Zapata Project 1

Emiliano Zapata was born in Anenecuilco, in the southern state of Morelos, on August 8th,
1879. He was born to a family of cattle ranchers, but by the age of sixteen, he was an orphan.
As a young man, he participated in meetings, representing farmers in their demand for justice
from the wealthy landowners who usurped their lands, accepted their work in exchange for unjust pay
and then refused to share the profits of the worker’s efforts. When he participated in a meeting to
demand the restitution of lands to farmers in Ayutla, the government of then president Porfirio Diaz
punished him by drafting him into the ninth regiment of Cuernavaca. He was honorably discharged less
than a year later.
On September 12th 1909, Zapata was elected president of the
Committee for the Defense of Anenecuilco Territories. But in
response to Zapata’s requests on behalf of the peasants, the
landowners stepped up repression against the community.
Meanwhile, President Diaz had troubles of his own.
Political enemy Francisco Madero was back. While running for
president against Diaz, he had been arrested and released on bail
only after Diaz had been declared president. But Madero jumped
bail, fleeing to the U.S. and in 1910, returned to lead a revolt
against the Díaz administration based on the San Luis Potosi
Plan, which called for the withdrawal of Diaz from power and included clauses
for the restitution of lands to underprivileged farmers.
Zapata, waging his own battles against the wealthy landowners in Morelos, decides to support
Madero, joining the revolution in 1911 and successfully taking several cities such as Jojutla,
Chinameca and Cuernavaca; lands he later returned to the peasants.
The Maderistas triumphed, pushing Porfirio Diaz into exile later that
same year, but Zapata refused to disarm until all lands were returned to the
natives. Meanwhile, the landowners began to campaign against Zapata,
accusing him of being a bandit.
On November 28th of that same year, Zapata publishes his Plan de
Ayala, declaring Madero an enemy of the revolution for balking at putting the
San Luis Potosi Plan into effect. He then put forth a detailed plan to confiscate
a third of all lands owned by the hacenderos and return them to the peasantry.
He called this document the Plan de Ayala. Among other things, the plan
called Madero a traitor to the people who elected him president, states that a
third of all usurped lands controlled by the landlords and bosses would be
returned to the citizens of Mexico and called for a council of delegates
representing each state to select an interim President of the Republic and a
council of revolutionary chiefs to select a governor for each state. It was in
these days when Zapata first used his now famous slogan of Tierra y Libertad.