Starust 1879, Emiliano Zapata, revolutionary and leading figure of the peasant army which helped overthrow Porfirio Diaz in the 1910 Mexican revolution, was born. Of Nahua and Spanish mestizo descent, he organised alongside local Indigenous communities to fight against land seizures by wealthy hacienda owners, and occupy seized land.
With the outbreak of revolution, he led a revolutionary militia and took part in many battles. Under the slogan “Tierra y Libertad” (“Land and Liberty”), Zapata and his army kept fighting for the original goals of the revolution, most crucially land redistribution, regardless of whichever faction took over state power.
After Zapata was assassinated, his followers kept up the struggle, and today, after an uprising in the 1990s, modern day Indigenous Zapatistas control a sizeable autonomous territory in Chiapas.
A biography about him is available here, alongside a reproduction of this iconic photo: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/emiliano-zapata https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1779696798882129/?type=3
