Emiliano Zapata

Emiliano Zapata

(San Miguel Anenecuilco, Mexico, 1879 - Morelos, 1919) Pedegrales Mexican revolutionary. Son of a poor peasant family, Emiliano Zapata worked as a labourer and sharecropper and received a poor schooling.

He was 23 years old when it supported the Board of Cuautla in their claims by ejidos de Morelos, his home State. Persecution waged against the Junta by the porfirista regime led to Cuernavaca and then to Mexico as master of the horse from the army.

Back in Morelos, Emiliano Zapata returned to the defense of communal lands and, in 1909, he was appointed head of the Board of Ayala. In front of a small armed group, occupied the lands of the Hospital and distributed them among the peasants.

While the Governor of Morelos, representative of the interests of the landowners, sent forces against it, Genovevo de la O revolted in Cuernavaca. In the course of the next two years, other peasants rose in arms, among them Tepepa, Merino and Madero Torres Burgos, allied with Zapata. In March 1911 he joined the plan de San Luis Potosí proclaimed by Francisco i. Madero and, on the death of Torres Burgos, he was appointed «Supreme Leader of the revolutionary movement of the South».

After the fall of the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, soon appeared the discrepancies between Zapata, who demanded the immediate distribution of the lands of the estates between the peasants, and Madero, who in turn demanded the disarmament of the guerrillas. Finally, Zapata accepted licensing and disarmament of their troops, hoping that the election of Madero as President opened the doors to reform.

This chosen in 1911, and the failure of new talks, Zapata drew up in November of the same year the plan of Ayala, which declared Madero unable to meet the goals of the revolution and announced the expropriation of one-third of the lands of landlords in Exchange for compensation, if it is accepted, and by force if not. Those who adhered to the plan, who was elected head of the revolution to Pascual Orozco, flew the flag of the land reform as a priority and requested the resignation of the President.

Government forces forced Zapata to retire Guerrero, but the murder of Madero in February 1913 by order of Victoriano Huertachanged the situation. Zapata refused an offer from garden of join forces and supported the constitutionalists of Venustiano Carranza against the Constitutionalist. Appointed Chief of the revolution to the detriment of Orozco, which had been declared a traitor, he managed to defeat Huerta (1913).

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