Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Emiliano Zapata is the Mexican rebel leader who said "It is better to
die on your feet than to live on your knees." A former sharecropper,
he organized and led peasants during the battles of the Mexican
Revolution, joining forces with Pancho Villa and others to fight the
government of Porfirio Diaz. Zapata supported agrarian reform and land
redistribution; his rallying cry was "Land and freedom!" (His
positions attracted the support of some urban intellectuals, who
linked him to the theories of Karl Marx.) Though Diaz was defeated,
Zapata continued to resist subsequent government leaders; he was
ambushed and shot by Mexican troops in 1919. Zapata remains a folk
hero in Mexico, where his name has often been invoked by rebels like
Subcommander Marcos.
Extra credit: Zapata was played by actor Marlon Brando in the 1952
movie Viva Zapata! (John Steinbeck won an Oscar nomination for the
screenplay; Anthony Quinn won an Oscar as Zapata's brother Eufemio)...
Zapata's cry of "Land and freedom" (Tierra Y Libertad) is sometimes
translated as "Land and justice."
Zapata appears with Marilyn Monroe in our loop Supposed to be Ghosts.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
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