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Zapata, Emiliano

Zapata, Emiliano
Zapata, Emiliano, c.1879-1919, Mexican revolutionary, b. Morelos. Zapata was of almost pure native descent. A tenant farmer, he occupied a social position between the peon and the ranchero, but he was a born leader who felt keenly the injustices suffered by his people. About 1908, because of his attempt to recover village lands taken over by a rancher, he was impressed into a brief service in the army. Late in 1910, as Madero rose against Porfirio Díaz, Zapata took up arms with the cry of "land and liberty." With an army of native people recruited from plantations and villages, he began to seize the land by force. Zapata supported Madero until he thought that land reform had been abandoned, then he turned and formulated his own agrarian program. This program, outlined in the Plan of Ayala (Nov., 1911), called for the return of the land to the indigenous people. In defense of his plan, Zapata held the field against successive federal governments under Madero, Victoriano Huerta, and Venustiano Carranza. The peasants rallied to Zapata's support, and by the end of 1911 he controlled most of Morelos; later he enlarged his power to cover Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla, and at times even the Federal District. After the overthrow of Madero, Zapata in the south and Carranza, Obregón, and Villa in the north were the chief leaders against Huerta. When Carranza seized the executive power, Zapata and Villa warred against him. Zapata's forces occupied Mexico City three times in 1914-15 (once with the followers of Villa), but finally retired to Morelos, where Zapata resisted until he was treacherously killed by an emissary of Carranza. To his enemies, Zapata was the apotheosis of nihilism, and his movement was only large-scale brigandage. To the indigenous peoples, he was a savior and the hero of the revolution. Although his attacks at times seemed to be mere banditry, his objective was not loot; he was single in purpose. His movement, zapatismo, was the Mexican agrarian movement in its purest and simplest form, and the agrarian movement was one of the chief aims and chief results of the revolution. As zapatismo became synonymous with agrarismo, so it did with indianismo, the native cultural movement which is the basis of nationalism in Mexico. Although illiterate and in command of illiterate men, Zapata was one of the most significant figures in Mexico during the period 1910 to 1919. Even while he lived he became legendary, celebrated in innumerable tales and ballads. His grave is revered by the native peoples of S Mexico.

See biographies by R. P. Millon (1969), J. Womack, Jr. (1968), and R. Parkinson (1980); F. Tannenbaum, The Mexican Agrarian Revolution (1929); H. H. Dunn, The Crimson Jester (1934, repr. 1976); E. N. Simpson, The Ejido (1937); F. McLynn, Villa and Zapata (2000).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Zapata, Emiliano

Zapata, 1912

(born Aug. 8, 1879, Anenecuilco, Mex.—died April 10, 1919, Morelos) Mexican revolutionary and champion of the rural poor. A mestizo peasant, he was orphaned at age 17 and took responsibility for his brothers and sisters. He led his neighbours in protests against the hacienda that had appropriated their land and eventually led them in taking the land by force. He organized a small force to help Francisco Madero unseat Porfirio Díaz. Dissatisfied with the pace of land reform under Madero, Zapata led a guerrilla campaign that took land back from the haciendas and returned it to the communal Indian ejidos. He was instrumental in the defeat of Gen. Victoriano Huerta after Huerta deposed and assassinated Madero. With Pancho Villa he occupied Mexico City and began to implement land reform, but he was tricked, ambushed, and killed by the forces of Venustiano Carranza, whom the U.S. had recognized as president.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Zapata: El sueño de un héroe

zapata: El sueño del héroe, (in English: zapata: The dream of a hero) also titled simply Zapata, is a Mexican motion picture first released in 2004.

This fictionalized portrayal of Emiliano Zapata as an Indigenous Mexican shaman, directed by Alfonso Arau, was reportedly the most expensive Mexican movie ever produced, with a massive ad campaign, and the largest ever opening in the nation's history. Unusual in the Mexican film industry, Zapata was financed independently.

The main character was played by Alejandro Fernández (singer, and casual actor) son of Vicente Fernández (mostly known for his "charro" music and "humorous-macho" movie roles in the late 60s). Infested with non-sense script lines such as, "Un soldado sin rifle, es como un taco sin tortilla" or "A soldier without a rifle is like a taco without a tortilla", this movie was panned by the critics and audiences alike. Against all expectations, Alejandro Fernández didn't sing during the movie while mounting a horse (a family icon for the Fernandez's). Also starring telenovela actress and singer Lucero, and an array of Televisa (Main Mexican Pop-culture Channel in alliance with Univision) artists such as Patricia Velásquez and Jaime Camil, the movie was panned by critics, due to continuity issues, as well as concerns about the portrayal of Zapata, along with some rumors that he was of the homosexual persuasion plus semi-nudes of historical figures. Although many of the marketing and promotional ideas utilised in the release of the film are "revolutionary" in Mexico, after its opening day, the movie performed poorly in movie theatres, far below expectations, and, as of 28 May 2004, had yet to find any distributors outside of Latin America. Ironcally, Alfonso Arau's expectations were to receive the Oscar and publicly stated, "If filmakers didn't think about the Academy Awards, we wouldn't know what we're doing".

Zapata made its U.S. debut at the Santa Fe Film Festival on December 3, 2004 at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There were some rumors that Zapata's set design and some of its props were also used for "Amor Real", a major Mexican soap opera project (since they are both in the same style), however these rumors were proved false, since a lot of the props from "Amor Real" were actually recycled in another project (this time in a kid-soap style) called: "Amy, La Niña De La Mochila Azul", in which these sets were merely painted in bright colors to mimic a beach-side village, which couldn't have been done since the props from Zapata were ruins and computer generated graphics.

Plot

The film happens in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first nineteen years of the twentieth, during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (Justo Martínez), the presidency of Francisco I. Madero, the military revolt of Victoriano Huerta (Jesús Ochoa), the Convention of Generals and, finally, the death of Zapata (Alejandro Fernández), already in the constitutionalist stage of Venustiano Carranza. The film does not try to be a chair of history but a fable that obtains the identification of the spectators with the hero, through the successive confrontation of the protagonist with the power, represented in the antagonistic figure of Victoriano Huerta. In it, Emiliano Zapata appears like predestining, "the signal" in his chest, the mark or spot with the form of a little hand is the sign that identifies him as "the one" by the Huehuetlatolli (the heirs of the tradition) to be their guide. Thus, we see the birth of Emiliano, where he is recognized like the possible leader of his town. Zapata will have to break with his vision of the "real reality" and to enter in that other magical knowledge of the Mexican tradition and its inescrutable religious "sincretismo".

Cast (in credits order)

Soundtrack

External links

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