By Deborah Van Hoewyk—

Even if you don’t know much about Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919), you’ve probably heard of the Zapatista movement he inspired. Dedicated to the proposition that land should be returned to the people, Zapata, as commander of the Liberation Army of the South, is one of the best-known heroes of the Mexican Revolution (1910-20). When Francisco Madero successfully ousted the dictator Porfirio Díaz and made himself president in 1911, however, he failed to implement any of the land reforms Zapata and like-minded revolutionaries expected.

Zapata went home to Ayala in Morelos (south of Mexico City) and wrote his “Plan de Ayala,” castigating Madero and ensuring that the peasants of Morelos would benefit from land reform. The Plan de Ayala was instrumental to creating Article 27 of the 1917 Constitution, which establishes indigenous land rights in communal holdings (ejidos and comunidades agrarias); it is considered a fundamental text for the Zapatista movement.

The Mexican Revolution was marked by chaos: coups, assassinations, hostilities between northern and southern factions in what was basically a civil war within a civil war. Zapata was a thorn in the side of Mexico’s various presidents – none of whom implemented any meaningful land reform, despite the 1917 Constitution. The Constitution had been promoted by Venustiano Carranza, governor of the state of Coahuila; in the wake of the Constitution, Carranza became president of Mexico.

Once in office, he was determined to get rid of Zapata, who took his ragged peasant soldiers into battle whenever his demands were ignored. On April 10, 1919, Carranza’s military organized an elaborate ruse to get Zapata to a supposedly secret meeting at Hacienda Chinameca (about 18 km, or 11 miles, south of Ayala). He arrived on horseback and saluted the military lineup; they promptly murdered him in his saddle.

Zapata’s Political Legacy

Politically, Zapata left behind a peasant movement that lives on today, mostly in Chiapas. The lengthy dominant-party role of the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) left many people, especially younger people, feeling there was no political avenue open to them except Zapata-style resistance. As the Revolution faded (it took quite some time for the fighting to stop), the Zapatistas began a long and complicated history of representing the indigenous peoples of southern Mexico, often clashing with northern anti-government groups

Three events crystallized the Zapatista identity and firmly located it in the Lacandon jungle area of Chiapas as the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (National Zapatista Army of Liberation, or EZLN).

· In 1992, reforms to Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution fundamentally changed the country’s agrarian system, ending the longstanding process of land redistribution and allowing new forms of ownership and transfer of ejido land.

· On January 1, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, leading the EZLN to declare war on the Mexican government. The EZLN occupied four towns in Chiapas, including San Cristóbal de las Casas; after 11 days of bloody fighting, during which 300 people died, the Mexican government started negotiations with the EZLN. It took two years, but in 1996, the Mexican government and the EZLN signed the San Andrés Accords, granting autonomy, recognition, and rights to the indigenous peoples of Mexico. In other words, the Accords ostensibly restored some portions of Article 27 of the 1917 Constitution.

· Also in 1996, the EZLN convened an Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and against Neoliberalism, becoming the de facto leader of leftist activists around the world.

As time has passed, the Zapatistas have had less impact on political issues; the EZLN still exists, and still fights for indigenous rights, but their activities are mostly confined to Chiapas. They are opposed to mega-infrastructure projects in the region and maintain ties with European activists. Drug cartels have used violence against local Zapatista governments, causing the EZLN to reorganize in more local collectives aligned with broader Assemblies of Collectives of Zapatista Autonomous Governments” (ACGAZ).

Zapata’s Personal Legacies: Men???
Zapata, an icon of machismo, had twenty or so kids with either 9 or 14 women (he only married one of them); he may also have been bisexual, a possibility that has recently been reexamined because of a painting.

A Controversial Painting.
On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, protesters stormed the usually staid and monumental Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City’s historic center. Many of the protesters were indigenous farmers – those for whom Zapata had fought. Their target was one particular painting in the exhibition Emiliano. Zapata Después de Zapata (Emiliano. Zapata after Zapata), held to mark the centennial of Zapata’s death.

It wasn’t this one …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nor was it this one, odd as it may be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was this one.

Note that the stilettos seem to be revolvers, Zapata’s sombrero is pink with painted flowers, and the horse is – um – aroused. The title is La Revolución.

Antonio Medrano spoke for the protesters: “This isn’t freedom of expression, it is debauchery! It’s degrading. They can’t exhibit our history that way … they can’t permit this kind of mockery.” Perhaps the strongest protests came from Zapata’s descendants, who said they would sue to have the painting removed. Jorge Zapata Gonzalez, Zapata’s grandson, asserted that “We are not going to allow this! For us as relatives, this denigrates the figure of our general – depicting him as gay.”

The artist, Fabián Cháirez, says he was surprised by the cries to take it down, hide it away, or burn it. Cháirez, gay himself, shows a number of similar paintings on his website – La Revolución was painted in 2014. At the time of the exhibition, the artist told the BBC he conceived of the painting as a counterpoint to the predominant image of masculinity as a white fortachón (strongman – Zapata was called el caudillo del sur, another way to say “strongman”); he said he thought issues of sexuality “had already been overcome or [were] under control: inclusion, respect for diversity or difference. Issues such as machismo, misogyny, homophobia.” Those who disagree with the protesters see the painting as an exercise in artistic freedom, or as an effort to quell the negative Mexican attitude towards anything effeminate.

The Palacio de Bellas Artes continued to show the painting for the duration of the exhibition.

Any truth to the rumors? While academic historians say there’s nothing to the rumors about Zapata and other men, that all the evidence is second-hand, others believe that at least two instances of same-sex behavior are plausible.

In 1906, four years before the Mexican Revolution began, Zapata, 27, met Ignacio de la Torre y Mier (“Nachito”), 40, who had been married to Porfirio Díaz’s daughter Amada since 1888. Rumors of Nachito’s homosexuality had been circulating for years. In 1901, the Mexico City police had raided “The Dance of the 41,” a private ball for 41 men, 19 of them dressed in women’s clothes. Word had it that there were 42 men involved, and that Nachito was #42, but somehow the “son-in-law of the father-in-law” was not arrested. The event was described extensively in the Mexican press, leading to open discussions of homosexuality – and to the notion that the dissolute lifestyle of the elite classes represented a moral failing. Not a good look when Revolution is imminent (you can find the 2020 film Dance of the 41, which covers the political aspect of the raid, on Netflix).

Nachito met Zapata at the hacienda of San Carlos Borromeo in Cuernavaca, where Zapata was working in the stables. As the story goes, Nachito invited Zapata to his house on Plaza de Reforma in Mexico City, ostensibly to take care of his horses. Amada spent little time with Nachito, was well aware of his sexual preferences, and kept a diary. Therein she recorded that she found Nachito and Zapata “wallowing” together in the stables.

Zapata’s personal secretary, Manuel Palafox (“The Black Bird”), was a closeted gay; he made cryptic references in his records to behavior that indicated Zapata had other homosexual relationships.

Zapata’s Personal Legacies: Women and Children

Emiliano Zapata may well have had relationships with any number of women that did not produce children, but the record shows he did have children with 9 and maybe 10 women.

Some children died young – a boy of five was bitten by a rattlesnake, a girl of three succumbed to a scorpion sting, several died at birth or shortly after, and a girl of 16 died of meningitis. Of those who lived long lives, only Ana María Zapata Portillo (1915-2010) followed in her father’s footsteps by working for agrarian rights.

On August 20, 1911, after the fall of the Díaz regime, Zapata married one of the women with whom he had children, Josefa Espejo Merino (1879-1968). There is no evidence that he ever divorced her – she died in Ayala. He had successive relationships with the Zúñiga Benítez sisters, Gregoria and Luz, who were soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution.

The role of women, and their children, in Emiliano Zapata’s life is unclear. He was never without one (or more), and there certainly were a lot of them. That Mexicans are interested in his relationships with women as well as with men can be seen in a new play, Emiliano Zapata’s Women, which premiered at the National Museum of Mexican Art in June 2023. The play presents women in his life – a midwife, his mother and sister, a lover – building up or tearing down Zapata’s image by sharing their intimate thoughts about him.

Deborah Van Hoewyk wrote and copy edited for The Eye for over a decade. She passed away in 2025 and is greatly missed.