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He was born in August 8, 1879, in Anenecuilco, Mexico, he was an Mexican revolutionary, champion of agrarianism, who fought in guerrilla actions during and after the Mexican Revolution -
He was arrested because he took part in a protest by the peasants of his village against the hacienda that had appropriated their lands, also he was drafted into the army -
His neighbors elected him president of the board of defense for their village -
Zapata and his friends decided to support Madero. Zapata’s tiny force took the city of Cuautla and closed the road to the capital, Mexico City. Zapata, with 5,000 men, entered Cuernavaca -
Zapata prepared the Plan of Ayala, which declared Madero incapable of fulfilling the goals of the revolution. The signers vowed to return the stolen land to the ejidos by expropriating, with payment, a third of the area of the haciendas; those haciendas that refused to accept this plan would have their lands expropriated without compensation. Zapata adopted the slogan “Tierra y Libertad” (“Land and Liberty”). -
Pablo González, who directed the government operations against Zapata, contrived a secret meeting with Zapata at the hacienda of Chinameca in Morelos. There Zapata was ambushed and shot to death by Carrancista soldiers. He died and his body was carried to Cuautla and buried there.