Amidst the bloody tangle of the Mexican Revolution, the figure of Emiliano Zapata stands out. Why is this? His single-minded commitment to land reform helped, as did his physical appearance (large moustache, brooding eyes, and full regional charro regalia at a time when other revolutionary leaders preferred versions of military dress—even Pancho Villa wore a pith helmet at times!). Finally, his dramatic betrayal and death at the hands of government troops in 1919 turned him into a martyr. His was an image, in other words, ready for instant iconization. In this excellent book, Brunk takes us through the many uses that have been made of this fascinating figure.

After the government responsible for Zapata’s death was replaced by force of arms, the Revolution started institutionalizing itself, first with the PRN (Party of the National Revolution) and later as the PRI (Party of the Institutional Revolution, which held power until 2000). It then became important to have room at the revolutionary table for the seekers after agrarian reform. The ruling party responded by taking Zapata into their constellation of heroes, not as a rebel but as a patriarchal figure. As if he were a Catholic martyr, the anniversary of his death (April 10) was celebrated, both on a local and a national level. National, regional, and local politicians would provide well-orchestrated tributes, often announcing bits and pieces of land distribution on the date. By the 1960s, however, when the PRI slowed down and eventually abandoned its agrarian reform program, this identification became quite thin. Zapata’s old battle cry of “Land and Liberty” became “Justice and Liberty,” and urban politicians were in charge of his memory.

Not entirely, however. The peasants of “Zapata country” (Morelos, Guerrero, and western Puebla) continued to organize for his agrarian causes, and even oppose the national government in his name. Zapata moved to the urban scene in the 1960s when university students, seeking a Mexican hero to accompany Che Guevara in their imagery, adopted (and adapted) Emiliano Zapata. In actuality a mestizo, Zapata had already been clad in rural Indian garb by the muralist Diego Rivera in the 1920s. Scattered after the government-sponsored Tlatelolco Massacre of radical students in the Olympic year of 1968, urban zapatistas kept going until the year 1994, with the founding in the state of Chiapas of the Zapata Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, or EZLN). Symbolism remained important; when then-president of Mexico Salinas de Gortari offered amnesty to EZLN members, he did so while standing in front of a large portrait of Venustiano Carranza, the president under whom Zapata had been assassinated. Meanwhile, Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN issued a statement identifying Zapata with such aboriginal Maya deities Kukulkan (the feathered serpent) and Votán, a god who could transform himself into the Lord of the Dead.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. border states, Zapata was surfacing as a symbol of Chicano identity and resistance. During the late 1960s he was so ubiquitous in Los Angeles that Chicano oral tradition has the Los Angeles Police Department issuing an all-points bulletin on him. His visibility had been helped by the 1952 movie, “Viva Zapata!,” starring Marlon Brando in the title role.

In the ninety years since his death, the agrarian leader from Morelos has traveled far, undergone many shades of identity change, and shows no signs of retreating back into the grave. Politicians of many stripes, visual artists, storytellers, corrido writers, and movie-makers on both sides of the border have molded his memory to suit their needs. And it is all carefully set out in this excellent book. Brunk frames his work in the theory of hegemony. I find myself unequipped to judge him there, which will come as no surprise to my friends. But he has done a magnificent job of casting light and clarity upon some important recent chapters in Mexico’s continuing war of images. For this I thank him. I’ll keep this book.

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[Review length: 656 words • Review posted on February 2, 2010]