Zapata

Emiliano Zapata was born into a family that was not poor. They enjoyed a relatively decent life in Anenecuilco, Morelos.   Although Gabriel Zapata and his wife Cleofas Salazar, Emiliano Zapata’s parents, weren’t necessarily affluent, they lived comfortably due to having land in which the family was able to make a living without succumbing to debt slavery to an haciendado. Zapata was well aware of the fact that land ownership was the deciding factor between living comfortably and living in poverty. It is to no surprise that Emiliano Zapata’s slogan was "Tierra y Libertad" which translates to Land and Liberty.
Zapata had no intent to conform to the politics of the day. As Robert Million iterates, “Early in life he established himself as a fighter and leader against the status quo.”(13) As a result of this drive and determination which he had, his village elected him to be their defense committee president. In the book, his rebellious characteristic is first seen when Zapata is angered because his village was being appropriated by the neighboring hacienda of El Hospital. That is the main reason why he jumped at the opportunity to support Francisco Madero who was running for president. Zapata “enlisted followers and, after contacting Madero… initiated the revolution in Morelos. (14) Madero initially promised to bring land reform and justice to the peasant villagers. Zapata, along with Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco, all but guaranteed Madero’s victory over the current president Porfirio Diaz by capturing Cuautla and Ciudad Juarez. After Madero became president, he started to get cold feet and began backing out of his promises. He even tried to bribe Zapata to abandon his revolutionary ideology by offering him “an hacienda in the state of Vera Cruz and the right to maintain a small, armed personal escort.”(15) Zapata quickly rejected his offer and reiterated his unadulterated stance on agrarian reform.   It was very apparent that his intuitive nature was to fight for...