Misplaced Pages

#499500

159-476: As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 2,940. San Juan Guelavia is on the river and one of the few communities in the valley that had historically set up irrigation canals. Early Spanish migration to the area consisted of cattle ranchers who moved their cattle from communal usage pastures in the mountains to communal pastures in the valley. In 1539, Bartolome Sanchez was granted an estancia de granado mayor (permanent land holding rights) near what

318-407: A "military mission" to Europe, distancing him from Mexico and potential political supporters. "The potential challenge from Reyes would remain one of Díaz's political obsessions through the rest of the decade, which ultimately blinded him to the danger of the challenge of Francisco Madero's anti-re-electionist campaign." In 1910, Francisco I. Madero , a young man from a wealthy landowning family in

477-552: A businessman running a store and also the local jefe strong man controlling the local communities through force of his armed followers. This article about a location in the Mexican state of Oaxaca is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Mexican Revolution Revolutionary victory [REDACTED] Pro-government: [REDACTED] Anti-government: Supported by: Supported by: The Mexican Revolution ( Spanish : Revolución mexicana )

636-458: A cash crop. He was a skilled horseman and competed in rodeos and races, as well as bullfighting from horseback. These skills as a horseman brought him work as a horse trainer for Porfirio Díaz's son-in-law, Ignacio de la Torre y Mier who had a large sugar hacienda nearby. Emiliano had a striking appearance, with a large mustache in which he took pride, and good quality clothing described by his loyal secretary: "General Zapata's dress until his death

795-568: A civil war among the winners. Dismayed with the alliance with Villa, Zapata focused his energies on rebuilding society in Morelos (which he now controlled), instituting the land reforms of the Plan de Ayala. As Carranza consolidated his power and defeated Villa in 1915, Zapata initiated guerrilla warfare against the Carrancistas , who in turn invaded Morelos, employing once again scorched-earth tactics to oust

954-417: A contingent of troops to occupy the port city of Veracruz . This sudden threat caused Huerta to withdraw his troops from Morelos and Puebla, leaving only Jojutla and Cuernavaca under federal control. Zapatistas quickly assumed control of eastern Morelos, taking Cuautla and Jonacatepec with no resistance. In spite of being faced with a possible foreign invasion, Zapata refused to unite with Huerta in defense of

1113-414: A coup to oppose the re-election of Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada , he could not run for re-election in 1880. His close ally, General Manuel González , was elected president (1880–1884). Díaz saw himself as indispensable, and after that interruption, he ran for the presidency again and served in office continuously until 1911. The constitution had been amended to allow unlimited presidential re-election. During

1272-622: A couple of garrisons there but did not support Villa further against Obregón and Carranza. The Carrancistas saw that the rebel alliance was divided and decided to concentrate on beating Villa, which left the Zapatistas to their own devices for a while. Through 1915, Zapata began reshaping Morelos after the Plan de Ayala, redistributing hacienda lands to the peasants, and largely letting village councils run their own local affairs. Most peasants did not turn to cash crops , instead growing subsistence crops such as corn, beans, and vegetables. The result

1431-560: A delegation had an audience with Díaz, who with the intervention of a lawyer, agreed to hear them. Although promising them to deal favorably with their petition, Díaz had them arrested and Zapata was conscripted into the Federal Army . Under Díaz, conscription into the Federal Army was much feared by ordinary Mexican men and their families. Zapata was one of many rebel leaders who were conscripted at some point. In 1909, an important meeting

1590-462: A legal framework and began murdering political opponents while battling revolutionary forces that had united in opposition to his regime. Emiliano Zapata Emiliano Zapata Salazar ( Spanish pronunciation: [emiˈljano saˈpata] ; August 8, 1879 – April 10, 1919) was a Mexican revolutionary. He was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920, the main leader of

1749-590: A major reason for the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Porfirio Díaz was being threatened by the candidacy of Francisco I. Madero . Zapata, seeing an opportunity to promote land reform in Mexico, joined with Madero and his Constitutionalists, who included Pascual Orozco and Pancho Villa , whom he perceived to be the best chance for genuine change in the country. Although he was wary of Madero, Zapata cooperated with him when Madero made vague promises about land reform in his Plan of San Luis Potosí . Land reform

SECTION 10

#1733084567500

1908-411: A major socioeconomic revolution but offered hopes of change for many disadvantaged Mexicans. The plan strongly opposed militarism in Mexico as it was constituted under Díaz, calling on Federal Army generals to resign before true democracy could prevail in Mexico. Madero realized he needed a revolutionary armed force, enticing men to join with the promise of formal rank, and encouraged Federales to join

2067-565: A million acres). Many Mexicans became landless peasants laboring on these vast estates or industrial workers toiling long hours for low wages. Foreign companies (mostly from the United Kingdom, France, and the U.S.) also exercised influence in Mexico. Díaz had legitimacy as a leader through his battlefield accomplishments. He knew that the long tradition of military intervention in politics and its resistance to civilian control would prove challenging to his remaining in power. He set about curbing

2226-512: A nationalist symbol as well as a symbol of the neo-Zapatista movement . Article 27 of the 1917 Mexican Constitution was drafted in response to Zapata's agrarian demands. Emiliano Zapata was born to Gabriel Zapata and Cleofas Jertrudiz Salar of Anenecuilco , Morelos , the ninth of ten children. Contrary to popular legend, the Zapatas were a well-known local family and reasonably well-off. Emiliano's maternal grandfather, José Salazar, had served in

2385-526: A period Zapata became the leader of his "strategic zone", which gave him power and control over the actions of many more individual rebel groups and thus greatly increased his margin of success. "Among revolutionaries in other districts of the state, however, Zapata's authority was more tenuous." After a meeting between Zapata and Ambrosio Figueroa in Jolalpan , it was decided that Zapata would have joint power with Figueroa with regard to operations in Morelos. This

2544-573: A period of intense labor unrest, exemplified by the Cananea and Río Blanco strikes. When wealthy northern landowner Francisco I. Madero challenged Díaz in the 1910 presidential election and Díaz jailed him, Madero called for an armed uprising against Díaz in the Plan of San Luis Potosí . Rebellions broke out first in Morelos and then to a much greater extent in northern Mexico. The Federal Army could not suppress

2703-431: A political machine, first working with regional strongmen and bringing them into his regime, then replacing them with jefes políticos (political bosses) who were loyal to him. He skillfully managed political conflict and reined in tendencies toward autonomy. He appointed several military officers to state governorships, including General Bernardo Reyes , who became governor of the northern state of Nuevo León , but over

2862-509: A powerful figure for conservative forces opposing the Madero regime. During the Orozco revolt, the governor of Chihuahua mobilized the state militia to support the Federal Army. Pancho Villa , now a colonel in the militia, was called up at this time. In mid-April, at the head of 400 irregular troops, he joined the forces commanded by Huerta. Huerta, however, viewed Villa as an ambitious competitor. During

3021-478: A powerful military union in the north and, although they were not especially committed to Madero, took Mexicali and Chihuahua City . These victories encouraged alliances with other revolutionary leaders, including Villa. Against Madero's wishes, Orozco and Villa fought for and won Ciudad Juárez, bordering El Paso , Texas, on the south side of the Rio Grande . Madero's call to action had unanticipated results, such as

3180-461: A respectable revolutionary, with the explanation that Orozco had not reached the legal age to serve as governor, a tactic that was "a useful constitutional alibi for thwarting the ambitions of young, popular, revolutionary leaders". Madero had put Orozco in charge of the large force of rurales in Chihuahua, but to a gifted revolutionary fighter who had helped bring about Díaz's fall, Madero's reward

3339-493: A short period to San Antonio, Texas . Díaz was announced the winner of the election by a "landslide". On 5 October 1910, Madero issued a "letter from jail", known as the Plan de San Luis Potosí , with its main slogan Sufragio Efectivo, No Re-elección ("effective voting, no re-election"). It declared the Díaz presidency illegal and called for a revolt against him, starting on 20 November 1910. Madero's political plan did not outline

SECTION 20

#1733084567500

3498-410: A single person or family should have one-third of their land nationalized, which would then be required to be given to poor farmers. It also argued that if any large plantation owner resisted this action, they should have the other two-thirds confiscated as well. The Plan of Ayala also invoked the name of President Benito Juárez , one of Mexico's great liberal leaders, and compared the taking of land from

3657-618: A story told by Pancho Villa , a leader who had defeated Díaz's army and forced his resignation and exile, he told Madero at a banquet in Ciudad Juárez in 1911, "You [Madero], sir, have destroyed the revolution ... It's simple: this bunch of dandies have made a fool of you, and this will eventually cost us our necks, yours included." Ignoring the warning, Madero increasingly relied on the Federal Army as armed rebellions broke out in Mexico in 1911–12, with particularly threatening insurrections led by Emiliano Zapata in Morelos and Pascual Orozco in

3816-725: A visit to Huerta's headquarters in June 1912, after an incident in which he refused to return a number of stolen horses, Villa was imprisoned on charges of insubordination and robbery and sentenced to death. Raúl Madero, the President's brother, intervened to save Villa's life. Jailed in Mexico City, Villa escaped and fled to the United States, later to return and play a major role in the civil wars of 1913–1915. There were other rebellions, one led by Bernardo Reyes and another by Félix Díaz , nephew of

3975-500: Is a version of the existence of another son, José Zapata, of an unknown mother, but the validity of the latter is not fully proven. According to the book The Album of Amada Díaz written by Ricardo Orozco and based on the diaries of Amada Díaz , daughter of Porfirio Díaz , Zapata had a very good friendship with Ignacio de la Torre y Mier , Amada's husband. The friendship between the two has been questioned over time, and it has been said that Zapata and Mier had an affair. As stated in

4134-410: Is not known conclusively whether Zapata himself spoke Nahuatl , historian Miguel León-Portilla has cited later Zapatista proclamations and eyewitness accounts to argue that he was fluent in the language. Gabriel Zapata was a farmer and horse trainer, and Emiliano's upbringing on the farm gave him an intimate familiarity with the difficulties of the countryside and his village's long struggle to regain

4293-496: Is not well defined, and even the conservative winner of the 2000 election, Vicente Fox , contended his election was heir to the 1910 democratic election of Francisco Madero, thereby claiming the heritage and legitimacy of the Revolution. Liberal general and war veteran Porfirio Díaz came to the presidency of Mexico in 1876 and remained almost continuously in office until 1911 in an era now called Porfiriato . Coming to power after

4452-578: Is now San Juan Guelavía. Guelavia's sixteenth century church has a large number of colonial-era santos , statues of Roman Catholic saints. During the Mexican Revolution , in 1914, General Juan M. Brito stationed his troops near San Juan Guelavia to oppose the Federalist aims of Venustiano Carranza . After the war, Brito spent time in a prison in the Federal District of Mexico City before returning to San Juan Guelavia, where he established himself as

4611-603: The Magonista rebellion of 1911 in Baja California. With the Federal Army defeated in several battles with irregular, voluntary forces, Díaz's government began negotiations with the revolutionaries in the north. In historian Edwin Lieuwen's assessment, "Victors always attribute their success to their own heroic deeds and superior fighting abilities ... In the spring of 1911, armed bands under self-appointed chiefs arose all over

4770-705: The Mexican Liberal Party ( Partido Liberal de México ) drew up a radical program of reform, specifically addressing what they considered to be the worst aspects of the Díaz regime. Most prominent in the PLM were Ricardo Flores Magón and his two brothers, Enrique and Jesús . They, along with Luis Cabrera and Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama , were connected to the anti-Díaz publication El Hijo del Ahuizote . Political cartoons by José Guadalupe Posada lampooned politicians and cultural elites with mordant humor, portraying them as skeletons. The Liberal Party of Mexico founded

4929-508: The company store , binding them to the company. These strikes were ruthlessly suppressed, with factory owners receiving support from government forces. In the Cananea strike, mine owner William Cornell Greene received support from Díaz's rurales in Sonora as well as Arizona Rangers called in from across the U.S. border. This Arizona Rangers were ordered to use violence to combat labor unrest. In

San Juan Guelavía - Misplaced Pages Continue

5088-489: The "true authors" of the Mexican Revolution for agitating the masses. As the 1910 election approached, Francisco I. Madero , an emerging political figure and member of one of Mexico's richest families, funded the newspaper Anti-Reelectionista , in opposition to the continual re-election of Díaz. Organized labor conducted strikes for better wages and just treatment. Demands for better labor conditions were central to

5247-447: The 1910 election. At age 80, this set the scene for a possible peaceful transition in the presidency. It set off a flurry of political activity. To the dismay of potential candidates to replace him, he reversed himself and ran again. His later reversal on retiring from the presidency set off tremendous activity among opposition groups. Díaz seems to have initially considered Finance Minister José Yves Limantour as his successor. Limantour

5406-418: The 1917 Constitution which incorporated elements of the Plan de Ayala. Meanwhile, the disintegration of the revolution outside of Morelos put pressure on the Zapatistas. When Arenas went over to the constitutionalists, he secured peace for his region and remained in control there. This suggested to many revolutionaries that perhaps the time had come to seek a peaceful conclusion to the struggle. A faction within

5565-588: The 30,000 in the army and another 30,000 in the federal auxiliaries, irregulars and National Guard. Despite their small numbers, the rurales were highly effective in controlling the countryside, especially along the 12,000 miles of railway lines. They were a mobile force, often sent on trains with their horses to put down rebellions in relatively remote areas of Mexico. The construction of railways had been transformative in Mexico (as well as elsewhere in Latin America), accelerating economic activity and increasing

5724-466: The Americans and other possible sources of support. In the fall of 1917 a force led by Gonzalez and ex-Zapatista Sidronio Camacho, who had killed Zapata's brother Eufemio, moved into the eastern part of Morelos, taking Cuautla, Zacualpan, and Jonacatepec. Zapata continued to try to unite the national anti-Carrancista movement through the next year, and the constitutionalists did not make further advances. In

5883-616: The Army or sending them to forced-labor camps in southern Mexico. Such actions strengthened Zapata's standing among the peasants, and succeeded in driving the forces of Madero, led by Victoriano Huerta , out of Morelos. In a coup against Madero in February 1913, Huerta took power in Mexico, but a coalition of Constitutionalist forces in northern Mexico, led by Venustiano Carranza , Álvaro Obregón and Francisco "Pancho" Villa , ousted him in July 1914 with

6042-544: The Carrancistas in Guerrero . The Zapatistas attempted to amass support for their cause by promulgating new manifestos against the hacendados , but this had little effect since the hacendados had already lost power throughout the country. Having been put in charge of the efforts to root out Zapatismo in Morelos, Pablo González Garza was humiliated by Zapata's counterattacks and enforced increasingly draconian measures against

6201-575: The Constitutionalists divided along ideological lines, with Zapata and Villa leading a progressive rebellion, and Carranza and Obregón leading the conservative faction of the remaining Constitutionalists. Villa and the other anti-Carrancista leaders of the North established the Convention of Aguascalientes against Carranza. Zapata and his envoys got the convention to adopt some of the agrarian principles of

6360-430: The Díaz regime was authoritarian and centralizing, it was not a military dictatorship. His first presidential cabinet was staffed with military men, but over successive terms as president, important posts were held by able and loyal civilians. He did not create a personal dynasty, excluding family from the realms of power, although his nephew Félix attempted to seize power after the fall of the regime in 1911. Díaz created

6519-682: The Díaz regime, such as Ricardo Flores Magón and Práxedis Guerrero, went into exile in the relative safety of the United States, but cooperation between the U.S. government and Díaz's agents resulted in the arrest of some radicals. Díaz had ruled continuously since 1884. The question of presidential succession was an issue as early as 1900 when he turned 70. Díaz re-established the office of vice president in 1906, choosing Ramón Corral . Rather than managing political succession, Díaz marginalized Corral, keeping him away from decision-making. Díaz publicly announced in an interview with journalist James Creelman for Pearson's Magazine that he would not run in

San Juan Guelavía - Misplaced Pages Continue

6678-483: The Federal Army and the Huerta regime fell. Like Porfirio Díaz, Huerta went into exile. The Federal Army was disbanded, leaving only revolutionary military forces. Upon taking power, Huerta had moved swiftly to consolidate his hold in the North, having learned the lesson from Díaz's fall that the north was a crucial region to hold. Within a month of the coup, rebellions began to spread throughout Mexico, most prominently led by

6837-626: The Federal Army eagerly responded to the call, most prominently Pancho Villa. Alvaro Obregón of Sonora, a successful rancher and businessman who had not participated in the Madero revolution, now joined the revolutionary forces in the north, the Constitutionalist Army under the Primer Jefe ("First Chief") Venustiano Carranza. Huerta had Governor González arrested and murdered, for fear he would foment rebellion. When northern General Pancho Villa became governor of Chihuahua in 1914, following

6996-556: The Federal Army was defeated by revolutionary armies. The revolutionary armies then fought each other, with the Constitutionalist faction under Carranza defeating the army of former ally Francisco "Pancho" Villa by the summer of 1915. Carranza consolidated power and a new constitution was promulgated in February 1917. The Mexican Constitution of 1917 established universal male suffrage , promoted secularism , workers' rights , economic nationalism , and land reform , and enhanced

7155-587: The Federal Army's weakness and inability to suppress them. Madero's vague promises of land reform attracted many peasants throughout the country. Spontaneous rebellions arose in which ordinary farm laborers, miners and other working-class Mexicans, along with much of the country's population of indigenous peoples, fought Díaz's forces with some success. Madero attracted the forces of rebel leaders such as Pascual Orozco , Pancho Villa , Emiliano Zapata , and Venustiano Carranza . A young and able revolutionary, Orozco—along with Chihuahua Governor Abraham González —formed

7314-453: The French in the 1860s. Some 9,000 officers commanded the 25,000 rank-and-file on the books, with some 7,000 padding the rosters and nonexistent so that officers could receive the subsidies for the numbers they commanded. Officers used their positions for personal enrichment through salary and opportunities for graft. Although Mexicans had enthusiastically volunteered in the war against the French ,

7473-502: The Interim President, said of him that "De la Barra wants to accommodate himself with dignity to the inevitable advance of the ex-revolutionary influence, while accelerating the widespread collapse of the Madero party." The Federal Army, despite its numerous defeats by the revolutionaries, remained intact as the government's force. Madero called on revolutionary fighters to lay down their arms and demobilize, which Emiliano Zapata and

7632-619: The Liberal Party program, drawn up in 1905. Mexican copper miners in the northern state of Sonora took action in the 1906 Cananea strike . Starting June 1, 1906, 5,400 miners began organizing labor strikes. Among other grievances, they were paid less than U.S. nationals working in the mines. In the state of Veracruz, textile workers rioted in January 1907 at the huge Río Blanco factory, the world's largest, protesting against unfair labor practices. They were paid in credit that could be used only at

7791-644: The Madero era, including El País and La Nación , only to be later suppressed under the Victoriano Huerta regime (1913–1914). Under Díaz relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Mexican government were stable, with the anticlerical laws of the Mexican Constitution of 1857 remaining in place, but not enforced, so conflict was muted. During Madero's presidency, Church-state conflict

7950-414: The Madero regime, "Madero clearly welcomed the emergence of a kind of two-party system (Catholic and liberal); he encouraged Catholic political involvement, echoing the exhortations of the episcopate." What was emerging during the Madero regime was "Díaz's old policy of Church-state detente was being continued, perhaps more rapidly and on surer foundations." The Catholic Church in Mexico was working within

8109-420: The Mexico City revolt as interim commander. He did not know that Huerta had been invited to join the conspiracy, but had initially held back. During the fighting that took place in the capital, the civilian population was subjected to artillery exchanges, street fighting and economic disruption, perhaps deliberately caused by the coupists to demonstrate that Madero was unable to keep order. The Madero presidency

SECTION 50

#1733084567500

8268-558: The Northwest. Though Zapata managed to take many important sites such as the Necaxa power plant that supplied Mexico City, he was unable to hold them. The Convention was finally routed from Toluca, and Carranza was recognized by US President Woodrow Wilson as the head of state of Mexico in October. Through 1916, Zapata attacked federal forces from Hidalgo to Oaxaca, and Genovevo de la O fought

8427-567: The Plan de Ayala. Zapata and Villa met in Xochimilco to negotiate an alliance and divide the responsibility for ridding Mexico of the remaining Carrancistas. The meeting was awkward but amiable, and was widely publicized. It was decided that Zapata should work on securing the area east of Morelos from Puebla towards Veracruz. Nonetheless, during the ensuing campaign in Puebla, Zapata was disappointed by Villa's lack of support. Villa did not initially provide

8586-484: The Plan of San Luis Potosí to return village lands. He did not share Madero's vision of democracy built on particular freedoms and guarantees that were meaningless to peasants: Freedom of the press for those who cannot read; free elections for those who do not know the candidates; proper legal for those who have anything to do with an attorney. All those democratic principles, all those great words that gave such joy to our fathers and grandfathers have lost their magic for

8745-671: The Porfiriato, there were regular elections, widely considered sham exercises, marked by contentious irregularities. In his early years in the presidency, Díaz consolidated power by playing opposing factions against each other and by expanding the Rurales , an armed police militia directly under his control that seized land from local peasants. Peasants were forced to make futile attempts to win back their land through courts and petitions. By 1900, over ninety percent of Mexico's communal lands were sold, with an estimated 9.5 million peasants forced into

8904-472: The South". This seemed to be the fix to all of the problems that had just arisen, but other individuals wanted to replace Zapata as well. Due to this new conflict, the individual who would come out on top would have to do so by "convincing his peers he deserved their backing." Zapata finally gained the support necessary by his peers and was considered a "singularly qualified candidate". This decision to make Zapata

9063-601: The World Worker) was founded in September 1912 by Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama , Manuel Sarabia, and Lázaro Gutiérrez de Lara and served as a center of agitation and propaganda, but it was not a formal labor union. Political parties proliferated. One of the most important was the National Catholic Party, which in several regions of the country was particularly strong. Several Catholic newspapers were in circulation during

9222-629: The Zapatista ranks, led by former General Vazquez and Zapata's erstwhile adviser and inspiration Otilio Montaño, moved against the Tlaltizapan headquarters, demanding surrender to the Carrancistas. Reluctantly, Zapata had Montaño tried for treason and executed. Zapata began looking for allies among the northern revolutionaries and the southern Felicistas, followers of the Liberalist Felix Díaz. He sent Gildardo Magaña as an envoy to communicate with

9381-531: The Zapatista rebels. Zapata re-took Morelos in 1917 and held most of the state against Carranza's troops until he was killed in an ambush in April 1919. After his death, Zapatista generals aligned with Obregón against Carranza and helped drive Carranza from power. In 1920, Zapatistas obtained important positions in the government of Morelos after Carranza's fall, instituting many of the land reforms envisioned by Zapata. Zapata remains an iconic figure in Mexico, used both as

9540-450: The Zapatista state, continuing with democratic reforms and legislation meant to keep the civil population safe from abuses by soldiers. Though his advisers urged him to mount a concerted campaign against the Carrancistas across southern Mexico, again he concentrated entirely on stabilizing Morelos and making life tolerable for the peasants. Meanwhile, Carranza mounted national elections in all state capitals except Cuernavaca , and promulgated

9699-588: The Zapatistas to recognize his rule, sending Dr. Atl as an envoy to propose a compromise with Zapata. For Carranza, an agreement with Zapata would mean that he did not need to worry about his force's southern flank and could concentrate on defeating Villa. Zapata demanded veto power over Carranza's decisions, which Carranza rejected, and negotiations broke off. Zapata issued a statement, perhaps drafted by his advisor, Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama . The country wishes to destroy feudalism once and for all [while Carranza offers] administrative reform ... complete honesty in

SECTION 60

#1733084567500

9858-436: The Zapatistas with the weaponry they had agreed on and, when he did, he did not provide adequate transportation. There were also a series of abuses by Villistas against Zapatista soldiers and chiefs. These experiences led Zapata to grow unsatisfied with the alliance, turning instead his efforts to reorganizing the state of Morelos that had been left in shambles by the onslaught of Huerta and Robles. Having taken Puebla, Zapata left

10017-454: The aforementioned work, it is said that both met in 1906, when the revolutionary worked in the stables of the Hacienda de San Carlos Borromeo. It was not openly known, but Mier was homosexual , so when he met Zapata he fell in love with him and decided to take him to work at his ranch located in Mexico City. Once there, the book cites that in words written by Amada Díaz, she saw them "wallowing in

10176-518: The alleged relationship he had with Zapata as a background, it has been said that it could have been a kind of "gay love gesture" that Zapata had with him, because thanks to the intervention of the aforementioned, he managed to be given freedom and escape from imprisonment. With this history, it has been concluded that he may have been a bisexual man. Other people who have talked about this include Pedro Ángel Palou, as in his novel Zapata insinuates that Zapata had some homosexual relations. The latter

10335-432: The alternatives often rebelled and were crushed. It took him some 15 years to accomplish the transformation, reducing the army by 500 officers and 25 generals, creating an army subordinate to central power. He also created the military academy to train officers, but their training aimed to repel foreign invasions. Díaz expanded the rural police force, the rurales as an elite guard, including many former bandits , under

10494-477: The amount of productive land; labor reforms including workman's compensation and the eight-hour day; but also defended the right of the government to intervene in strikes. According to historian Peter V. N. Henderson, De la Barra's and congress's actions "suggests that few Porfirians wished to return to the status quo of the dictatorship. Rather, the thoughtful, progressive members of the Porfirian meritocracy recognized

10653-487: The anti-Díaz anarchist newspaper Regeneración , which appeared in both Spanish and English. In exile in the United States, Práxedis Guerrero began publishing an anti-Díaz newspaper, Alba Roja ("Red Dawn"), in San Francisco, California. Although leftist groups were small, they became influential through their publications, articulating their opposition to the Díaz regime. Francisco Bulnes described these men as

10812-427: The armed rebellion of Emiliano Zapata in Morelos, where peasants demanded rapid action on agrarian reform . Politically inexperienced, Madero's government was fragile, and further regional rebellions broke out. In February 1913, prominent army generals from the Díaz regime staged a coup d'etat in Mexico City , forcing Madero and Vice President Pino Suárez to resign. Days later, both men were assassinated by orders of

10971-437: The army intact as an institution, using it to put down domestic rebellions against his regime. Huerta was a professional soldier and continued to serve in the army under the new commander-in-chief. Huerta's loyalty lay with General Bernardo Reyes rather than with the civilian Madero. In 1912, under pressure from his cabinet, Madero called on Huerta to suppress Orozco's rebellion. With Huerta's success against Orozco, he emerged as

11130-597: The army of José María Morelos y Pavón during the siege of Cuautla, while his paternal uncles Cristino and José Zapata fought in the Reform War and the French Intervention . Emiliano's godfather was the manager of a large local hacienda and his godmother was the manager's wife. The Zapata family were descended from the Zapata of Mapaztlán and were likely mestizos , Mexicans of both Spanish and Nahua heritage. Although it

11289-542: The capital. In mid July, Huerta was forced to flee as a Constitutionalist force under Carranza, Obregón, and Villa took the Federal District. The Constitutionalists established a peace treaty, inserting Carranza as First Authority of the nation. Carranza, an aristocrat with politically relevant connections, then gained the backing of the US, which passed over Villa and Zapata due to their lower-status backgrounds and more progressive ideologies. In spite of having contributed decisively to

11448-423: The deaths of around one million people, mostly non-combatants. Although the decades-long regime of President Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911) was increasingly unpopular, there was no foreboding in 1910 that a revolution was about to break out. The aging Díaz failed to find a controlled solution to presidential succession, resulting in a power struggle among competing elites and the middle classes, which occurred during

11607-434: The defeat of Huerta, he located González's bones and had them reburied with full honors. In Morelos, Emiliano Zapata continued his rebellion under the Plan of Ayala (while expunging the name of counter-revolutionary Pascual Orozco from it), calling for the expropriation of land and redistribution to peasants. Huerta offered peace to Zapata, who rejected it. The Huerta government was thus challenged by revolutionary forces in

11766-412: The demands of the Plan de Ayala and in rebellion against every central government up until his assassination by an agent of President Venustiano Carranza in 1919. The northern revolutionary General Pascual Orozco , a leader in taking Ciudad Juárez, had expected to become governor of Chihuahua. In 1911, although Orozco was "the man of the hour", Madero gave the governorship instead to Abraham González ,

11925-430: The direct control of the president. With these forces, Díaz attempted to appease the Mexican countryside, led by a stable government that was nominally civilian, and the conditions to develop the country economically with the infusion of foreign investments. During Díaz's long tenure in office, the Federal Army became overstaffed and top-heavy with officers, many of them elderly who last saw active military service against

12084-452: The domestic production of wheat, corn and livestock that peasants had lived on. Wealth, political power and access to education were concentrated among a handful of elite landholding families mainly of European and mixed descent. These hacendados controlled vast swaths of the country through their huge estates (for example, the Terrazas had one estate in Sonora that alone comprised more than

12243-410: The essential structure of the Díaz regime, including the Federal Army, was kept in place. Madero fervently held to his position that Mexico needed real democracy, which included regime change by free elections, a free press, and the right of labor to organize and strike. The rebels who brought him to power were demobilized and Madero called on these men of action to return to civilian life. According to

12402-445: The experience or the ideological inclination to reward men who had helped bring him to power. Some revolutionary leaders expected personal rewards, such as Pascual Orozco of Chihuahua. Others wanted major reforms, most especially Emiliano Zapata and Andrés Molina Enríquez , who had long worked for land reform . Madero met personally with Zapata, telling the guerrilla leader that the agrarian question needed careful study. His meaning

12561-419: The fall of Huerta, the Zapatistas were left out of the peace treaties, probably because of Carranza's intense dislike for the Zapatistas, whom he saw as uncultured savages. Through 1915 there was a tentative peace in Morelos and the rest of the country. As the Constitutionalist forces began to split, with Villa creating a popular front against Carranza's Constitutionalists, Carranza worked diplomatically to get

12720-484: The field against Huerta. Zapata revised the Plan of Ayala and named himself the leader of his revolution. He was joined by two newcomers to the Revolution, Venustiano Carranza and Alvaro Obregón , who raised large armies in Coahuila and Sonora respectively. Together they made short work of Huerta, who resigned and fled in June 1914 after repeated military losses. On April 21, 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent

12879-539: The firm of Washington lawyer Sherburne Hopkins , the "world's best rigger of Latin-American revolutions", to encourage support in the U.S. A strategy to discredit Díaz with U.S. business and the U.S. government achieved some success, with Standard Oil representatives engaging in talks with Gustavo Madero. More importantly, the U.S. government "bent neutrality laws for the revolutionaries". In late 1910, revolutionary movements arose in response to Madero's Plan de San Luis Potosí . Still, their ultimate success resulted from

13038-550: The former president, that were quickly put down and the generals jailed. They were both in Mexico City prisons and, despite their geographical separation, they were able to foment yet another rebellion in February 1913. This period came to be known as the Ten Tragic Days ( La Decena Trágica ), which ended with Madero's resignation and assassination and Huerta assuming the presidency. Although Madero had reason to distrust Victoriano Huerta, Madero placed him in charge of suppressing

13197-481: The governor of the state of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza , along with Pablo González . Huerta expected state governors to fall into line with the new government. But Carranza and Abraham González , Governor of Chihuahua did not. Carranza issued the Plan of Guadalupe , a strictly political plan to reject the legitimacy of the Huerta government, and called on revolutionaries to take up arms. Revolutionaries who had brought Madero to power only to be dismissed in favor of

13356-481: The handling of public monies ... freedom of the press for those who cannot read; free elections for those who do not know the candidates; proper legal proceedings for those who have never had anything to do with an attorney. All those beautiful democratic principles, all those great words that give such joy to our fathers and grandfathers have lost their magic ... The people continue to suffer from poverty and endless disappointments. Unable to reach an agreement,

13515-429: The land taken by expanding haciendas. He received a limited education from his teacher, Emilio Vara, but it included "the rudiments of bookkeeping". Gabriel died when Emiliano was about 16 or 17, leaving the latter to care for his family. Emiliano was entrepreneurial and bought a team of mules to haul maize from farms to town and bricks to the Hacienda of Chinameca; he was also a successful farmer, growing watermelons as

13674-625: The landowning hacendados , and when the Revolution broke out in 1910 he became a leader of the peasant revolt in Morelos. Cooperating with a number of other peasant leaders, he formed the Liberation Army of the South , of which he soon became the undisputed leader. Zapata's forces contributed to the fall of Díaz, defeating the Federal Army in the Battle of Cuautla in May 1911, but when the revolutionary leader Francisco I. Madero became president he disavowed

13833-465: The leader of the revolution in Morelos did not occur all at once, nor did it ever reach a true definitive level of recognition. In order to succeed, Zapata needed a strong financial backing for the battles to come. This came in the form of 10,000 pesos delivered by Rodolfo from the Tacubayans . Due to this amount of money Zapata's group of rebels became one of the strongest in the state financially. After

13992-592: The locals. He received no reinforcements, as Obregón, the Minister of War, needed all his forces against Villa in the north and against Felix Díaz in Oaxaca. Through low-scale attacks on Gonzalez's positions, Zapata drove Gonzalez out of Morelos by the end of 1916. Nonetheless, outside of Morelos, the revolutionary forces started disbanding. Some rebels (such as Domingo Arenas ) joined the constitutionalists,while others lapsed into banditry. In Morelos, Zapata once more reorganized

14151-442: The major generals did. Zapata released statements accusing Carranza of being secretly sympathetic to Germany . In March, Zapata finally sent an open letter to Carranza, urging him for the good of the fatherland to resign his leadership to Vazquez Gómez, by now the rallying point of the anti-constitutionalist movement. Having issued this formidable moral challenge to Carranza prior to the upcoming 1920 presidential elections, Zapata

14310-492: The military under the civilian government's control. The Revolution was a decade-long civil war, with new political leadership that gained power and legitimacy through their participation in revolutionary conflicts. The political party those leaders founded in 1929, which would become the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), ruled Mexico until the presidential election of 2000 . When the Revolution ended,

14469-695: The months of the Interim Presidency and left in place the Federal Army. Madero had drawn some loyal and militarily adept supporters who brought down the Díaz regime by force of arms. Madero himself was not a natural soldier, and his decision to dismiss the revolutionary forces that brought him to power isolated him politically. He was an inexperienced politician, who had never held office before. He firmly held to democratic ideals, which many consider evidence of naivete. His election as president in October 1911 raised high expectations among many Mexicans for positive change. The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez guaranteed that

14628-408: The most radical reform plan in Mexico, the Plan de Ayala (Plan of Ayala). The plan declared Madero a traitor, named as head of the revolution Pascual Orozco , the victorious general who captured Ciudad Juárez in 1911 forcing the resignation of Díaz. He outlined a plan for true land reform. Zapata had supported the ouster of Díaz and had the expectation that Madero would fulfill the promises made in

14787-587: The nation. He stated that if need be he would defend Mexico alone as chief of the Ayalan forces. In May the Zapatistas took Jojutla from the Federal Army, many of whom joined the rebels, and captured guns and ammunition. They also laid siege to Cuernavaca where a small contingent of federal troops were holed up. By the summer of 1915, Zapata's forces had taken the southern edge of the Federal District , occupying Milpa Alta and Xochimilco , and were poised to move into

14946-562: The need for change." De la Barra's government sent General Victoriano Huerta to fight in Morelos against the Zapatistas, burning villages and wreaking havoc. His actions drove a wedge between Zapata and Madero, which widened when Madero was inaugurated as president. Zapata remained in arms continuously until his assassination in 1919. Madero won the 1911 election decisively and was inaugurated as president in November 1911, but his movement had lost crucial momentum and revolutionary supporters in

15105-458: The new President, Victoriano Huerta . This initiated a new and bloody phase of the Revolution, as a coalition of northerners opposed to the counter-revolutionary regime of Huerta, the Constitutionalist Army led by the Governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza , entered the conflict. Zapata's forces continued their armed rebellion in Morelos. Huerta's regime lasted from February 1913 to July 1914, and

15264-476: The new democratic system promoted by Madero, but it had its interests to promote, some of which were the forces of the old conservative Church, while the new, progressive Church supporting social Catholicism of the 1891 papal encyclical Rerum Novarum was also a current. When Madero was overthrown in February 1913 by counter-revolutionaries, the conservative wing of the Church supported the coup. Madero did not have

15423-401: The north of Mexico and the strategic state of Morelos, just south of the capital. Huerta's presidency is usually characterized as a dictatorship. From the point of view of revolutionaries at the time and the construction of historical memory of the Revolution, it is without any positive aspects. "Despite recent attempts to portray Victoriano Huerta as a reformer, there is little question that he

15582-570: The north. Both Zapata and Orozco had led revolts that had put pressure on Díaz to resign, and both felt betrayed by Madero once he became president. The press embraced its newfound freedom and Madero became a target of its criticism. Organized labor, which had been suppressed under Díaz, could and did stage strikes, which foreign entrepreneurs saw as threatening their interests. Although there had been labor unrest under Díaz, labor's new freedom to organize also came with anti-American currents. The anarcho-syndicalist Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of

15741-468: The northern state of Coahuila , announced his intent to challenge Díaz for the presidency in the next election , under the banner of the Anti-Reelectionist Party. Madero chose as his running mate Francisco Vázquez Gómez , a physician who had opposed Díaz. Madero campaigned vigorously and effectively. To ensure Madero did not win, Díaz had him jailed before the election. He escaped and fled for

15900-444: The people ... With or without elections, with or without an effective law, with the Porfirian dictatorship or with Madero's democracy with a controlled or free press, its fate remains the same. The 1911 Plan of Ayala called for all lands stolen under Díaz to be immediately returned; there had been considerable land fraud under the old dictator, so a great deal of territory was involved. It also stated that large plantations owned by

16059-523: The people's revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos , and the inspiration of the agrarian movement called Zapatismo . Zapata was born in the rural village of Anenecuilco in Morelos, in an era when peasant communities came under increasing repression from the small-landowning class who monopolized land and water resources for sugarcane production with the support of dictator Porfirio Díaz (President from 1877 to 1880 and 1884 to 1911). Zapata early on participated in political movements against Díaz and

16218-476: The power of the Mexican state. The isolation from the central government that many remote areas had enjoyed or suffered was ending. Telegraph lines constructed next to the railroad tracks meant instant communication between distant states and the capital. The political acumen and flexibility Díaz exhibited in his early years in office began to decline after 1900. He brought the state governors under his control, replacing them at will. The Federal Army, while large,

16377-484: The power of the federal government. Carranza became President of Mexico in 1917, serving a term ending in 1920. He attempted to impose a civilian successor, prompting northern revolutionary generals to rebel. Carranza fled Mexico City and was killed. From 1920 to 1940, revolutionary generals held the office of president, each completing their terms (except from 1928-1934). This was a period when state power became more centralized, and revolutionary reform implemented, bringing

16536-539: The power of the military, reining in provincial military chieftains, and making them subordinate to the central government. He contended with a whole new group of generals who had fought for the liberal cause and who expected rewards for their services. He systematically dealt with them, providing some rivals with opportunities to enrich themselves, ensuring the loyalty of others with high salaries, and others were bought off by rewards of landed estates and redirecting their political ambitions. Military rivals who did not accept

16695-495: The power structure of the old regime remained firmly in place. Francisco León de la Barra became interim president, pending an election to be held in October 1911. Madero considered De la Barra an acceptable figure for the interim presidency since he was not a Científico or politician, but rather a Catholic lawyer and diplomat. He appeared to be a moderate, but the German ambassador to Mexico, Paul von Hintze , who associated with

16854-404: The present-day Constitution of Mexico , which aimed to create a strong central government. Revolutionary generals held power from 1920 to 1940. The revolutionary conflict was primarily a civil war , but foreign powers, having important economic and strategic interests in Mexico, figured in the outcome of Mexico's power struggles; the U.S. involvement was particularly high. The conflict led to

17013-502: The presidency along with his vice president, Ramón Corral, by the end of May 1911 to be replaced by an interim president, Francisco León de la Barra , until elections were held. Díaz and his family and a number of top supporters were allowed to go into exile. When Díaz left for exile in Paris, he was reported as saying, "Madero has unleashed a tiger; let us see if he can control it." With Díaz in exile and new elections to be called in October,

17172-402: The ranks were now filled by draftees . There was a vast gulf between officers and the lower ranks. "The officer corps epitomized everything the masses resented about the Díaz system." With multiple rebellions breaking out in the wake of the fraudulent 1910 election, the military was unable to suppress them, revealing the regime's weakness and leading to Díaz's resignation in May 1911. Although

17331-510: The rebels under Félix Díaz (Bernardo Reyes having been killed on the first day of the open armed conflict). U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson , who had done all he could to undermine U.S. confidence in Madero's presidency, brokered the Pact of the Embassy , which formalized the alliance between Félix Díaz and Huerta, with the backing of the United States. Huerta was to become provisional president following

17490-454: The regions under the greatest stress were not the ones that rebelled. Díaz effectively suppressed strikes, rebellions, and political opposition until the early 1900s. Mexicans began to organize in opposition to Díaz, who had welcomed foreign capital and capitalists, suppressed nascent labor unions, and consistently moved against peasants as agriculture flourished. In 1905 the group of Mexican intellectuals and political agitators who had created

17649-512: The republic, drove Díaz officials from the vicinity, seized money and stamps, and staked out spheres of local authority. Towns, cities, and the countryside passed into the hands of the Maderistas." Díaz sued for peace with Madero, who himself did not want a prolonged and bloody conflict. The result was the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez , signed on 21 May 1911. The signed treaty stated that Díaz would abdicate

17808-415: The resignations of Madero and his vice president, José María Pino Suárez. Rather than being sent into exile with their families, the two were murdered while being transported to prison—a shocking event, but one that did not prevent the Huerta regime's recognition by most world governments, with the notable exception of the U.S. Historian Friedrich Katz considers Madero's retention of the Federal Army, which

17967-401: The return of village land and won the support of peasants seeking land reform, he was not ready to implement radical change. Madero simply demanded that "Public servants act 'morally' in enforcing the law ...". Upon seeing the response by villagers, Madero offered formal justice in courts to individuals who had been wronged by others with regard to agrarian politics. Zapata decided that on

18126-529: The revolutionaries in Morelos refused to do. The cabinet of De la Barra and the Mexican congress was filled with supporters of the Díaz regime. Madero campaigned vigorously for the presidency during this interim period, but revolutionaries who had supported him and brought about Díaz's resignation were dismayed that the sweeping reforms they sought were not immediately instituted. He did introduce some progressive reforms, including improved funding for rural schools; promoting some aspects of agrarian reform to increase

18285-416: The revolutionary fighters who had helped bring him to power. In the aftermath of his assassination and Huerta's seizure of power via a military coup, former revolutionaries had no formal organization through which to raise opposition to Huerta. Madero's "martyrdom accomplished what he was unable to do while alive: unite all the revolutionists under one banner." Within 16 months, revolutionary armies defeated

18444-424: The revolutionary forces with the promise of promotion. Madero's plan was aimed at fomenting a popular uprising against Díaz, but he also understood that the support of the United States and U.S. financiers would be of crucial importance in undermining the regime. The rich and powerful Madero family drew on its resources to make regime change possible, with Madero's brother Gustavo A. Madero hiring, in October 1910,

18603-412: The role of the Zapatistas, denouncing them as mere bandits. In November 1911, Zapata promulgated the Plan de Ayala , which called for substantial land reforms , redistributing lands to the peasants. Madero sent the Federal Army to root out the Zapatistas in Morelos. Madero's generals employed a scorched-earth policy, burning villages and forcibly removing their inhabitants, and drafting many men into

18762-421: The rumor about the homosexuality of his revolutionary companion was gaining strength among his troops, and finally in 1918, he found it necessary to remove him from his post as general and main Zapatista emissary. Eliminating Zapata was a top priority for President Carranza. Carranza was unwilling to compromise with domestic foes and wanted to demonstrate to Mexican elites and to American interests that Carranza

18921-552: The service of wealthy landowners or hacendados . Diaz rigged elections, arguing that only he knew what was best for his country, and he enforced his belief with a strong hand. "Order and Progress" were the watchwords of his rule. Díaz's presidency was characterized by the promotion of industry and the development of infrastructure by opening the country to foreign investment. Díaz suppressed opposition and promoted stability to reassure foreign investors. Farmers and peasants both complained of oppression and exploitation. The situation

19080-476: The south near Mexico City . In the original design of the armed force, Zapata was a mere colonel among several others; however, the true plan that came about through this organization lent itself to Zapata. Zapata believed that the best route of attack would be to center the fighting and action in Cuautla . If this political location could be overthrown, the army would have enough power to "veto anyone else's control of

19239-424: The stables". Some time after this, as De la Torre y Mier was a politician and businessman, the Mexican Revolution represented a problem for him, this being one of the reasons why he would finance a fight that would try to eradicate the movement. The efforts were useless, since in the end the Revolution managed to triumph. Subsequently, Venustiano Carranza , one of its leaders, ordered Mier's imprisonment. Taking

19398-459: The state of Morelos, and pushing Zapata to retreat. The main Zapatista headquarters was moved to Tochimilco, Puebla, although Tlaltizapan also remained under Zapatista control. Through Castro, Carranza issued offers to the main Zapatista generals to join the nationalist cause, with pardon. But apart from Manuel Palafox, who having fallen in disgrace among the Zapatistas had joined the Arenistas, none of

19557-544: The state of Veracruz, the Mexican army gunned down Rio Blanco textile workers and put the bodies on train cars that transported them to Veracruz, "where the bodies were dumped in the harbor as food for sharks". Since the press was censored in Mexico under Díaz, little was published that was critical of the regime. Newspapers barely reported on the Rio Blanco textile strike, the Cananea strike or harsh labor practices on plantations in Oaxaca and Yucatán. Leftist Mexican opponents of

19716-417: The state, negotiate for Cuernavaca or attack it directly, and maintain independent access to Mexico City as well as escape routes to the southern hills." However, in order to gain this great success, Zapata realized that his men needed to be better armed and trained. The first line of action demanded that Zapata and his men "control the area behind and below a line from Jojutla to Yecapixtla ." When this

19875-418: The support of Zapata's troops. Zapata did not recognize the authority that Carranza asserted as leader of the revolutionary movement, continuing his adherence to the Plan de Ayala. In the aftermath of the revolutionaries' victory over Huerta, they attempted to sort out power relations in the Convention of Aguascalientes (October to November 1914). Zapata and Villa broke with Carranza, and Mexico descended into

20034-497: The supporters of the old [Díaz] regime are the main causes of the unsettling situation in which the government that emerged from the revolution finds itself ... The regime appears relentlessly bent on suicide." Huerta, formally in charge of the defense of Madero's regime, allowed the rebels to hold the armory in Mexico City—the Ciudadela—while he consolidated his political power. He changed allegiance from Madero to

20193-453: The surface it seemed as though Madero was doing good things for the people of Mexico, but Zapata did not know the level of sincerity in Madero's actions and thus did not know if he should support him completely. Compromises between the Madero and Zapata failed in November 1911, days after Madero was elected president. Zapata and Otilio Montaño Sánchez , a former school teacher, fled to the mountains of southwest Puebla . There they promulgated

20352-418: The village men that no one would dare to override their nominations or vote for an individual against the advice of the current council at that time. The nominations made were Modesto González, Bartolo Parral, and Emiliano Zapata. After the nominations were closed, a vote was taken and Zapata became the new council president without contest. Although Zapata had turned 30 only a month before, voters knew that it

20511-531: The villagers' land and water rights. With the expansion of Mexican agriculture, landless peasants were forced to work for low wages or move to the cities. Peasant agriculture was under pressure as haciendas expanded, such as in the state of Morelos , just south of Mexico City, with its burgeoning sugar plantations. There was what one scholar has called "agrarian compression", in which "population growth intersected with land loss , declining wages and insecure tenancies to produce widespread economic deterioration", but

20670-575: The wealthy to Juarez's actions when land was expropriated from the Catholic church during the Liberal Reform . Another part of the plan stated that rural cooperatives and other measurements should be put in place to prevent the land from being seized or stolen in the future. In the following weeks, the development of military operations "betray(ed) good evidence of clear and intelligent planning." During Orozco's rebellion, Zapata fought Mexican troops in

20829-430: The widespread uprisings, showing the military's weakness and encouraging the rebels. Díaz resigned in May 1911 and went into exile, an interim government was installed until elections could be held, the Federal Army was retained, and revolutionary forces demobilized. The first phase of the Revolution was relatively bloodless and short-lived. Madero was elected President, taking office in November 1911. He immediately faced

20988-502: The winners to come. Even when Villa was retreating, having lost the Battle of Celaya in 1915, and Obregón took the capital from the Conventionists, who retreated to Toluca , Zapata did not open a second front. When Carranza's forces were poised to move into Morelos, Zapata took action. He attacked Carrancista positions with large forces, trying to harry the Carrancistas in the rear as they were occupied with routing Villa throughout

21147-576: The winter of 1918, severe cold weather and the onset of the Spanish flu caused the loss of a quarter of the total population of the state, almost as many as had been lost to Huerta in 1914. Furthermore, Zapata began to worry that with the end of World War I , the US would turn its attention to Mexico, forcing the Zapatistas either to join the Carrancistas in a national defense or acquiesce to foreign domination of Mexico. In December 1918, Carrancistas under Gonzalez undertook an offensive campaign, taking most of

21306-416: The years military men were largely replaced by civilians loyal to Díaz. As a military man himself, and one who had intervened directly in politics to seize the presidency in 1876, Díaz was acutely aware that the Federal Army could oppose him. He augmented the rurales , a police force created by Benito Juárez , making them his private armed force. The rurales were only 2,500 in number, as opposed to

21465-405: Was a charro outfit : tight-fitting black cashmere pants with silver buttons, a broad charro hat, a fine linen shirt or jacket, a scarf around his neck, boots of a single piece, Amozoqueña-style spurs, and a pistol at his belt." In an undated studio photo, Zapata is dressed in a standard business suit and tie, projecting an image of a man of means. Around the turn of the 20th century, Anenecuilco

21624-591: Was a key member of the Científicos , the circle of technocratic advisers steeped in positivist political science. Another potential successor was General Bernardo Reyes , Díaz's Minister of War, who also served as governor of Nuevo León. Reyes, an opponent of the Científicos, was a moderate reformer with a considerable base of support. Díaz became concerned about him as a rival and forced him to resign from his cabinet. He attempted to marginalize Reyes by sending him on

21783-827: Was a mixed Spanish-speaking mestizo and indigenous Nahuatl -speaking town. It had a long history of protesting the local haciendas taking community members' land, and its leaders gathered colonial-era documentation of their land titles to prove their claims. Some of the colonial documentation was in Nahuatl, with contemporary translations to Spanish for use in legal cases in the Spanish courts. As referenced above, one eyewitness account by Luz Jiménez of Milpa Alta states that Emiliano Zapata spoke Nahuatl fluently when his forces arrived in her community. Community members in Anenecuilco, including Zapata, sought redress against land seizures. In 1892,

21942-456: Was a self-serving dictator." There are few biographies of Huerta, but one strongly asserts that Huerta should not be labeled simply as a counter-revolutionary, arguing that his regime consisted of two distinct periods: from the coup in February 1913 up to October 1913. During that time he attempted to legitimize his regime and demonstrate its legality by pursuing reformist policies; and after October 1913, when he dropped all attempts to rule within

22101-459: Was a turning point in the level of authority and influence that Zapata had gained and proved useful in the direct overthrow of Morelos. If there was anyone that Zapata hated more than Díaz and Madero, it was Victoriano Huerta, the bitter, violent alcoholic who had been responsible for many atrocities in southern Mexico while trying to end the rebellion. Zapata was not alone: in the north, Pancho Villa , who had supported Madero, immediately took to

22260-534: Was able to create and cultivate relationships with political authority figures that would prove useful for him. Zapata became a leading figure in the village of Anenecuilco, where his family had lived for many generations, though he did not take the title of Don, as was custom for someone of his status. Instead, the Anenecuilcans referred to Zapata affectionately as "Miliano" and later as pobrecito (poor little thing) after his death. The flawed 1910 elections were

22419-484: Was accomplished it gave the army the ability to complete raids as well as wait. As the opposition of the Federal Army and police detachments slowly dissipated, the army would be able to eventually gain powerful control over key locations on the Interoceanic Railway from Puebla City to Cuautla. If these feats could be completed, it would gain access to Cuautla directly and the city would fall. The plan of action

22578-459: Was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army , its replacement by a revolutionary army , and the transformation of Mexican culture and government . The northern Constitutionalist faction prevailed on the battlefield and drafted

22737-407: Was based on testimonies told by Manuel Palafox «El Ave Negra» , who was the trusted emissary, personal secretary, and one of the closest revolutionaries to Zapata, who additionally was secretly gay. Zapata was aware of his preferences and had no problems with it, but since he was governed by the principle of executing those who were too "feminine", and Palafox behaved in this way, little by little

22896-425: Was called by the elders of Anenecuilco, whose chief elder was José Merino. He announced "my intention to resign from my position due to my old age and limited abilities to continue the fight for the land rights of the village." The meeting was used as a time for discussion and nomination of individuals as a replacement for Merino as the president of the village council. The elders on the council were so well respected by

23055-497: Was carried out successfully in Jojutla. However, Pablo Torres Burgos , the commander of the operation, was disappointed that the army disobeyed his orders against looting and ransacking. The army took complete control of the area, and it seemed as though Torres Burgos had lost control over his forces prior to this event. Shortly after, Torres Burgos called a meeting and resigned from his position. Upon leaving Jojutla with his two sons, he

23214-529: Was channeled peacefully. The National Catholic Party became an important political opposition force during the Madero presidency. In the June 1912 congressional elections, "militarily quiescent states ... the Catholic Party (PCN) did conspicuously well." During that period, the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth (ACJM) was founded. Although the National Catholic Party was an opposition party to

23373-438: Was clear: Madero, a member of a rich northern hacendado family, was not about to implement comprehensive agrarian reform for aggrieved peasants. In response to this lack of action, Zapata promulgated the Plan de Ayala in November 1911, declaring himself in rebellion against Madero. He renewed guerrilla warfare in the state of Morelos . Madero sent the Federal Army to deal with Zapata, unsuccessfully. Zapata remained true to

23532-431: Was defeated by the revolutionary forces and resulted in Díaz's resignation, "was the basic cause of his fall". His failure is also attributable to "the failure of the social class to which he belonged and whose interests he considered to be identical to those of Mexico: the liberal hacendados" (owners of large estates). Madero had created no political organization that could survive his death and had alienated and demobilized

23691-452: Was further exacerbated by the drought that lasted from 1907 to 1909. The economy took a great leap during the Porfiriato, through the construction of factories, industries and infrastructure such as railroads and dams, as well as improving agriculture. Foreign investors bought large tracts of land to cultivate crops and range cattle for export. The cultivation of exportable goods such as coffee, tobacco, henequen for cordage, and sugar replaced

23850-616: Was increasingly an ineffective force with aging leadership and troops conscripted into service. Díaz attempted the same kind of manipulation he executed with the Mexican political system with business interests, showing favoritism to European interests against those of the U.S. Rival interests, particularly those of the foreign powers with a presence in Mexico, further complicated an already complex system of favoritism. As economic activity increased and industries thrived, industrial workers began organizing for better conditions. Díaz enacted policies that encouraged large landowners to intrude upon

24009-563: Was insulting. After Madero refused to agree to social reforms calling for better working hours, pay, and conditions, Orozco organized his army, the Orozquistas , also called the Colorados ("Red Flaggers") and issued his Plan Orozquista on 25 March 1912, enumerating why he was rising in revolt against Madero. In April 1912, Madero dispatched General Victoriano Huerta of the Federal Army to put down Orozco's dangerous revolt. Madero had kept

24168-408: Was necessary to elect someone respected by the community who would be responsible for the village. Even though he was relatively young, Anenecuilco was ready to hand over the leadership to him without any worry of failure. Before he was elected he had shown the village his nature by helping to lead a campaign in opposition to the candidate Díaz had chosen governor. Even though Zapata's efforts failed, he

24327-484: Was surprised by a federal police patrol who subsequently shot all three of the men on the spot. This seemed to some to be an ending blow to the movement, because Torres Burgos had not selected a successor for his position; however, Zapata was ready to take up where Torres Burgos had left off. Shortly after Torres Burgos's death, a party of rebels elected Zapata as "Supreme Chief of the Revolutionary Movement of

24486-404: Was that as the capital was starving, while the peasants had more to eat than they had had in 1910 and at lower prices. The only official event in Morelos during this entire year was a bullfight in which Zapata himself and his nephew Amador Salazar participated. 1915 was a short period of peace and prosperity for the farmers of Morelos, in between the massacres of the Huerta era and the civil war of

24645-545: Was the "only viable alternative to both anarchy and radicalism." In mid-March 1919, General Pablo González ordered his subordinate Jesús Guajardo to begin operations against the Zapatistas in the mountains around Huautla . But when González later discovered Guajardo carousing in a cantina , he had him arrested, and a public scandal ensued. On March 21, Zapata attempted to smuggle in a note to Guajardo, inviting him to switch sides. The note, however, never reached Guajardo but instead wound up on González's desk. González devised

24804-484: Was the central feature of Zapata's political vision. Zapata joined Madero's campaign against President Díaz. The first military campaign of Zapata was the capture of the Hacienda of Chinameca. When Zapata's army captured Cuautla after a six-day battle on May 19, 1911, it became clear that Díaz would not hold on to power for long. During his interim presidency, Francisco León de la Barra tasked General Victoriano Huerta to suppress revolutionaries in Morelos. Huerta

24963-520: Was to disarm revolutionaries peacefully if possible, but could use force. In August 1911, Huerta led 1,000 Federal troops to Cuernavaca, which Madero saw as provocative. Writing the Minister of the Interior, Zapata demanded the Federal troops withdraw from Morelos, saying "I won't be responsible for the blood that is going to flow if the Federal forces remain." Although Madero's Plan of San Luis Potosí specified

25122-466: Was unravelling, to no one's surprise except perhaps Madero's, whose support continued to deteriorate, even among his political allies. Madero's supporters in congress before the coup, the so-called Renovadores ("the renewers"), criticized him, saying, "The revolution is heading toward collapse and is pulling the government to which it gave rise down with it, for the simple reason that it is not governing with revolutionaries. Compromises and concessions to

25281-405: Was urged by Zapatista generals at Tochimilco, Magaña, and Ayaquica not to take any risks and lie low. But Zapata declined, considering that the respect of his troops depended on his active presence at the front. As far as is known, Zapata fathered a total of 16 documented children with 9 women, but it has also been commented that there were actually 14 women with whom he had relationships. There

#499500