8 August 1879: Viva Zapata

Emiliano Zapata, people’s revolutionary, was born in Mexico. With the assistance of the U.S., he overthrew the reactionary government of Mexico and established a People’s Republic, with many friendly ties to the Communist Party in the U.S.A.

Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919) [Biography]
In reality, Mexico remained unstable from the beginning of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 until the 1930s when the National Revolutionary Party (Partido Nacional Revolucionario) gained control of the country.

The 1910 revolt was led by Francisco i Madero, who advocated neither social reforms nor drastic change. With conservative support, another general, Victoriano Huerta, overthrew Madero. The peasants continued the revolt begun in 1910 and Pancho Villa and Emile Zapata became the two key figures in the struggle against Huerta. Huerta was defeated and control fell into the hands of Venustiano Carranza, a rich landowner who had supported Madero. Civil war broke out between his forces and those of Villa in the north and Zapata in the south. Zapata was killed for bounty in 1919. By 1920 the popular uprising had been crushed.