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"Zapata! The Man,
The Myth & The Movie [Part II]" Emiliano Zapata was known as “the little tiger” by soldiers in the insurgent army he commanded. During the Mexican Revolution his guerilla fighters were a constant threat to federal troops sent south to contain them. For ten chaotic years the war dragged on with Zapata, a brash young man in his 20s, providing leadership and discipline to a rebel army of peasants. His temporary command posts were hidden coves in the wooded hills. Diaz’s cruel dictatorship had ended in 1911, but an entrenched elite clung to power. Other presidents were elected, assassinated, exiled or run out of office. Wealthy hacendados kept the vast landholdings that had once been communal property. Angry indigenous workers labored in the cane fields and silver mines for starvation wages. The outrage and pressure simmering in the underclass made it easy for Zapata to recruit his peasant revolutionaries. When he rode into a country village on his spirited horse he seemed bigger than life. Impressive in his neat charro outfit, he quickly drew crowds to the plaza. Sometimes he would speak to the lndians in Nahuatl, the language they understood best. “Notlac ximomanaca! Join me! he said. “I rose up. I rose up in arms and I bring my countrymen. What do you say? Are you going to join us?” It was a rag-tag army of men wearing white field clothes and sandals for uniforms. They were quartered in their own homes near the milpas. When a detachment was needed to strike unexpectedly, they materialized, fought, then evaporated --each man becoming again a soft-eyed, vague-talking peon simply by slipping off his cartridge belt and hiding it with his gun in a cache. The army couldn’t defeat them--it couldn’t even find them. They knew all the mountain-country shortcuts and hiding places in tunnels and caves used by runners from the time of Moctesuma. Yet government officials were unwilling to negotiate with the rebels in their dispute over land ownership. During the administration of President Carranza, General Pablo Gonzales warred in the sugar country with a scorched earth policy, destroying every village he thought harbored Zapatistas and killing all the males. Determined to destroy their legendary “General-in-Chief,” he devised a plan to trap and kill the elusive folk hero. He persuaded a junior officer named Guajardo to send word to Zapata that he and his entire battalion wanted to defect from the Federales to the Agrarians. The plot was suspect, but when Guajardo led a raid that took an army position, Zapata decided to take a chance. He needed the troop replacements, arms and ammunition that such a defection could provide. Morale in his army had deteriorated. It was hard to maintain discipline when troops were hungry and lacked supplies, Zapata was depressed by the long struggle that seemed endless. He told an aide that he could think a many men who had become stronger after their death. “Benito Juarez, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ -perhaps it might be the way with me.” His wife begged him not to meet with Colonel Guajardo, but herode to his rendezvous anyway and walked boldly into the compound. A young eyewitness later described what happened. “Having formed ranks, Guajardo’s guard looked ready to do him honors. Three times the bugle sounded the honor call, and as the last note died away, as the General-in-Chief reached the threshold of the door ... at point blank range, without even giving him time , draw his pistols, the soldiers who were presenting arms fired two volleys, and our unforgettable General Zapata fell, never to rise again.” Emiliano Zapata was dead age 29. The body was slung the back of a mule and exhibited in Cuatla, the capital of Morelos. Mourners opened his bloody shirt and examined his bullet-riddled chest, but no birthmark could be seen. Word spread throughout the country that the body was not that of their “Little Tiger.” The myth of his miraculous escape took hold. Some thirty-five years later the myth would grow stronger. 1951, the world-famed novelist John Steinbeck, having long been fascinated with Zapatata, joined forces with director Elia Kazan make one of the most celebrated movies of all time. The film, Viva Zapata, starred Marlon Brando (working at the height of his formidable powers) in the title role, with Anthony Quinn playing Zapata’s brother. Quinn later won an Academy Award for his searching portrayal of the starcrossed brother who was killed by one of Zapata’s own men. Steinbeck’s fluency in Spanish, as well as his great reputation in Mexico, enabled him to interview many rnen who had known Zapata, or had fought under his command. Yet even Steinbeck’s fame, as well as that of Elia Kazan’s (then one of the world’s most acclaimed film directors) gave no guarantee that the Mexican government would cooperate in the filming of the rnovie. Many weeks of complicated negotiations failed to produce an official agreement whereby the government would allow the film to be shot in Mexico. Finally, word reached Steinbeck that approval would be forthcoming -but only if the film depicted Zapata as a communist. Both Steinbeck and Kazan, revolted by the idea, left Mexico vowing to instead make the picture in the United States. They had barely crossed back into Texas when they found all the locations they needed in the tiny town of Roma. Filming soon began, and would culminate months later when the movie opened to rave reviews all over the world. One country not joining in the parade of plaudits, however, was Mexico. Its government for many years afterward would not allow domestic distribution of the picture. That attitude finally softened when several of Mexico’s leading intellectuals and writers (including Carlos Fuentes) eventually recognized the film’s greatness. Today, the movie is acknowledged as one of the finest depictions of any leader ever put on film. Thus the irony:
it would take a troupe of inspired American filmmakers and actors to
forever cast in celluloid and thereby immortalize the most inspiring
Mexican figure of the 20th century. |