Who Is Emiliano Zapata?

Emiliano Zapata has garnered a cult of personality that shares a common trait with myths from the beginning of time in which people would create gods to worship and heroes to admire. Zapata was a revolutionary during the Mexican Revolution who stands out as one of the most admirable figures in Mexican history. From the state of Morelos near the city of Mexico, he started a practical movement for land redistribution in his home state that transforms into an ideology of rebelling against bad government and a true representation of the majority of Mexico. Zapata’s myth by this time has become ubiquitous in Mexico in which highways, streets, and a statue show his significance in Mexican history and various books were written about his life and
For its time the plan would be revolutionary, but looking into it is rather conservative. The way of seeing this is in article seven, which says “…the lands, forest and waters are monopolized in only a few hands: for this reason, we expropriate without previous indemnization one third of those monopolies from the powerful proprietors …this shall correct the lack of prosperity and increase the well-being of the Mexicans.” This is conservative compared to communist or socialist standard, since it allows the hacendado to keep two-thirds of their lands, yet this would be the necessary step to start the issue of agrarian reform. This document also held an almost sacred level for Zapata and the Zapatista since this represented Zapata’s vision of working society for Morelos. His idea of land redistribution and comes from his motivation for helping the campesinos of Morelos. Campesinos as Womack says is a better term than peasant is since the latter seems exotic compared to the former, which means people from the field. One of the most admirable aspect of Zapata comes from his single-minded motivation to represent the campesino cause of agrarian reform, the fact coming from drafting this document when Francisco Madero broke too many promises about
As one song says, “una mujer se acerco / a Zapata desmayada,/ diciendole que Guajardo/ queria hacerle una celada.” In this corrido, Zapata foresaw the plan of Pablo Gonzalez, similar to a prophecy, yet he still goes to the Hacienda. The idea that Zapata would not go down without a fight would be present in this song since the singer by adding the idea that Zapata was suspicious of Guajardo. Another part of the myth of Zapata would be that he was wealthy. Corrido de la Triste Despedida de Emiliano Zapata would include various stanzas of farewell to the land of Mexico, from the mountains, valleys, caves, states, and to the people he cared about. This song also includes the lines that say, “…les encargo a mis muchachos/ Saquen todito el dinero/ que deje bien enterrado, / busquenlo cerro por cerro.” In this song, the singer uses Zapata as a mouthpiece to say what he will miss in this world and in the middle tells his children to find the money that he has hidden well around the hills. The idea of hidden wealth reflects the campesino believing that Zapata being a smart man would have left money for his family. This further places he idea that the singer would have heard the stories surrounding Zapata and incorporate it in his song to be heard wherever he went. These songs would help in spreading the myth of Zapata and would influence his image by becoming a national