Emiliano Zapata!: Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico / Edition 1

by Samuel Brunk

Overview

The life of Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata was the stuff that legends are made of. Born and raised in a tiny village in the small south-central state of Morelos, he led an uprising in 1911—one strand of the larger Mexican Revolution—against the regime of long-time president Porfirio Díaz. He fought not to fulfill personal ambitions, but for the campesinos of Morelos, whose rights were being systematically ignored in Don Porfirio's courts.

Expanding haciendas had been appropriating land and water for centuries in the state, but as the twentieth century began things were becoming desperate. It was not long before Díaz fell. But Zapata then discovered that other national leaders—Francisco Madero, Victoriano Huerta, and Venustiano Carranza—would not put things right, and so he fought them too. He fought for nearly a decade until, in 1919, he was gunned down in an ambush at the hacienda Chinameca.

In this new political biography of Zapata, Brunk, noted journalist and scholar, shows us Zapata the leader as opposed to Zapata the archetypal peasant revolutionary. In previous writings on Zapata, the movement is covered and Zapata the man gets lost in the shuffle. Brunk clearly demonstrates that Zapata's choices and actions did indeed have an historical impact.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826316202
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	08/01/1995
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.09(d)

About the Author

Samuel Brunk is associate professor of history, University of Texas, El Paso.

Editorial Reviews

Samuel Brunk is to be applauded . . . [his] style and scholarship are unimpeachable, confirming . . . a solid, well-researched, narrative history . . .

. . . an excellent book. . . . Brunk has produced an essential work on Emiliano Zapata.

. . . skillfully written, well researched, and provides many new and valuable insights into Zapata . . .

. . . the most realistic analysis of Zapata and his movement . . . straightforward, thoughtful . . . Brunks very readable book is the most accurate study on Zapata now existing.

"The author examines both Zapata and the movement in great detail; neither gets lost in the narrative. Perfect for the history buff or someone simply interested in learning more about Zapata."

Samuel Brunk is to be applauded . . . Ýhis¨ style and scholarship are unimpeachable, confirming . . . a solid, well-researched, narrative history . . .

." . . skillfully written, well researched, and provides many new and valuable insights into Zapata . . ."

From the Publisher

In this scholarly study of Zapata, journalist and scholar Brunk emphasizes aspects of personal leadership over the revolutionary movement as a whole. Brunk portrays a man whose legendary status has helped obscure the facts. From the formative years until his death by ambush in 1919, Zapata is depicted as a man unwaveringly committed to basic land reform and social justice for the peasants of his native state of Morelos. Zapata is not, however, idealized: his inability (or refusal) to control the brutal excesses of subordinate chieftains often resulted in bad press at home and abroad, much to the detriment of his credibility. Likewise, coalitions formed with other major revolutionary leaders (notably Pancho Villa) essential to any hope of successwere always tenuous and fraught with potential treachery, given the vast array of personal and ideological elements in play. A well-documented, readable work; recommended for serious students of the topic.Charles E. Perry, East Central Univ., Ada, Okla.

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