Emiliano Zapata

Life and career

1879–1909: Early life

Emiliano Zapata was born to Gabriel Zapata and Cleofas Jertrudiz Salazar of Anenecuilco, Morelos, the ninth of ten children. Contrary to popular legend, the Zapatas were a well-known local family and reasonably well-off. Emiliano's maternal grandfather, José Salazar, had served in the army of José María Morelos y Pavón during the siege of Cuautla, while his paternal uncles Cristino and José Zapata fought in the Reform War and the French Intervention. Emiliano's godfather was the manager of a large local hacienda and his godmother was the manager's wife. The Zapata family were descended from the Zapata of Mapaztlán and were likely mestizos, Mexicans of both Spanish and Nahua heritage. Although it is not known conclusively whether Zapata himself spoke Nahuatl, historian Miguel León-Portilla has cited later Zapatista proclamations and eyewitness accounts to argue that he was fluent in the language.

Gabriel Zapata was a farmer and horse trainer, and Emiliano's upbringing on the farm gave him an intimate familiarity with the difficulties of the countryside and his village's long struggle to regain the land taken by expanding haciendas. He received a limited education from his teacher, Emilio Vara, but it included "the rudiments of bookkeeping". Gabriel died when Emiliano was about 16 or 17, leaving the latter to care for his family. Emiliano was entrepreneurial and bought a team of mules to haul maize from farms to town and bricks to the Hacienda of Chinameca; he was also a successful farmer, growing watermelons as a cash crop. He was a skilled horseman and competed in rodeos and races, as well as bullfighting from horseback. These skills as a horseman brought him work as a horse trainer for Porfirio Díaz's son-in-law, Ignacio de la Torre y Mier who had a large sugar hacienda nearby. Emiliano had a striking appearance, with a large mustache in which he took pride, and good quality clothing described by his loyal secretary: "General Zapata's dress until his death was a charro outfit: tight-fitting black cashmere pants with silver buttons, a broad charro hat, a fine linen shirt or jacket, a scarf around his neck, boots of a single piece, Amozoqueña-style spurs, and a pistol at his belt." In an undated studio photo, Zapata is dressed in a standard business suit and tie, projecting an image of a man of means.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Anenecuilco was a mixed Spanish-speaking mestizo and indigenous Nahuatl-speaking town. It had a long history of protesting the local haciendas taking community members' land, and its leaders gathered colonial-era documentation of their land titles to prove their claims. Some of the colonial documentation was in Nahuatl, with contemporary translations to Spanish for use in legal cases in the Spanish courts. As referenced above, one eyewitness account by Luz Jiménez of Milpa Alta states that Emiliano Zapata spoke Nahuatl fluently when his forces arrived in her community.

1909–1910: First political forays

In 1909, an important meeting was called by the elders of Anenecuilco, whose chief elder was José Merino. He announced "my intention to resign from my position due to my old age and limited abilities to continue the fight for the land rights of the village." The meeting was used as a time for discussion and nomination of individuals as a replacement for Merino as the president of the village council. The elders on the council were so well respected by the village men that no one would dare to override their nominations or vote for an individual against the advice of the current council at that time. The nominations made were Modesto González, Bartolo Parral, and Emiliano Zapata. After the nominations were closed, a vote was taken and Zapata became the new council president without contest.

Although Zapata had turned 30 only a month before, voters knew that it was necessary to elect someone respected by the community who would be responsible for the village. Even though he was relatively young, Anenecuilco was ready to hand over the leadership to him without any worry of failure. Before he was elected he had shown the village his nature by helping to lead a campaign in opposition to the candidate Díaz had chosen governor. Even though Zapata's efforts failed, he was able to create and cultivate relationships with political authority figures that would prove useful for him.

Zapata became a leading figure in the village of Anenecuilco, where his family had lived for many generations, though he did not take the title of Don, as was custom for someone of his status. Instead, the Anenecuilcans referred to Zapata affectionately as "Miliano" and later as pobrecito (poor little-one) after his death.

Mexican Revolution

The flawed 1910 elections were a major reason for the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Porfirio Díaz was being threatened by the candidacy of Francisco I. Madero. Zapata, seeing an opportunity to promote land reform in Mexico, joined with Madero and his Constitutionalists, who included Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa, whom he perceived to be the best chance for genuine change in the country. Although he was wary of Madero, Zapata cooperated with him when Madero made vague promises about land reform in his Plan of San Luis Potosí. Land reform was the central feature of Zapata's political vision.

Zapata joined Madero's campaign against President Díaz. The first military campaign of Zapata was the capture of the Hacienda of Chinameca. When Zapata's army captured Cuautla after a six-day battle on 19 May 1911, it became clear that Díaz would not hold on to power for long.

During his interim presidency, Francisco León de la Barra tasked General Victoriano Huerta to suppress revolutionaries in Morelos. Huerta was to disarm revolutionaries peacefully if possible, but could use force. In August 1911, Huerta led 1,000 Federal troops to Cuernavaca, which Madero saw as provocative. Writing the Minister of the Interior, Zapata demanded the Federal troops withdraw from Morelos, saying "I won't be responsible for the blood that is going to flow if the Federal forces remain."

Although Madero's Plan of San Luis Potosí specified the return of village land and won the support of peasants seeking land reform, he was not ready to implement radical change. Madero simply demanded that "Public servants act 'morally' in enforcing the law ...". Upon seeing the response by villagers, Madero offered formal justice in courts to individuals who had been wronged by others with regard to agrarian politics. Zapata decided that on the surface it seemed as though Madero was doing good things for the people of Mexico, but Zapata did not know the level of sincerity in Madero's actions and thus did not know if he should support him completely.

Compromises between the Madero and Zapata failed in November 1911, days after Madero was elected president. Zapata believed that Madero was abandoning the principles of the revolution, prioritizing his own political ambitions, and repressing those who demanded land reform. Zapata declared Madero illegitimate, calling for his removal and proposing Pascual Orozco, and later Zapata himself, as the rightful revolutionary leader. Zapata vowed that his forces would continue fighting until the original revolutionary goals were met, refusing compromises with the existing government. Zapata and Otilio Montaño Sánchez, a former school teacher, fled to the mountains of southwest Puebla. There they promulgated the most radical reform plan in Mexico, the Plan of Ayala (Plan de Ayala). The plan declared Madero a traitor, and named as head of the revolution Pascual Orozco, the victorious general who captured Ciudad Juárez in 1911 forcing the resignation of Díaz. He outlined a plan for true land reform.

Personal life

Children

Zapata fathered a total of 16 known children with 9 women. Because Zapata is believed to have had relationships with as many as 14 women, there is some conjecture that he may have had more children who are unaccounted for.

With Inés Alfaro Aguilar, he had his first five documented children: Guadalupe, Nicolás, Juan, Ponciano and María Elena.

When the Porfirian dictatorship fell, on 20 August 1911, he married Josefa "La Generala" Espejo Merino, with whom he had two children. The first, a boy named Felipe Zapata Espejo, was born around 1912 on El Jilguero hill and died at the age of five after being bitten by a rattlesnake. The second child was a girl, Josefa Zapata Espejo, born around 1913 in Tlaltizapán and who died a year before Felipe, around 1916, as a result of a scorpion sting.

With Margarita Sáenz Ugalde, he had three children: Luis Eugenio, Margarita, and Gabriel Zapata Sáenz, the latter two of whom died shortly after birth.

With Petra Portillo Torres, he had a daughter, Ana María Zapata Portillo, born on 22 June 1915, in Cuautla. She was aware of her father's legacy from a very early age, and this made her continue his work of dedication to agrarian rights, serving as treasurer of the ejido of Cuautla, as ejidataria of Cuautla, as municipal councilor and municipal trustee. She died on 28 February 2010, in Cuautla, and was buried in the Municipal Pantheon of Cuautla.

With María de Jesús Pérez Caballero, native of Coahuixtla, he had Mateo Emiliano Zapata Pérez, who was born on 21 September 1917, in Temilpa Viejo, Tlaltizapán, Morelos, and died on 10 January 2007, in Cuautla. He was buried in the Cuautla Municipal Pantheon.

With Georgina Piñeiro, he had Diego Zapata Piñeiro, who was born in Tlaltizapán on 13 December 1916, and died on 20 December 2008, in Mexico City. He was buried in the Cuautla Municipal Pantheon.

With Gregoria Zúñiga Benítez, he had María Luisa Zapata Zúñiga, born in Quilamula, Morelos, on 21 June 1916, and died in 1935 of meningitis, leaving no descendants.

Sexuality

According to the book The Album of Amada Díaz written by Ricardo Orozco and based on the diaries of Amada Díaz, daughter of Porfirio Díaz, Zapata had a very good friendship with Ignacio de la Torre y Mier, Amada's husband. The exact nature of their relationship has faced scrutiny over time, with some speculating that the two may have had an affair.

Zapata and Mier met in 1906, when Zapata was working in the stables of the Hacienda de San Carlos Borromeo. Mier, a closeted homosexual, fell in love with Zapata and decided to take him to work at his ranch in Mexico City. An entry in Mier's wife's journal states that she once saw the two "wallowing in the stables".

Years later, as a politician and a businessman, Mier financed a failed effort to stifle the Mexican Revolution. After the revolution, Venustiano Carranza, one of its leaders, ordered Mier's imprisonment. Zapata reportedly looked after Mier while he was in prison and eventually helped to free him, adding to historians' speculation about their relationship.

Zapata's close relationship with fellow revolutionary Manuel "El Ave Negra" Palafox, who acted as both an emissary and personal secretary, has also drawn scrutiny. Palafox's sexuality was an open secret among revolutionary troops. However, his indiscretion angered Zapata. Palafox's dismissal, rumored to follow his being discovered during a sexual encounter, is widely believed to be a result of Palafox's sexual orientation. Zapata considered having Palafox shot, but having recently ordered the execution of another prominent general, he did not want to cause reputational damage to the movement. Palafox was instead reassigned.

Assassination

Eliminating Zapata was a top priority for President Carranza. Carranza was unwilling to compromise with domestic foes and wanted to demonstrate to Mexican elites and to American interests that Carranza was the "only viable alternative to both anarchy and radicalism." In mid-March 1919, General Pablo González ordered his subordinate Jesús Guajardo to begin operations against the Zapatistas in the mountains around Huautla. But when González later discovered Guajardo carousing in a cantina, he had him arrested, and a public scandal ensued.

On 21 March, Zapata attempted to smuggle in a note to Guajardo, inviting him to switch sides. The note, however, never reached Guajardo but instead wound up on González's desk. González devised a plan to use this note to his advantage. He accused Guajardo of not only being a drunk, but of being a traitor. After reducing Guajardo to tears, González explained to him that he could recover from this disgrace if he feigned a defection to Zapata. So Guajardo wrote to Zapata telling him that he would bring over his men and supplies if certain guarantees were promised. Zapata answered Guajardo's letter on 1 April 1919, agreeing to all of Guajardo's terms.

Zapata suggested a mutiny on 4 April. Guajardo replied that his defection should wait until a new shipment of arms and ammunition arrived sometime between the 6th and the 10th. By the 7th, the plans were set: Zapata ordered Guajardo to attack the Federal garrison at Jonacatepec because the garrison included troops who had defected from Zapata. Pablo González and Guajardo notified the Jonacatepec garrison ahead of time, and a mock battle was staged on 9 April. At the conclusion of the mock battle, the former Zapatistas were arrested and shot. Convinced that Guajardo was sincere, Zapata agreed to a final meeting where Guajardo would defect.

On 10 April 1919, Guajardo invited Zapata to a meeting, intimating that he intended to defect to the revolutionaries. However, when Zapata arrived at the Hacienda de San Juan, in Chinameca, Ayala municipality, Guajardo's men riddled him with bullets.

Zapata's body was photographed, displayed for 24 hours, and then buried in Cuautla. Pablo González wanted the body photographed, so that there would be no doubt that Zapata was dead: "it was an actual fact that the famous jefe of the southern region had died." Although Mexico City newspapers had called for Zapata's body to be brought to the capital, Carranza did not do so. However, Zapata's clothing was displayed outside a newspaper's office across from the Alameda Park in the capital.

Immediate aftermath

Although Zapata's assassination weakened his forces in Morelos, the Zapatistas continued the fight against Carranza. For Carranza the death of Zapata was the removal of an ongoing threat, for many Zapata's assassination undermined "worker and peasant support for Carranza and Pablo González." Obregón seized on the opportunity to attack Carranza and González, Obregón's rival candidate for the presidency, by saying "this crime reveals a lack of ethics in some members of the government and also of political sense, since peasant votes in the upcoming election will now go to whoever runs against Pablo González."

In spite of González's attempts to sully the name of Zapata and the Plan of Ayala during his 1920 campaign for the presidency, the people of Morelos continued to support Zapatista generals, providing them with weapons, supplies and protection. Carranza was wary of the threat of U.S. intervention, and Zapatista generals decided to take a conciliatory approach. Bands of Zapatistas started surrendering in exchange for amnesties, and many Zapatista generals went on to become local authorities, such as Fortino Ayaquica who became municipal president of Tochimilco. Other generals such as Genovevo de la O remained active in small-scale guerrilla warfare.

As Venustiano Carranza moved to curb his former allies and now rivals in 1920 to impose a civilian, Ignacio Bonillas, as his successor in the presidency, Obregón sought to align himself with the Zapatista movement against that of Carranza. Genovevo de la O and Magaña supported him in the coup by former Constitutionalists, fighting in Morelos against Carranza and helping prompt Carranza to flee Mexico City toward Veracruz in May 1920. "Obregón and Genovevo de la O entered Mexico City in triumph."

Zapatistas were given important posts in the interim government of Adolfo de la Huerta and the administration of Álvaro Obregón, following his election to the presidency after the coup. Zapatistas had almost total control of the state of Morelos, where they carried out a program of agrarian reform and land redistribution based on the provisions of the Plan of Ayala and with the support of the government.

According to "La Demócrata", after Zapata's assassination, "in the consciousness of the natives", Zapata "had taken on the proportions of a myth" because he had "given them a formula of vindication against old offenses." Mythmaking would continue for decades after Zapata was gunned down.

Legacy

Zapata's influence continues to this day, particularly in revolutionary tendencies in southern Mexico. He came to be viewed as a martyr to the cause of land reform after his murder. Even though Mexico still has not implemented the sort of land reform he wanted, he is remembered as a visionary who fought for his countrymen.

Zapata's Plan of Ayala influenced Article 27 of the progressive 1917 Constitution of Mexico that codified an agrarian reform program. Even though the Mexican Revolution did restore some land that had been taken under Díaz, the land reform on the scale imagined by Zapata was never enacted. However, a great deal of the significant land distribution which Zapata sought would later be enacted after Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas took office in 1934. Cárdenas would fulfill not only the land distribution policies written in Article 27, but other reforms written in the Mexican Constitution as well.

There are controversies about the portrayal of Emiliano Zapata and his followers, whether they were bandits or revolutionaries. At the outbreak of the Revolution, "Zapata's agrarian revolt was soon construed as a 'caste war' [race war], in which members of an 'inferior race' were captained by a 'modern Attila'".

Zapata is now one of the most revered national heroes of Mexico. To many Mexicans, especially the peasant and indigenous citizens, Zapata was a practical revolutionary who sought the implementation of liberties and agrarian rights outlined in the Plan of Ayala. He was a realist with the goal of achieving political and economic emancipation of the peasants in southern Mexico and leading them out of severe poverty.

Many popular organizations take their name from Zapata, most notably the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional or EZLN in Spanish), the Neozapatismo group that emerged in the state of Chiapas in 1983 and precipitated the 1994 indigenous Zapatista uprising which still continues in Chiapas. Towns, streets, and housing developments called "Emiliano Zapata" are common across the country and he has, at times, been depicted on Mexican banknotes.

According to Eric Wolf, Zapata and his movement have also been credited with contributing towards Christian socialism and liberation theology. Zapata and his agrarian revolutionaries fought under the emblem of Virgin of Guadalupe, which highlighted the Catholic nature of the movement. Unlike the Constitutionalists and Obregonistas, Zapata's revolutionary faction was considered friendly towards the Catholic Church. As the followers of Zapata were committed Catholics and were known for tucking pictures of Virgin Mary into their hats for protection, many Cristeros strongly admired Zapata during the Cristero War.

In popular culture

Zapata has been depicted in movies, comics, books, music, and clothing. For example, there was the stage musical Zapata (1980), written by Harry Nilsson and Perry Botkin, with a libretto by Allan Katz, which ran for 16 weeks at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut. A movie called Zapata: El sueño de un héroe (Zapata: A Hero's Dream) was produced in 2004, starring Mexican actors Alejandro Fernandez, Jaime Camil, and Lucero. There is also a sub-genre of the Spaghetti Western called the Zapata Western, which features stories set during the Mexican Revolution.

Marlon Brando played Emiliano Zapata in the award-winning movie based on his life, Viva Zapata! in 1952. The film co-starred Anthony Quinn, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the role of Zapata's brother. The director was Elia Kazan and the writer was John Steinbeck.

Emiliano Zapata is a major character in The Friends of Pancho Villa (1996), by James Carlos Blake

Emiliano Zapata is referenced in the musical Ragtime in the number "Epilogue: Ragtime/ Wheels of a Dream (reprise)", mentioning that one of the characters goes Mexico to join Zapata's revolution at the end of the musical. This is the same as in the novel which the musical was based on.

Emiliano Zapata is referenced in the songs "Calm Like a Bomb" by American rock band Rage Against the Machine from their album "The Battle of Los Angeles." and "Zapata's Blood" from their album "The Battle of Mexico City". Zapata is also referenced in the song "Veracruz" by Warren Zevon which is about the Mexican revolution and the invasion of Veracruz.

In the 2011 Mexican TV series El Encanto del Aguila Zapata is played by the Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta.

In December 2019, an arts show commemorating the 100 year anniversary of his death was held at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The show featured 141 works. A painting called La Revolución depicted Zapata as intentionally effeminate, riding an erect horse, nude except for high heels and a pink hat. According to the artist, he created the painting to combat machismo. The painting caused protests from the farmer's union and admirers of Zapata. His grandson Jorge Zapata González threatened to sue if the painting was not removed. There was a clash between supporters of the painting and detractors at the museum. A compromise was reached with some of Zapata's family, a label was placed next to the painting outlining their disagreement with the painting.

Sobriquets

"Calpuleque" (Náhuatl) – leader, chief

"El Tigre del Sur" – Tiger of the South

"El Tigre" – The Tiger

"El Tigrillo" – Little Tiger

"El Caudillo del Sur" – Caudillo of the South

"El Atila del Sur" – The Attila of the South (pejorative)