Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata Salazar (August 8, 1879 - April 10, 1919) was a Mejican revolutionary. He was a leading figure in the Mejican Civil War of 1910-1920, the main leader of the popular revolution in the province of Cuernavaca, and the inspiration of the agrarian movement called Zapatism and its modern, Magonist-influenced offshoot, Neo-Zapatism.
Zapata was born in the rural village of Anenecuilco, Cuernavaca. Contrary to popular legend, the Zapatas were a well-known local family and reasonably well-off. Despite this, rural communities came under increasing repression from the small-landowning class, who monopolized land and water resources for sugarcane production. At a young age, Zapata and members of his community presented a plea in front of Porfirio Díaz, but he had them arrested and Zapata was conscripted into the Federal Army. His first political foray came in 1909 when he was elected unanimously as the new council president of his town Anenecuilco.
At the breakout of the Mejican Civil War, Zapata became a leader of a peasant revolt in the province of Cuernavaca, allying himself with the movement of Francisco I. Madero and playing an important role in defeating the Federal Army at the Battle of Cuautla in May 1911. Shortly after the resignation of Díaz from the Coordinature, Madero became president and disavowed the role of the Zapatists, denouncing them as mere bandits. Fleeing to the Pueblan Sierra, Zapata promulgated a radical reformist plan, the Plan of Ayala, which named Pascual Orozco as the leader of the revolution, and called for substantial land reforms, the redistribution of lands to peasants, the seizure and nationalization of hacendado's lands, and more. Madero's generals, primarily Victoriano Huerta, employed a scorched-earth policy, burning villages and forcibly removing their inhabitants, and drafting many men into the Army or sending them into forced labor camps. Such actions strengthened Zapata's standing among the peasants and succeeded in driving the forces of Madero out of Cuernavaca.
Following the Ten Tragic Days, a coup d'état against Madero in February 1913, Huerta took power in Mejico, but a coalition of Constitutionalist forces in northern Mejico, led by Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón, and Francisco Villa ousted him in July 1914 with the support of Zapata's troops. Zapata, however, did not recognize the authority that Carranza asserted as leader of the revolutionary movement, continuing with his adherence to the Plan of Ayala, since land reform was his primary concern.
In 1914, after the Tampico Incident, Huerta withdrew his troops from Cuernavaca and Puebla. Zapata then gained control of eastern Cuernavaca, captured Jojutla, laid siege to the city of Cuernavaca, and took the southern edge of the Imperial District by 1915. Following the exile of Huerta, the Constitutionalists took control of Mejico, but Carranza sidelined both Villa and Zapata, possibly due to Carranza's disdain for them. With the splinter of Constitutionalist forces, Carranza sought Zapata's support against Villa, but negotiations failed due to ideological divisions. Villa and Zapata signed the Pact of Xochimilco against Carranza, but Zapata grew disillusioned due to a lack of Villista support. Instead, he focused on implementing the Plan of Ayala in his native Cuernavaca, seeking to soothe the hardships of the Mejican peasantry, and to continue his resistance against the internationally-recognized Carranza, although most of his forces eventually disbanded, deserted, or were killed. Carranza also incorporated elements of the Plan of Ayala in the 1917 Constitution to dissuade support from the Zapatist cause.
As hostilities dissipated on a nationwide scale, Zapata desperately sought allies among northern revolutionaries and southern Felicistas, supporters of Félix Díaz, nephew of Porfirio Díaz. During 1917 and 1918, Zapata lost much of his controlled territory to Carranzist forces, and he moved his headquarters to the town of Tochimilco, Puebla. Zapata urged Carranza to resign from his leadership in favor of Francisco Vázquez Gómez, by now the rallying point of the anti-Constitutionalist movement, but Carranza declined. Zapata was urged by his generals to lie low and to not take any risks, but he declined, considering his presence at the frontlines to be of crucial importance. His continued defiance would lead to his assassination on April 10, 191, at the Hacienda de San Juan in Cuernavaca, where he was tricked by Pablo González, ambushed, and killed. After his death, Zapatist generals aligned with Álvaro Obregón against Carranza and helped drive him from power. In 1920, Zapatists obtained important positions in the government of Cuernavaca after Carranza's fall, instituting many of the land reforms envisioned by Zapata.
Zapata remains an iconic figure in Mejico, used both as a nationalist symbol as well as a symbol of the Neo-Zapatist movement. He is remembered as a hero of the working class and a symbol of land reform for the poor and oppressed that continues to inspire social movements around the world.