Emiliano+Zapata

=Emiliano Zapata= (8/8/1879-4/10/1919) =¡Tierra y Libertad!= Emiliano Zapata was not born into a lower class family, never lived in a little hut, and never worked on large land owning haciendas. He was born in the village of Anenecuilco. His parents names were Gabriel Zapata and Cleofas Salazar and he was the ninth child out of ten. His parents were both peasants but they all lived better than the major portion of the mexican population.

Zapatas revolutionary career began in 1909 when he was selected by fellow villagers to travel to see the governor of Morelos so that they all could reclaim the lands taken from them by the local hacienda. Zapata could not get in contact with the governor and was refused a visit and sent back home. As soon as he realized that his task would not get accomplished playing by the governments rules, he began to organize a guerilla force of poor peasants.

Zapata was a supporter of Madero during Diaz' regime. Madero had the same ideas as Zapata did towards land reform and other policies. Unfortunately Madero made an agreement with Diaz at the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez. This removed Diaz from power but left almost everything from his regime intact. Once victory was achieved, Zapata rode into Mexico City to have a meeting with Madero. Madero wanted to re-establish order and to do that he wanted Zapata to disband his forces. Zapata wanted to begin the process of breaking down the haciendas and distributing the land to the nations farmers that need the land. Madero did not want to do this and so tried to bribe Zapata by giving him large amounts of land and his own hacienda. This is exactly what Zapata hated about Mexican government and what convinced Zapata to continue the revolution.

After this betrayal Zapata formulated his own program called the Plan de Ayala, which called for the return of the land to the indigenous people, It says the land taken by the haciendas should be given back to the people who have the title to them.

Zapata made the plan as soon as Madero became president and continued to follow it until his death in 1919. The same pattern would follow. The current president would either be murdered or he would flee the country and some revolutionary leader would assume power. After he assumed power he began to disregard his policies that he used to follow and began to be a tyrant until he was assassinated or he fled the country, and the process would continue. Emiliano Zapata did not follow this pattern. Year after year he and his band of Zapatistas would evade the federal army, raid haciendas, and distribute the land to the peasants. Zapata was the only revolutionary leader who gave so much back to the people. Even Pancho Villa did not give back all the land he recovered.

In 1919, Carranza was the current revolutionary leader-president gone bad. One of his generals expressed interest in joining Zapata's group. Zapata went to go meet him, and almost the minute he arrived, he was assassinated