Emiliano Zapata In The Mexican Revolution

Emiliano Zapata was an important figure in the Mexican Revolution where he formed and commanded the Liberation Army of the South. He was born on August 8, 1879 in Anenecuilco, Mexico. In 1897 he was arrested because he took part in a protest formed by the peasants of his village against the plantation that had seized their lands. After he was pardoned, he continued to agitate among the peasants, and was drafted into the Mexican army. In 1909 he went to his home village of Anenecuilco, where he was elected as the village’s council board president. Zapata became a leading figure in Anenecuilco, and became involved in the struggles of the local peasant farmers. There were many conflicts between villagers and landowners over the theft of village land, and at one point the landowners set an entire village on fire in response to peasant protests.

At one point, Zapata and a group of peasants took back the land that had been seized by the plantation by force and distributed it among themselves. Mexican president Porfirio Díaz was being threatened by Francisco Madero, who had lost the 1910 election to Díaz but had fled the country, declared himself president and then returned to confront Díaz. Zapata saw an opportunity to promote land reform in Mexico, and he made an alliance with Madero. In 1910, Zapata joined Madero’s campaign against President Díaz, taking on an important role as the general of the Ejército Libertador del Sur (Liberation Army of the South). His army captured Cuautla after a six-day battle in May 1911. When Díaz’s men withdrew, Zapata’s forces took control of the town. A week later, he resigned and headed to Europe, leaving behind a provisional president. Madero entered Mexico City in victory, and Zapata met him there to ask him to pressure the provisional president to return misappropriated land to the original