‘Zapatismo was more of a reactionary than a revolutionary movement.’ Discuss in the context of the Mexican Revolution up to 1920

Authors Avatar
'Zapatismo was more of a reactionary than a

revolutionary movement.' Discuss in the context of

the Mexican Revolution up to 1920

Emiliano Zapata, an almost pure-blooded Tlahuican, was born in Morelos at a time when

caudillismo politics were giving way to predominantly liberal systems in Latin America. He

was by no means rich but his birth-right of a share in a small rancho made him considerably

better off than many of his neighbours whose own livelihood was rid of nearly all its

independence when the ejidos, common-land which had been 'granted' to the natives by

the conquistadores some 300 years earlier and which were used as pasture by the peones,

were 'de-nationalised' under the Ley Lerdo of 1856 and sold-off, mainly to wealthy

hacendados. This law was conceived of mainly as an attack on the church but also served

as an assertion of liberal non-state-interventionism and an attack on privilege. That it won

many hacendados over to the liberal cause by 'freeing-up' previously unavailable arable

land was a bonus for the incumbent regime. That it disinherited the Indians and weakened

the role of the military was met with approval by cientificos who saw them as obstacles to

progress. That it would, half a century later, be the catalyst that would mobilise millions of

Mexicans to more than a decade of violent struggle could not have been foreseen.

One not insignificant faction in this mobilisation were the Morelenses who, inspired by

Pablo Torres Burgos' eloquence at the meetings in his Villa de Ayala home, began to

embrace revolutionary ideas. However, Burgos was a pen-pusher and thinker and, though

he was popular, he wasn't really a machete-wielding land-worker's idea of the man at the

vanguard of a battle-charge. Emiliano Zapata, on the other hand, was. Charismatic and

personable, known for his amorous exploits and expert horsemanship and belonging to an

indígena family recognised for their courage in past wars, he assumed, in true Latin

American, anti-state style, the role of revolutionary caudillo. This is the way it had been

before the scourge of state-liberalism had stolen the common-lands, punished the army

which had won them independence and attacked the Church in which they invested their

faith. And, as Alan knight asserts, this was the way of the Revolution: "Traditional village

leaders served as the mentors of popular rebellion, village 'intellectuals' as ideological

spokesmen."

Once again there was an identifiable figure to fill the vast void between themselves and the

faceless bureaucracy which oppressed them. By early 1911 Zapatismo, the cult based

around the man, was born and the job in hand, the removal of Díaz, was quickly underway.

Zapata was everything his followers hoped he would be. His military acumen was astute, as

a "dispenser of justice and disburser of booty" he was the model caudillo and his loyalty

to the cause was second to none. It was no more than the matter of a few months before

the combined revolutionary forces behind Madero saw Díaz exiled and a 'revolutionary'

government installed. It was no more than a couple of weeks after Madero's inauguration

that Zapata, now with the help of another 'intellectual', Otilio Montaño, drew up his seminal

document, the Plan de Ayala. This manifesto, the tone of which ("... almost a scripture...")
Join now!


reflected the traditional Catholicism its prospective readership, the style of which (almost a

tabloid) spoke to them in their own language and the of the tenets of which (almost utopian)

neither he nor most of his followers would ever compromise, demanded - among other

things - the return of the ancestral lands. In many ways it was the most 'revolutionary' of the

revolutionary plans. But was it referring to the same revolution?

It is pertinent here to address the different interpretations of the 'Revolution' itself. Research

...

This is a preview of the whole essay