Emiliano Zapata: His Life, Death, and Role in the Mexican Revolution

Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a revolutionary in Mexico. He was a key figure in the Mexican Revolt of the years 1910 until 1920, and also the primary leader of the people's revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos and the creator of the Zapatismo agrarian movement.


Zapata was born in the rural town of Anenecuilco in the state of Morelos, at the time of a period when peasant communities dealt with increasing pressure from the small-landowning class, which monopolized land and water resources for sugar-cane production with the support of totalitarian Porfirio Daz (President from the year 1877 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911).

Zapata was associated with political efforts against Daz and the landowning hacendados from an early age, and when the Revolution emerged in the year 1910, he was placed as a key figure in the peasant insurgence in Morelos. He established the Freedom Army of the South with the help of certain other peasant leaders, and he rapidly rose to become its undisputed head.

Let’s learn more about this historical figure through this book.