Emiliano Zapata was born on Aug. 8, 1879, in Anenecuilco, Mexico and died on April 10, 1919, in the state of Morelos, Mexico. He was a Mexican revolutionary, champion of agrarianism, and fought in guerrilla actions during and after theMexican Revolution (1911-17).
Early career. Zapata was the son of a mestizo peasant whotrained and sold horses. He was orphaned at the age of 17 and hadto look after his brothers and sisters. In 1897 he was arrestedbecause he took part in a protest by the peasants of his villageagainst the hacienda that had appropriated their lands. Afterobtaining a pardon, he continued agitation among the peasants,and so he was drafted into the army. He served for six months, atwhich point he was discharged to a landowner to train his horses.In 1909 his neighbors elected him president of the board ofdefense for their village. After useless negotiations with thelandowners, Zapata and a group of peasants occupied by force theland that had been appropriated by the haciendas and distributedit among themselves.
Francisco Madero, a landowner of the north, had lost theelections in 1910 to the dictator Porfirio Dêaz and had fled tothe United States, where he proclaimed himself president and thenreentered Mexico, aided by many peasant guerrillas. Zapata andhis friends decided to support Madero. In March 1911 Zapata'stiny force took the city of Cuautla and closed the road to thecapital, Mexico City. A week later, Dêaz resigned and left forEurope, appointing a provisional president. Zapata, with 5,000men, entered Cuernavaca, capital of the state of Morelos.
Madero entered Mexico City in triumph. Zapata met Madero thereand asked him to exert pressure on the provisional president toreturn the land to the ejidos (the former Indian communal systemof landownership). Madero insisted on the disarmament of theguerrillas and offered Zapata a recompense so that he could buyland, an offer that Zapata rejected. Zapata began to disarm hisforces but stopped when the provisional president sent the armyagainst the guerrillas.
The Plan of Ayala. Madero was elected president in November1911, and Zapata met with him again but without success. With thehelp of a teacher, Otilio Montano, Zapata prepared the Plan ofAyala, which declared Madero incapable of fulfilling the goals ofthe revolution. The signers renewed the revolution and promisedto appoint a provisional president until there could beelections. They also vowed to return the stolen land to theejidos by expropriating, with payment, a third of the area of thehaciendas; those haciendas that refused to accept this plan wouldhave their lands expropriated without compensation. Zapataadopted the slogan "Tierra y Libertad" ("Land and Liberty").
In the course of his campaigns, Zapata distributed lands takenfrom the haciendas, which he frequently burned withoutcompensation. He often ordered executions and expropriations, andhis forces did not always abide by the laws of war. Butunderneath his picturesque appearance--drooping moustache, coldeyes, big sombrero--was a passionate man with simple ideals thathe tried to put into practice. The Zapatistas avoided battle byadopting guerrilla tactics. They farmed their land with rifles ontheir shoulders, went when called to fight, and returned to theirplows at the end of a battle or skirmish. Sometimes Zapataassembled thousands of men; he paid them by imposing taxes on theprovincial cities and extorting from the rich. Their arms werecaptured from federal troops.
When General Victoriano Huerta deposed and assassinated Madero inFebruary 1913, Zapata and his men arrived at the outskirts ofMexico City and rejected Huerta's offer to unite with him. Thisprevented Huerta from sending all his troops against theguerrillas of the north, who, under the direction of a moderatepolitician, Venustiano Carranza, had organized theConstitutionalist Army to defeat the new dictator. Huerta wasforced to abandon the country in July 1914.
Zapata knew that Carranza's Constitutionalists feared him. Heattracted some intellectuals from Mexico City, among them AntonioDêaz Soto y Gama, who became his theorist and later establishedan agrarian party. When Huerta fell, Zapata invited theConstitutionalists to accept his Plan of Ayala and warned themthat he would continue fighting independently until the plan wasput to practical use.
In October 1914 Carranza called an assembly of all therevolutionary forces. Pancho Villa, who commanded the mostimportant part of the army of the north, refused to attend themeeting because he considered Mexico City as enemy ground. Theassembly was moved to Aguascalientes, where both the Villistasand the Zapatistas attended. These two groups constituted amajority, and the convention agreed to appoint General EulalioGutierrez as provisional president. Carranza rejected thisdecision and marched with his government to Veracruz.
War broke out between the moderates (Carrancistas) and therevolutionaries (Conventionists). On November 24, Zapata orderedhis army (now called the Liberation Army of the South andnumbering 25,000 men) to occupy Mexico City. The people of thecapital watched in astonishment as the peasants went from door todoor humbly asking for food and drink, instead of assaultingpalaces and violating women.
Two weeks later, Zapata and Villa met on the outskirts of thecapital and then visited the National Palace. The two leaderspromised to fight together until they put a civilian president inthe palace, and Villa accepted the Plan of Ayala.
Agrarian reforms.
Zapata created agrarian commissions todistribute the land; he spent much time supervising their work tobe sure they showed no favoritism and that the landowners did notcorrupt its members. He established a Rural Loan Bank, thecountry's first agricultural credit organization; he also triedto reorganize the sugar industry of Morelos into cooperatives. InApril 1915 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's personalrepresentative in Mexico met with Zapata; Zapata asked thatWilson receive his delegation, but Wilson had recognized theCarranza government (the convention's government under GutiŽrrezhad dispersed).
Meanwhile, the war continued. Zapata occupied the city of Pueblaand won various battles, advised by some professional soldierswho had joined his side. In 1917 Carranza's generals defeatedVilla and isolated Zapata. Carranza then called together aconstitutional convention but did not invite Zapata; theconvention approved and passed a constitution and electedCarranza as president of the republic.
A new U.S. envoy, William Gates, visited Zapata and thenpublished a series of articles in the United States; hecontrasted the order of the Zapata-controlled zone with the chaosof the constitutional zone and said that "the true socialrevolution can be found among the Zapatistas." When thesearticles were read to Zapata, he said, "Now I can die in peace.Finally they have done us justice."
Soon afterward General Pablo Gonzalez, who directed thegovernment operations against Zapata, had Colonel Jesus Guajardopretend to want to join the agrarians and contrive a secretmeeting with Zapata at the hacienda of Chinameca in Morelos.
There, Zapata was ambushed and shot to death by Carrancistasoldiers. His body was carried to Cuautla and buriedthere.(V.Al.)