Emiliano Zapata Essay

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| Emiliano Zapata was the leader of a peasant rebellion in Mexico shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. Marxists want to claim Zapata as their own but the historical evidence is that in no way can he be construed as being a Marxist. He was a farmer and an entrepreneur who was driven to rebellion in defense of propery rights and in defense against central government oppression. As head of a guerilla movement and in the course of war his ideology may have changed or become ambiguous but his initial stance was unambiguous. Family History Emiliano Zapata was born in Morelos, a state to the south of Mexico City. Its major commercial industry was raising sugar cane on haciendas ( plantations ). Zapata's father was a metizo farmer who raised and sold horses. He died when Emiliano was 17 years old and Emiliano assumed responsibility for supporting his mother and siblings. The Zapata family was not at odds with the hacienda owners. The owner of one large sugar-cane hacienda was the god-father of Emiliano at his baptism. The Zapata family could be described as wealthier than average peasant farmers who engaged in business on the side. As mentioned above, Emiliano's father raised, trained and sold horses. Emiliano purchased a team of ten mules and used them to haul corn from the farms of the area to the town. Later he branched out into hauling bricks and lime for construction work. He was proud of his entrepreneurship. But Emiliano also farmed. He said, One of the happiest days of my life is when I made five or six hundred pesos from a crop of watermelons I raised all on my own. The Economy and Land Tenure in the State of Morelos The problems for Morelos developed when it got a branch line of the railroad connecting Mexico City and the coastal city of Veracruz. The reduction in transportation costs that this rail line brought made sugar growing even more

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