the revolution with its emphasis on middle-class values and made him the target of Madero and later leaders such as Victoriano Huerta and Venustiano Carranza, who saw him as a troublemaker and radical. Zapata nevertheless persisted in his passion for the rural poor.

In 1913, the sadistic and brutal General Huerta seized control of the government and had Madero murdered. Zapata had hoped to lay down his arms and go home and farm his lands, but, after initially offering support to Huerta, he soon found himself in conflict with the new president. Zapata, the “Attila of the South” as the Mexican newspapers called him, was one of four guerrilla leaders who opposed Huerta, along with Carranza in the northeast, the infamous Pancho Villa in Chihuahua to the north, and Álvaro Obregón in Sonora to the northwest. Huerta was also opposed by the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. In the face of such opposition, Huerta fell from power in 1914.

Carranza, in an attempt to take power, invited all the revolutionary leaders to a convention to solicit their support, but Villa and Zapata refused to participate. Zapata was willing to quit the revolution if Carranza would adopt his Plan of Ayala, which called for distribution of land to the landless peasants. According to the plan, a portion of land would be expropriated from each hacienda with the landowners receiving compensation. Landowners who would not cooperate would lose their entire holdings. Stolen lands, furthermore, would be returned to the proper owners. Zapata had one of his chief aides, Otilio Montaño, a former schoolteacher, compose the plan, which was proclaimed by Zapata and his leading chiefs in November, 1911. Some suggested that Zapata had the plan written to counter charges from Mexico City that the Zapatistas were simply bandits who looted and pillaged in the countryside and not revolutionaries fighting for a true cause. Carranza found Zapata’s demands to be too inflexible and did not agree to them.

Five years of brutal civil war ensued as General Obregón allied himself with Carranza against the recalcitrant Villa and Zapata. Mexico City, a virtual no-man’s-land with generals coming and going, on one occasion was occupied by the forces of Villa and Zapata. The citizens of Mexico City expected the Zapatistas to wreak havoc in the city but were amazed at their timidness and gentleness. Later, Zapata and his followers quietly left the city to Villa.

In 1915, Obregón’s forces defeated Villa, leaving Zapata in opposition to Carranza. Carranza denounced Zapata as a renegade and bandit who knew nothing about government. Zapata’s followers continued to threaten the capital and in areas under their control confiscated land without using the legal procedures advocated by Carranza. Even though they were unorganized, Zapata’s men were effective fighters who laid traps and ambushes, cut supply lines, took small towns while avoiding larger ones, and always avoided open formal battles unless they had a good assurance of victory. These tactics proved frustrating to the large government forces of Carranza.

For several years, Carranza attempted, without success, to defeat Zapata in Morelos. General Pablo González commanded Carranza’s troops there and carried out a “scorched earth” policy against the Zapatistas by destroying those villages that he believed might give sanctuary to Zapata. The corrupt González showed little respect for Zapata and his troops, labeling them as uneducated, country hicks. In 1919, González, with the help of one of his colonels, Jesús M. Guajardo, had Zapata killed through treachery and deceit. González had Guajardo pretend to defect to Zapata to kill him. On April 10, Guajardo invited Zapata to dine with him at his hacienda, and, after some hesitation, Zapata accepted. When Zapata reached the door, Guajardo’s men fired two volleys into him at point blank range. The beloved leader of the peasants was dead. His body was strapped to a mule and taken to Cuautla, the capital of Morelos, and openly displayed. Though thousands came to see the body, many of his supporters refused to believe he was dead; they thought that it was a trick to fool the authorities and that Zapata had actually escaped. People later reported that they saw Zapata riding across the fields of Morelos on his white horse. Yet the hero who could do no wrong in the eyes of the landless peasants was gone; his ideals, however, did not die with him because the farmers of Morelos continued their cry for “land and liberty” long after 1919.

Significance

Zapata occupies a controversial place in Mexican history. To his followers, he was a romantic folk hero who died for a noble cause. To his enemies, he was a savage villain, the leader of wild revolutionary bandits who committed atrocities on the Mexican populace. Being a radical revolutionary in their eyes, he also did not conform to their notion of middle-class revolution. The truth no doubt lies somewhere in between. Zapata was an honest and simple man who reluctantly became an effective leader of disorganized guerrillas who adapted his military tactics to fit the situation at hand and avoid defeat by larger and better armed forces. (Interestingly enough, these same tactics would later be used in limited wars following World War II.) He was a born leader who used his natural abilities to try to right the wrongs he saw in his native land. The provincial Zapata cannot be compared to revolutionary leaders such as Vladimir Ilich Lenin and Mao Zedong, who were worldly intellectuals who brought about radical transformation in their respective societies. It is interesting to note that Zapata did not break with the Church as did other Mexican revolutionaries, who criticized the Church for doing little to ease social ills in Mexico. Nevertheless, he remains a legend and an inspiration to the downtrodden and unfortunate indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Bibliography

Brenner, Anita. The Wind That Swept Mexico: The History of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1942. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1943. This book contains one hundred concisely written pages of text, and it contains 184 historical photographs, which present the Mexican Revolution in all of its drama and poignance. The author witnessed the revolution as a child.

Brunk, Samuel, and Ben Fallow, eds. Heroes and Hero Cults in Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. Collection of essays examining ten Latin Americans considered heroes, including Zapata.

Dunn, H. H. The Crimson Jester: Zapata of Mexico. New York: Robert M. McBride, 1933. A sensationalized account of Zapata’s life written in dialogue form. The author compares Zapata to Geronimo and Julius Caesar. Contains no bibliography.

McLynn, Frank. Villa and Zapata: A Biography of the Mexican Revolution. London: Jonathan Cape, 2000. A comprehensive and extensively researched book in which McLynn reconstructs the Mexican Revolution through the biographies of Zapata and Pancho Villa.

Newell, Peter E. Zapata of Mexico. Somerville, Mass.: Black Thorn Books, 1979. A simply written, straightforward biography of Zapata. Contains interesting photographs and illustrations. Written primarily from secondary sources.

Parkinson, Roger. Zapata. New York: Stein & Day, 1980. A very interesting and scholarly book that builds on Womack’s biography. Contains a helpful index, a bibliography, and end notes.

Ruiz, Ramón Eduardo. The Great Rebellion: Mexico, 1905-1924. New York: W. W. Norton, 1980. A scholarly reinterpretation of the Mexican Revolution. The author emphasizes the middle-class nature of the revolution. Contains an excellent chapter on Zapata.

Womack, John. Zapata and the Mexican Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968. Probably the definitive work on Zapata. A scholarly analysis of Zapata and his role in the revolution. Contains a very helpful bibliography, footnotes, and appendixes.