Nosotros Venceremos

Black illustration of Emiliano Zapata holding a flag with text on it on a bright red background

Emiliano Zapata Salazar is holding a flag stating, "We Shall Overcome."  Zapata featured prominently in the Mexican Revolution.  He led the peasant revolution and was the inspiration for Zapatismo, an agrarian movement.  Born in 1879, he lived in Morelos, Mexico.  He was an early activist in movements against the dictator Porfirio Diaz, and in 1910, Zapata became a leader of the peasant uprising in Morelos and formed the Liberation Army of the South.  The peasant revolutionaries were fighting against pressure from landowners who monopolized water and land resources with the support of Diaz.  The peasant army contributed to the fall of Diaz, and Zapata then concentrated on rebuilding Morelos and enacting land reforms.  In 1919, he was killed in an ambush while defending Morelos against the Constitutionalist Army.