WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 If I asked you to close your eyes and, you know, 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:04.559 conjure up the ultimate image of a revolutionary 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:08.599 who appears, I'm willing to bet that for 90 % 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:11.240 of people, the image that resolves in the mind's 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:14.140 eye is Emiliano Zapata. Oh, absolutely. It's 00:00:14.140 --> 00:00:16.719 the sombrero, the bullet belt crisscrossed over 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.260 the chest like a bandolier, and that mustache, 00:00:19.539 --> 00:00:22.339 I mean, it's the most magnificent, thick mustache 00:00:22.339 --> 00:00:25.519 in the history of political rebellion. He is, 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:28.219 you could argue, the visual icon of the Mexican 00:00:28.219 --> 00:00:30.800 Revolution. It's an incredibly powerful image, 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:33.560 isn't it? It's an image that has been, well, 00:00:33.619 --> 00:00:35.579 commodified. It's printed on everything from 00:00:35.579 --> 00:00:38.700 pesos to protest banners, T -shirts, even hot 00:00:38.700 --> 00:00:42.100 sauce bottles for over 100 years. But the problem 00:00:42.100 --> 00:00:44.000 with that level of iconography is that it just 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.560 flattens the human being. Yes. It turns a really 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:49.700 complex historical figure into a logo. Exactly. 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:52.479 And with Zapata, that flattening effect has pulled 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:54.880 his memory into completely opposite directions. 00:00:55.159 --> 00:00:57.549 It's a tug of war. depending on who you asked 00:00:57.549 --> 00:01:00.570 in 1910 or, frankly, who you ask today, he was 00:01:00.570 --> 00:01:02.429 either the Attila of the South, you know, the 00:01:02.429 --> 00:01:04.349 savage bandit who wanted to burn civilization 00:01:04.349 --> 00:01:07.430 to the ground. The boogeyman. Or he was the Codillo 00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:11.049 of the South, a flawless, saintly hero of the 00:01:11.049 --> 00:01:13.620 peasantry who could do no wrong. And as is usually 00:01:13.620 --> 00:01:15.260 the case when you peel back the layers of history, 00:01:15.459 --> 00:01:17.680 the truth is far more complex, much messier, 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:21.079 and significantly more interesting than the caricature. 00:01:21.219 --> 00:01:23.359 The man behind the mustache wasn't a cartoon 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:25.799 character. And that is our mission for this deep 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:28.200 dive. We are going to dig into the primary source 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:31.019 material, the historical records, the biographies, 00:01:31.019 --> 00:01:34.340 and even some controversial diaries to unpack 00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:37.060 the real Emiliano Zapata. We want to introduce 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:40.019 you to a man who is a skilled horse whisperer, 00:01:40.019 --> 00:01:42.989 a surprisingly snappy dresser. a man who likely 00:01:42.989 --> 00:01:45.909 spoke Nahuatl as well as Spanish, and a rigid 00:01:45.909 --> 00:01:48.450 idealist who ended up fighting every single president 00:01:48.450 --> 00:01:50.650 who crossed his path. It is a story of betrayal, 00:01:50.890 --> 00:01:53.390 of radical politics, and some, well, some really 00:01:53.390 --> 00:01:56.090 surprising contradictions. And speaking of contradictions, 00:01:56.209 --> 00:01:59.370 here is the hook for later. If you think you 00:01:59.370 --> 00:02:01.769 know the story of the poor, uneducated peasant 00:02:01.769 --> 00:02:04.870 rising up from the dirt, you're going to be surprised. 00:02:05.549 --> 00:02:08.050 We're also going to get into some modern controversies 00:02:08.050 --> 00:02:10.969 regarding his personal life and sexuality that 00:02:10.969 --> 00:02:14.030 sparked literal riots in Mexico City as recently 00:02:14.030 --> 00:02:16.949 as 2019. That is a part of the history that often 00:02:16.949 --> 00:02:19.430 gets glossed over in the textbooks, but the sources 00:02:19.430 --> 00:02:21.569 on it are fascinating and they really challenge 00:02:21.569 --> 00:02:23.669 our understanding of the era. So let's start 00:02:23.669 --> 00:02:25.870 at the beginning. Or rather, let's start by dismantling 00:02:25.870 --> 00:02:28.490 the myth of the poor peasant. I think the standard 00:02:28.490 --> 00:02:30.550 pop culture narrative is that Zapata was born 00:02:30.550 --> 00:02:33.330 into abject poverty, that he was starving, and 00:02:33.330 --> 00:02:35.780 that hunger is what radicalized him. But when 00:02:35.780 --> 00:02:37.500 we look at the probate records and the local 00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:40.000 history of Anacuoco, that paints a different 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.520 picture, doesn't it? It really does. To understand 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:45.259 Zapata, you have to understand his context. He 00:02:45.259 --> 00:02:47.500 was born in Anacuoco in the state of Morelos. 00:02:47.939 --> 00:02:50.569 And while this wasn't a wealthy metropolis. The 00:02:50.569 --> 00:02:53.669 Zapata family were not destitute peons. Not at 00:02:53.669 --> 00:02:56.150 all. They're what you would call rancheros. The 00:02:56.150 --> 00:02:58.909 records show they were reasonably well off within 00:02:58.909 --> 00:03:01.449 their rural context. They were, you could say, 00:03:01.650 --> 00:03:04.330 the rural middle class. I was reading the description 00:03:04.330 --> 00:03:06.750 of how he dressed before the war broke out. Yeah. 00:03:07.129 --> 00:03:09.650 This does not sound like a man in rags. The source 00:03:09.650 --> 00:03:12.669 says he frequently wore a charro outfit. We're 00:03:12.669 --> 00:03:15.310 talking tight -fitting black cashmere pants with 00:03:15.310 --> 00:03:18.310 silver buttons down the legs, fine linen shirts 00:03:18.310 --> 00:03:21.169 and silk scarves. He took immense pride in his 00:03:21.169 --> 00:03:23.509 appearance. And we have to analyze what that 00:03:23.509 --> 00:03:26.240 look meant, right? Wearing a charro suit in 1909 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:28.979 wasn't just fashion. It was a statement. Right. 00:03:29.060 --> 00:03:31.000 He wasn't dressing like the indigenous field 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.300 laborers in their white cotton pajamas, but he 00:03:33.300 --> 00:03:35.259 also wasn't dressing like the European -obsessed 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:37.280 elite in Mexico City with their French suits. 00:03:37.419 --> 00:03:40.639 He was signaling a very specific, proud, regional 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:43.139 Mexican identity. The sources also mention he 00:03:43.139 --> 00:03:46.360 wore a mozoquena -style spurs. Now, I had to 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:49.199 look this up, but that refers to amazoc. Puebla, 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:51.500 which was famous for its high -end metalwork. 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:54.340 Exactly. These were status symbols. They implied 00:03:54.340 --> 00:03:57.259 he had disposable income. Zapata wasn't a day 00:03:57.259 --> 00:03:59.719 laborer. He was an entrepreneur. He owned land. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.740 He had a team of mules that he used for a freight 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:06.139 business, hauling maize and bricks. He grew watermelons? 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:09.379 He grew watermelons as a cash crop, yes. But 00:04:09.379 --> 00:04:12.120 his real claim to fame... The thing that gave 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:14.780 him social capital in the region was his skill 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:17.699 with horses. He was a horse trainer, a famous 00:04:17.699 --> 00:04:20.060 one. And this leads to one of those historical 00:04:20.060 --> 00:04:23.120 ironies that feels too scripted to be true. Who 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:25.259 was one of his biggest clients before the revolution? 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:27.939 This is one of those details that just changes 00:04:27.939 --> 00:04:30.800 how you view the whole conflict. Before the revolution 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:33.540 fully kicked off, Zapata worked as a horse trainer 00:04:33.540 --> 00:04:36.339 for Ignacio de la Torre y Mir. And for those 00:04:36.339 --> 00:04:38.480 who might not know the genealogy of the Porfiriato, 00:04:38.620 --> 00:04:40.779 who was that? Ignacio de la Torre Mir was the 00:04:40.779 --> 00:04:43.079 son -in -law of Porfirio Diaz. The dictator. 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:46.839 The dictator. The very man Zapata would eventually 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:50.430 rise up to overthrow. Zapata was intimately familiar 00:04:50.430 --> 00:04:52.930 with the regime's family. He spent time in their 00:04:52.930 --> 00:04:55.829 stables in Mexico City. He saw their world up 00:04:55.829 --> 00:04:58.389 close. That establishes such an incredible link. 00:04:58.550 --> 00:05:00.649 It means Zapata wasn't fighting from the outside 00:05:00.649 --> 00:05:03.430 looking in. He had access. He saw how the other 00:05:03.430 --> 00:05:06.149 half lived. He saw the sheer opulence of the 00:05:06.149 --> 00:05:08.230 Diaz inner circle while his neighbors in Morelos 00:05:08.230 --> 00:05:10.529 were struggling. It really complicates the narrative. 00:05:10.769 --> 00:05:13.050 He wasn't some naive outsider. He walked between 00:05:13.050 --> 00:05:16.029 worlds. But despite having some money and status, 00:05:16.310 --> 00:05:19.990 his identity was rooted in Anaculco. And that 00:05:19.990 --> 00:05:22.069 village is really the main character of this 00:05:22.069 --> 00:05:24.430 first act. What was happening there that pushed 00:05:24.430 --> 00:05:26.370 a guy with cashmere pants and silver buttons 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:28.290 to become an outlaw? Well, it comes down to two 00:05:28.290 --> 00:05:30.970 things, land and law. And Inquilco was this interesting 00:05:30.970 --> 00:05:33.689 mix of Spanish -speaking mestizo culture and 00:05:33.689 --> 00:05:36.350 indigenous Nahuatl culture. In fact, there is 00:05:36.350 --> 00:05:38.310 strong evidence suggesting Zapata was fluent 00:05:38.310 --> 00:05:40.430 in Nahuatl. Which makes sense if he's bridging 00:05:40.430 --> 00:05:42.629 these two worlds. But the grievance wasn't just 00:05:42.629 --> 00:05:45.829 we are poor. It was we are being robbed. The 00:05:45.829 --> 00:05:48.189 global economy plays a role here. The sugar industry 00:05:48.189 --> 00:05:51.370 in Morelos was booming. To grow sugar, the big 00:05:51.370 --> 00:05:53.889 haciendas, these massive industrial plantations, 00:05:53.889 --> 00:05:56.800 needed land and water. So they started a policy 00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:58.660 of enclosure. They were literally swallowing 00:05:58.660 --> 00:06:02.100 up independent villages like Anahuilco. And this 00:06:02.100 --> 00:06:04.519 wasn't just a riot where people got angry and 00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:07.040 grabbed pitchforks. They tried to do this the 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:10.040 right way first. They absolutely did. And this 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:12.980 is a key point. The Zapatista movement started 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:15.779 as a legal defense fund. The village elders had 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:18.959 titles, deeds to the land. Some of these documents 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:21.360 dated back to the colonial era, written in a 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:23.939 hodl, granting the land to the village by the 00:06:23.939 --> 00:06:26.379 Spanish crown. I love the image the biography 00:06:26.379 --> 00:06:29.139 paints here. Zapata is elected president of the 00:06:29.139 --> 00:06:31.939 village council at age 30, mostly because the 00:06:31.939 --> 00:06:33.920 elders are too old to make the trek to the courts. 00:06:34.339 --> 00:06:37.620 And he is literally carrying these ancient crumbling 00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:41.160 papers in a tin box to government offices. It's 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:43.639 the Mr. Smith goes to Washington moment, but 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:45.660 it's tragic. He's trying to say, look, the law 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:48.040 says this is ours. And that is the moment that 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:51.399 radicalized him. The courts failed. The judges 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:54.180 were friends with the Hacienda owners. The system 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:56.600 was rigged. There's a story that they even met 00:06:56.600 --> 00:06:59.160 with Diaz at one point, got a vague promise. 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:01.079 Right. And then Diaz just turned around and had 00:07:01.079 --> 00:07:03.240 Zapata drafted into the army to get rid of him. 00:07:03.420 --> 00:07:06.699 A classic move. That's the breaking point. When 00:07:06.699 --> 00:07:09.699 the law fails so completely and the institutions 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:12.579 are closed to you, what is left? Revolution. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:16.259 Violence becomes the only remaining tool of negotiation. 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:20.620 And that brings us to 1910. The system is cracking. 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:24.639 Francisco Madero, who was this wealthy northern 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:26.680 landowner, a totally different demographic than 00:07:26.680 --> 00:07:29.800 Zapata, decides to challenge the dictator Diaz. 00:07:29.819 --> 00:07:33.129 And Zapata sees an opening. Right. Now, we have 00:07:33.129 --> 00:07:35.050 to unpack the difference in motivation here because 00:07:35.050 --> 00:07:37.170 it explains everything that happens later. Madero 00:07:37.170 --> 00:07:39.769 wants political change. His slogan is effective 00:07:39.769 --> 00:07:42.209 suffrage, no reelection. He wants democracy. 00:07:42.410 --> 00:07:44.490 He wants a functioning ballot box. He's a political 00:07:44.490 --> 00:07:46.850 reformer. Exactly. Zapata. He doesn't care about 00:07:46.850 --> 00:07:48.829 who sits in the presidential chair. He wants 00:07:48.829 --> 00:07:52.110 the land back. But he joins Madero because Madero 00:07:52.110 --> 00:07:55.110 made a specific promise. The plan of San Luis 00:07:55.110 --> 00:07:58.579 Potosi. Madero put a clause in Article 3 of that 00:07:58.579 --> 00:08:00.899 plan promising to return stolen village lands. 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:04.180 That was the hook. That was the only reason Zapata 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:07.060 mobilized. And the Zapatistas were incredibly 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:10.620 effective. The source mentions the six days of 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:14.519 battle in Kwatla in May 1911. Zapata's forces 00:08:14.519 --> 00:08:17.000 take the city. This is basically the nail in 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:19.800 the coffin for the Diaz dictatorship. Diaz flees 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:22.699 to Paris. Madero wins. Mission accomplished, 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:26.089 right? If only history were that linear. This 00:08:26.089 --> 00:08:28.110 is where the story turns into a tragedy of conflicting 00:08:28.110 --> 00:08:30.670 interests. Madero becomes president and the very 00:08:30.670 --> 00:08:32.919 first thing he does is tell Zapata, okay, Thanks 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:34.740 for the help. Now give up your guns. Before giving 00:08:34.740 --> 00:08:37.279 back the land. Exactly. Before the land is returned, 00:08:37.620 --> 00:08:39.820 Madera wanted stability. He was a moderate. He 00:08:39.820 --> 00:08:42.340 called the Zapatistas mere bandits once he didn't 00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:44.480 need their military strength anymore. He wanted 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:47.759 a slow, bureaucratic legal process for land reform. 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:51.620 Zapata looked at his armed peasants and knew 00:08:51.620 --> 00:08:53.659 that if they gave up their rifles, their only 00:08:53.659 --> 00:08:56.080 leverage, they would never see that land again. 00:08:56.879 --> 00:08:59.379 There is this chilling quote Zapata sends to 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:01.240 the Minister of the Interior during this tension. 00:09:01.829 --> 00:09:04.870 He warns them, I won't be responsible for the 00:09:04.870 --> 00:09:07.450 blood that is going to flow if the federal forces 00:09:07.450 --> 00:09:10.029 remain. He was drawing a line in the sand. Madero 00:09:10.029 --> 00:09:13.309 crossed it. And in November 1911, Zapata crossed 00:09:13.309 --> 00:09:16.850 back. He issued the Plan of Ayala. Okay, let's 00:09:16.850 --> 00:09:19.350 deep dive into the Plan of Ayala. Because this 00:09:19.350 --> 00:09:21.009 isn't just a press release. This is the Bible 00:09:21.009 --> 00:09:23.750 of Zapatismo. It fundamentally shifts the nature 00:09:23.750 --> 00:09:25.799 of the revolution, what was in it. It completely 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:28.100 changed the goalposts from political reform to 00:09:28.100 --> 00:09:30.460 social revolution. First, it declared Madero 00:09:30.460 --> 00:09:32.440 a traitor and illegitimate. That's step one. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:34.700 But more importantly, it codified the demands. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:37.480 Demand number one, immediate return of all stolen 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:40.120 lands. No lawsuits, no waiting. If the village 00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:42.419 has the title, they take the land, period. And 00:09:42.419 --> 00:09:45.100 demand number two. Nationalization. He wanted 00:09:45.100 --> 00:09:48.019 to take one third of all the large haciendas, 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:50.840 even the ones with legal titles, and expropriate 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:53.419 that land to give to poor farmers. One third. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:55.480 It was redistribution of wealth on a massive 00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:57.600 scale. But wait, there was a kicker clause for 00:09:57.600 --> 00:09:59.320 the stubborn owners, right? There was an enforcement 00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:01.840 mechanism built in. Oh, absolutely. The plan 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:04.279 said that if a plantation owner resisted this 00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:07.320 redistribution, they would lose everything. Not 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:09.600 just the one third. Not just the third. All of 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:11.379 it. The other two thirds would be taken as well. 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:14.059 It was a scorched earth. legal clause. That is 00:10:14.059 --> 00:10:16.600 bold. It's basically, we could do this the easy 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:19.240 way or we could do this the very hard way. And 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:21.940 crucially, the plan of Ayala invoked Benito Juarez 00:10:21.940 --> 00:10:24.600 and the liberal reform of the mid -19th century. 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:28.779 Zapata was framing his rebellion not as banditry, 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:31.519 but as the true continuation of Mexico's liberal 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:34.379 history. He was saying, we are the patriots. 00:10:34.460 --> 00:10:37.480 You in Mexico City are the traitors. So now Madero 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:40.399 is the enemy. But Madero doesn't last long. He 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:44.129 gets overthrown. and murdered by his own general, 00:10:44.250 --> 00:10:47.710 Victoriano Huerta, in 1913. A man generally regarded 00:10:47.710 --> 00:10:49.809 as the villain of the story by almost everyone, 00:10:50.149 --> 00:10:53.149 Huerta was a brutal alcoholic who wanted to restore 00:10:53.149 --> 00:10:55.629 the old dictatorship. So now Zapata is fighting 00:10:55.629 --> 00:10:58.549 Huerta. And this leads to this sort of Avengers 00:10:58.549 --> 00:11:00.950 Assemble moment, where all the revolutionary 00:11:00.950 --> 00:11:03.269 leaders try to team up against the common enemy. 00:11:03.450 --> 00:11:06.110 You've got Zapata in the south. And in the north, 00:11:06.110 --> 00:11:08.169 you've got Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:11.159 It was purely an enemy of my enemy situation. 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:14.200 They all hated Huerta. And militarily, they were 00:11:14.200 --> 00:11:16.419 unstoppable. They managed to beat him in 1914. 00:11:17.019 --> 00:11:19.480 But once Huerta was gone, the vacuum of power 00:11:19.480 --> 00:11:21.779 opened up and the winners immediately turned 00:11:21.779 --> 00:11:23.960 on each other. It's the classic problem, isn't 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:26.120 it? Winning the war is easy. Agreeing on the 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:28.919 peace is hard. Carranza was an aristocrat, much 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:31.320 like Madero, but tougher. He didn't like Zapata. 00:11:31.690 --> 00:11:34.029 And he certainly didn't like Pancho Villa. Carranza 00:11:34.029 --> 00:11:36.809 saw them as savages. He saw them as unwashed 00:11:36.809 --> 00:11:39.990 masses who needed to be controlled. So the Convention 00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:42.149 of Aguascalientes was held to try and sort this 00:11:42.149 --> 00:11:44.250 out. It failed miserably. The country split. 00:11:44.809 --> 00:11:47.090 Carranza on one side, Zapata and Villa on the 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:49.210 other. Which brings us to one of the most famous 00:11:49.210 --> 00:11:53.970 meetings in Mexican history. December 1914. Xochimilco. 00:11:54.649 --> 00:11:57.649 Zapata meets Pancho Villa. The visual alone is 00:11:57.649 --> 00:12:00.710 striking. You have Pancho Villa, the loud, boisterous 00:12:00.710 --> 00:12:02.809 northerner in his military uniform, weighing 00:12:02.809 --> 00:12:06.490 200 pounds, laughing. And then Zapata, the quiet, 00:12:06.529 --> 00:12:09.549 intense southerner in his charro suit, just watching 00:12:09.549 --> 00:12:12.210 everything with suspicion. The source describes 00:12:12.210 --> 00:12:16.370 the vibe as awkward but amiable. That is a great 00:12:16.370 --> 00:12:19.360 description. They're from different worlds. Vila 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:22.200 was expansive. He roamed across huge territories. 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:25.600 Zapata was intensely local. He was focused almost 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:28.399 entirely on Morelos. There's a detail where they 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:30.820 are having a banquet and Vila is chugging brandy 00:12:30.820 --> 00:12:32.840 while Zapata is sipping water because he doesn't 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:34.960 trust anyone enough to get drunk. Smart man. 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:37.559 But they agreed on one thing. They didn't trust 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:39.440 Carranza. They agreed to divide the country's 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:42.279 security. Vila would handle the north, Zapata 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:44.679 the south. But like most long -distance relationships 00:12:44.679 --> 00:12:48.639 in a war zone, it fell apart. It did. Villa promised 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.379 weapons that never arrived. Carranza's general, 00:12:51.600 --> 00:12:54.679 Alvaro Obregón, was a military genius and started 00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:57.620 defeating Villa in the north. This left Zapata 00:12:57.620 --> 00:13:01.220 isolated in the south. But strangely, this isolation 00:13:01.220 --> 00:13:03.679 led to what might be the most fascinating period 00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:08.279 of Zapata's life. 1915, the Morelos Commune. 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:11.049 This is the eye of the storm. While the rest 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:13.210 of Mexico was tearing itself apart in a brutal 00:13:13.210 --> 00:13:16.330 civil war, Zapata had total control of Morelos. 00:13:16.490 --> 00:13:19.009 And he actually did it. He implemented the Plan 00:13:19.009 --> 00:13:21.309 of Ayala. He didn't just talk about it in speeches. 00:13:21.450 --> 00:13:24.009 He put it into practice. No. They physically 00:13:24.009 --> 00:13:27.009 redistributed the hacienda lands. Village councils 00:13:27.009 --> 00:13:29.509 took over local government. And the source has 00:13:29.509 --> 00:13:31.509 this incredible detail regarding the economics 00:13:31.509 --> 00:13:34.730 of the commune. While Mexico City was starving 00:13:34.730 --> 00:13:37.309 because of the war and inflation, the peasants 00:13:37.309 --> 00:13:39.570 in Morelos had more to eat than they did in 1910. 00:13:39.750 --> 00:13:42.629 That is so counterintuitive. Usually, war brings 00:13:42.629 --> 00:13:44.750 famine. It happened because they switched the 00:13:44.750 --> 00:13:47.309 crop base. For decades, the land had been used 00:13:47.309 --> 00:13:49.789 for sugarcash crops for export. You can't eat 00:13:49.789 --> 00:13:52.450 sugar. You can't eat sugar. Zapata told them 00:13:52.450 --> 00:13:55.090 to plant corn and beans. They returned to subsistence 00:13:55.090 --> 00:13:57.330 farming. So they were eating better and prices 00:13:57.330 --> 00:13:59.980 were lower. It was a functioning agrarian society. 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:02.559 They established schools. They tried to create 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:06.139 a credit bank for farmers. It sounds almost utopian 00:14:06.139 --> 00:14:08.820 compared to the chaos outside. There's even a 00:14:08.820 --> 00:14:11.080 mention of a bullfight where Zapata and his nephew 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:14.940 participated as the matadors. Right. Just life 00:14:14.940 --> 00:14:16.820 going on. It shows that Zapata wasn't just a 00:14:16.820 --> 00:14:19.500 guerrilla fighter. He had a vision for a society 00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:22.059 that could actually work. But, of course, with 00:14:22.059 --> 00:14:24.519 Carranza winning in the north. The storm was 00:14:24.519 --> 00:14:26.679 coming back. And it came back hard. Carranza 00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:28.820 sent the army to burn Morelos to the ground. 00:14:29.100 --> 00:14:31.179 Before we get to the tragic end of that storm, 00:14:31.299 --> 00:14:34.120 I want to pivot to the man himself. We talked 00:14:34.120 --> 00:14:36.759 about his clothes, but let's talk about his personal 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:39.950 life. Because if the poor peasant myth is wrong, 00:14:40.090 --> 00:14:43.470 the stoic asexual monk myth is also definitely 00:14:43.470 --> 00:14:46.470 wrong. Definitely. Definitely wrong. Zapata had 00:14:46.470 --> 00:14:48.769 a very complex personal life. The records show 00:14:48.769 --> 00:14:51.149 he had 16 known children with nine different 00:14:51.149 --> 00:14:53.789 women. Wow. That is a busy life on top of running 00:14:53.789 --> 00:14:56.470 a revolution. And his life was touched by tragedy 00:14:56.470 --> 00:14:59.649 constantly. One of his sons died from a rattlesnake 00:14:59.649 --> 00:15:01.950 bite. A daughter died from a scorpion sting. 00:15:02.190 --> 00:15:05.090 It just reminds you of the harsh reality of living 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:07.269 in the countryside at that time, revolution or 00:15:07.269 --> 00:15:10.110 not. But there's another aspect of his personal 00:15:10.110 --> 00:15:12.129 life that historians have been debating, especially 00:15:12.129 --> 00:15:14.809 recently. And this circles back to the source 00:15:14.809 --> 00:15:18.250 material from the album of Amada Diaz. This is 00:15:18.250 --> 00:15:19.970 where we have to tread carefully but honestly 00:15:19.970 --> 00:15:23.070 with the sources. Amada Diaz was... Porfirio 00:15:23.070 --> 00:15:25.809 Diaz's daughter and the wife of Ignacio de la 00:15:25.809 --> 00:15:28.409 Torre Mir, the guy Zapata worked for. His old 00:15:28.409 --> 00:15:31.070 boss. His old boss. Now, we know Ignacio de la 00:15:31.070 --> 00:15:33.909 Torre Mir was a closeted homosexual. He was famously 00:15:33.909 --> 00:15:37.350 part of the Dance of the 41, a scandalous drag 00:15:37.350 --> 00:15:39.649 ball in Mexico City that was raided by police. 00:15:39.909 --> 00:15:41.889 And there is an entry in a modest diary that 00:15:41.889 --> 00:15:44.850 mentions her husband and Zapata. She writes about 00:15:44.850 --> 00:15:47.090 seeing her husband and Zapata wallowing in the 00:15:47.090 --> 00:15:49.850 stables. Wallowing in the stables. That is evocative 00:15:49.850 --> 00:15:52.450 phrasing. It is, and it has led to a lot of historical 00:15:52.450 --> 00:15:55.950 speculation. Later, when Mir was imprisoned by 00:15:55.950 --> 00:15:58.190 the revolutionaries, Zapata went out of his way 00:15:58.190 --> 00:16:00.330 to protect him. He saved him from execution. 00:16:01.029 --> 00:16:03.470 Some historians argue this suggests a relationship 00:16:03.470 --> 00:16:06.289 that went beyond employer -employee. And it's 00:16:06.289 --> 00:16:08.940 not just Mir. There's mention of Manuel Palafox. 00:16:09.059 --> 00:16:11.500 Right. Manuel Palafox, known as the Blackbird. 00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:14.440 He was Zapata's personal secretary and a key 00:16:14.440 --> 00:16:16.779 intellectual in the movement. He helped write 00:16:16.779 --> 00:16:19.759 the agrarian laws. His homosexuality was apparently 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:22.139 an open secret among the troops. So you have 00:16:22.139 --> 00:16:24.840 this movement that is often associated with machismo, 00:16:24.940 --> 00:16:27.720 you know, guns, mustaches, violence. But the 00:16:27.720 --> 00:16:29.460 inner circle seems to have been more fluid than 00:16:29.460 --> 00:16:31.840 people assume. It challenges the stereotype. 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:35.320 The source material suggests Zapata prioritized 00:16:35.320 --> 00:16:37.879 loyalty and the cause over the social prejudices 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:41.379 of the time. He didn't purge Palafox until Palafox 00:16:41.379 --> 00:16:43.679 became a political liability for other reasons. 00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:46.700 It adds a layer of humanity and complexity to 00:16:46.700 --> 00:16:49.320 Zapata. He wasn't a caricature. He was a man 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:52.340 navigating a very complicated world. And it seems 00:16:52.340 --> 00:16:54.639 he judged men by their commitment to the land, 00:16:54.820 --> 00:16:57.360 not their private lives. It certainly makes the 00:16:57.360 --> 00:16:59.740 hyper macho image a lot more nuanced. But let's 00:16:59.740 --> 00:17:02.899 get back to the timeline. It's 1919. Carranza 00:17:02.899 --> 00:17:05.920 is president. He wants Zapata gone. And he realizes 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:08.299 he can't beat him on the battlefield. Zapata 00:17:08.299 --> 00:17:10.920 knows the mountains too well. So they decide 00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:14.220 to use treachery. This is a plot straight out 00:17:14.220 --> 00:17:17.000 of a spy novel. General Pablo Gonzalez, who is 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:20.440 hunting Zapata, sets a trap. He uses a colonel 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:24.250 named Jesus Guajardo. the bait the bait gonzalez 00:17:24.250 --> 00:17:27.069 publicly accuses guajardo of being a drunk and 00:17:27.069 --> 00:17:30.069 a traitor he creates a fake scandal even having 00:17:30.069 --> 00:17:32.609 guajardo arrested briefly guajardo then writes 00:17:32.609 --> 00:17:35.789 to zapata saying they've disgraced me i want 00:17:35.789 --> 00:17:37.990 to defect i'll bring my men and weapons to your 00:17:37.990 --> 00:17:40.349 side now zapata was an idiot he had survived 00:17:40.349 --> 00:17:42.890 assassination attempts before he was suspicious 00:17:42.890 --> 00:17:45.400 he asked guajardo to prove it And the proof, 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:47.480 God, the proof is brutal. It is horrific. To 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:49.259 prove he was a real traitor to the government, 00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:52.220 Guajardo attacked a federal garrison at Yerakatabek. 00:17:52.299 --> 00:17:54.380 It was a mock battle in the sense that it was 00:17:54.380 --> 00:17:56.839 staged by the generals, but the casualties were 00:17:56.839 --> 00:18:00.740 real. Guajardo actually executed former Zapatistas 00:18:00.740 --> 00:18:03.380 who had defected to the government. He killed 00:18:03.380 --> 00:18:06.079 men to prove to Zapata that he was sincere. That 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:08.539 is cold -blooded. Killing your own side's men 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:11.750 just to sell a lie. But it worked. Zapata was 00:18:11.750 --> 00:18:14.769 convinced. He was. He agreed to a final meeting 00:18:14.769 --> 00:18:17.609 to welcome Guajardo into the fold. April 10th, 00:18:17.609 --> 00:18:21.349 1919. Hacienda de San Juan in Chinameca. Set 00:18:21.349 --> 00:18:23.549 the scene for us. Zapata rides in with a small 00:18:23.549 --> 00:18:26.190 escort, about 10 men. He believes he is meeting 00:18:26.190 --> 00:18:28.630 a new ally who brings fresh troops and ammo. 00:18:29.190 --> 00:18:31.630 Guajardo's men are lined up inside the walls, 00:18:31.849 --> 00:18:34.529 ostensibly as an honor guard, ready to salute. 00:18:34.809 --> 00:18:37.390 Bugle sounds the honor call. That was the signal. 00:18:37.490 --> 00:18:39.930 As the last note faded, the soldiers raised their 00:18:39.930 --> 00:18:42.750 rifles and fired point blank. Zapata and his 00:18:42.750 --> 00:18:45.230 escort were riddled with bullets. He died instantly, 00:18:45.390 --> 00:18:47.470 falling from his horse. It's such a violent, 00:18:47.549 --> 00:18:49.670 abrupt end. And the government didn't just want 00:18:49.670 --> 00:18:51.750 him dead. They wanted to kill the myth. They 00:18:51.750 --> 00:18:55.029 displayed his body for 24 hours in Coatla. They 00:18:55.029 --> 00:18:58.089 photographed it from every angle. They even displayed 00:18:58.089 --> 00:19:00.910 his clothes, that famous taro suit now bullet 00:19:00.910 --> 00:19:02.910 -ridden outside a newspaper office in Mexico 00:19:02.910 --> 00:19:05.789 City. They needed people to see the corpse to 00:19:05.789 --> 00:19:08.369 believe the Attila of the South was gone. But, 00:19:08.490 --> 00:19:11.549 and this is the power of martyrdom, it backfired 00:19:11.549 --> 00:19:13.869 completely. Instead of ending the movement, it 00:19:13.869 --> 00:19:17.200 immortalized it. Zapata Lives became the rallying 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:20.119 cry. People refused to believe he was dead. Rumors 00:19:20.119 --> 00:19:21.960 spread that the body was a double, that Zapata 00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:24.059 didn't have a certain mole on his face. They 00:19:24.059 --> 00:19:26.319 whispered that he had escaped to Arabia or Japan. 00:19:26.740 --> 00:19:28.700 Or that he was simply up in the mountains, deep 00:19:28.700 --> 00:19:30.960 in the caves, waiting for the right time to return. 00:19:31.319 --> 00:19:33.500 Precisely. You can kill the man, but you cannot 00:19:33.500 --> 00:19:35.799 kill the idea. Let's talk about that idea. The 00:19:35.799 --> 00:19:38.900 legacy. Because Zapata lost the war, technically. 00:19:39.019 --> 00:19:41.480 He died. His faction didn't take the capital. 00:19:41.619 --> 00:19:45.059 But in the long run, did he win? In many ways, 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:49.160 yes. Look at the 1917 Constitution, Article 27. 00:19:49.740 --> 00:19:52.900 That article codifies agrarian reform. It says 00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:54.720 the land belongs to the nation and those who 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:57.079 work it. That is a direct result of Zapata's 00:19:57.079 --> 00:20:00.220 pressure. The plan of Ayala is basically baked 00:20:00.220 --> 00:20:02.500 into the Mexican constitution. But it took a 00:20:02.500 --> 00:20:04.240 while to actually happen on the ground. It did. 00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:07.519 It wasn't until the 1930s, under President Lázaro 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:10.000 Cárdenas, that large -scale land redistribution 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.680 really happened. Cárdenas fulfilled the promise 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:15.259 Zapata died for, handing out millions of hectares 00:20:15.259 --> 00:20:18.119 to the ejidos, the communal lands. And his influence 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:21.079 goes beyond laws. I mean, culturally, he is everywhere. 00:20:21.359 --> 00:20:24.299 We mentioned the EZLN, the Neo -Zapatistas. In 00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:27.099 1994, on the day NAFTA went into effect, indigenous 00:20:27.099 --> 00:20:30.180 people in Chiapas rose up wearing balaclavas, 00:20:30.180 --> 00:20:32.740 calling themselves Zapatistas. They explicitly 00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:34.980 link their struggle for indigenous rights and 00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:37.339 autonomy to Zapata's struggle. And it gets even 00:20:37.339 --> 00:20:39.359 more spiritual than that. The source mentions 00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:43.519 Votan Zapata. Yes, this is fascinating. In some 00:20:43.519 --> 00:20:46.720 indigenous regions, Zapatismo blended with Catholicism 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:49.869 and indigenous beliefs. He is worshipped as a 00:20:49.869 --> 00:20:53.529 sort of reincarnated Mayan deity or a Saint Votan 00:20:53.529 --> 00:20:56.250 Zapata. He has transcended history to become 00:20:56.250 --> 00:20:59.269 mythology. And pop culture. Rage Against the 00:20:59.269 --> 00:21:01.910 Machine songs like Calm Like a Bomb, Marlon Brando 00:21:01.910 --> 00:21:05.349 playing him in Viva Zapata. There is even a fossil 00:21:05.349 --> 00:21:09.089 reptile named after him, the Zapatadon. A small 00:21:09.089 --> 00:21:11.250 reptile, but a fierce one, I assume. I would 00:21:11.250 --> 00:21:13.670 hope so. But we can't talk about his legacy without 00:21:13.670 --> 00:21:16.089 talking about that 2019 controversy. We hinted 00:21:16.089 --> 00:21:18.630 at it in the intro, the painting. Ah, yes, the 00:21:18.630 --> 00:21:21.089 painting titled La Revolucion by Fabian Charez. 00:21:21.390 --> 00:21:23.609 This was part of an exhibition at the Palacio 00:21:23.609 --> 00:21:25.789 de Bellas Artes to commemorate the centenary 00:21:25.789 --> 00:21:27.890 of his death. Describe it for the listeners who 00:21:27.890 --> 00:21:30.009 haven't seen it. It depicts Zapata naked, wearing 00:21:30.009 --> 00:21:32.630 high heels and a pink sombrero riding a white 00:21:32.630 --> 00:21:35.410 horse that is, well, visibly aroused. The pose 00:21:35.410 --> 00:21:37.849 is effeminate, seductive. And the reaction was 00:21:37.849 --> 00:21:41.470 not polite art criticism. No, it was explosive. 00:21:42.549 --> 00:21:45.690 Farmer unions, the campesinos who revere Zapata 00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:48.650 as their saint, stormed the museum. They physically 00:21:48.650 --> 00:21:51.769 attacked LGBTQ activists who were there to support 00:21:51.769 --> 00:21:54.869 the artist. Zapata's grandson threatened to sue 00:21:54.869 --> 00:21:57.309 the government. They called it a desecration. 00:21:57.630 --> 00:22:00.609 The artist, Chérez, said he wanted to challenge 00:22:00.609 --> 00:22:03.150 the machismo associated with the revolution to 00:22:03.150 --> 00:22:05.569 present a different kind of masculinity. But 00:22:05.569 --> 00:22:08.049 for the campesinos, it was an insult to their 00:22:08.049 --> 00:22:10.910 identity. It shows that 100 years later, Zapata 00:22:10.910 --> 00:22:14.190 isn't just a dusty figure in a textbook. He is 00:22:14.190 --> 00:22:17.589 still a live wire. His image still has the power 00:22:17.589 --> 00:22:20.289 to incite violence and passion. And they had 00:22:20.289 --> 00:22:22.130 put a label next to it in the end, right? They 00:22:22.130 --> 00:22:23.890 eventually had to put a label next to the painting 00:22:23.890 --> 00:22:26.109 stating that the family disagreed with it. A 00:22:26.109 --> 00:22:27.990 compromised label. That feels like such a modern 00:22:27.990 --> 00:22:30.289 solution to a historical fight. It really does. 00:22:30.509 --> 00:22:32.410 But it highlights the tension we started with. 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:35.839 Who owns Zapata? Is he the hyper masculine hero 00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:38.460 of the farmers or is he a symbol of liberation 00:22:38.460 --> 00:22:40.839 that can be reinterpreted by the queer community? 00:22:41.079 --> 00:22:43.799 So we've unpacked the man, the myth, the horse 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:46.079 trainer, the radical, the martyr. Yeah. What 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:49.019 are we left with? We are left with a man of contradictions, 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:51.940 a well -off horse trainer who died for the poorest 00:22:51.940 --> 00:22:55.359 of the poor, a labeled bandit who established 00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:57.759 a functional government in Morelos when the actual 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:00.690 government couldn't. A symbol of machismo whose 00:23:00.690 --> 00:23:02.990 personal life and modern interpretations challenge 00:23:02.990 --> 00:23:05.970 that very concept. And a man who is still, in 00:23:05.970 --> 00:23:08.750 a very real way, walking with us. That chant 00:23:08.750 --> 00:23:11.809 is the most poignant part of his legacy. Si Zapata 00:23:11.809 --> 00:23:14.849 viviera con nosotros anduviera. If Zapata lived, 00:23:15.109 --> 00:23:17.930 he would walk with us. So here's the thought 00:23:17.930 --> 00:23:20.369 I want to leave you with today. If Zapata did 00:23:20.369 --> 00:23:22.869 walk into modern Mexico or any modern nation 00:23:22.869 --> 00:23:25.730 really wearing his charro suit, holding his rifle, 00:23:25.890 --> 00:23:28.190 and demanding that the land belong to those who 00:23:28.190 --> 00:23:31.450 work it, would he be hailed as a hero? Right. 00:23:31.569 --> 00:23:33.710 Or would he be considered a dangerous radical 00:23:33.710 --> 00:23:36.670 and hunted down all over again? That is the question. 00:23:36.849 --> 00:23:39.369 We love the icon on the T -shirt. I'm not sure 00:23:39.369 --> 00:23:41.529 we are always ready for the man himself. Something 00:23:41.529 --> 00:23:44.210 to think about. Thanks for listening to this 00:23:44.210 --> 00:23:46.670 deep dive into Emiliano Zapata. We will catch 00:23:46.670 --> 00:23:47.309 you on the next one.