Emiliano Zapata was born in Anenecuilco, Mexico on the 8th of August 1879. Anenecuilco was a small village apart of Mexico’s booming sugar industry in the region of Morelos. Morelos had not always been a large sugar production center, however, in the late 1800s and early 1900s Morelos underwent a large economic transformation making it the third largest sugar producer in the world. This rise in sugar production led to the consummation of numerous plots of land in Morelos and throughout Mexico making those who had previously owned it lose their land and forced into work as dependent workers under haciendas in which many were not treated especially kind or fair. These workers, as well as being removed from their homes and land, had to deal with unreasonable working conditions such as working sun-up to sundown six days a week and no opportunity to improve their social status. In a way haciendas were worked more like slavery than actual dependent workers earning a living wage.

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“The haciendas were built like fortresses, with towering stone walls several feet thick and heavy doors. Most had chapels, schools, jails, and armories, and some had escape tunnels leading from the main house to a nearby stand of trees or remote field, in case of an uprising. Child labor was universal, corporal punishment standard, and the whole environment reeked of feudalism.”

 

This is the type of working status that Emiliano Zapata was born into and what he observed as he grew older leading to his intense craving for revolutionary change in Mexico, especially his homeland of Morelos.

            As Zapata grew older and started to work in the fields with his family members and other older men, he learned to listen to the stories being told about his country. He learned how when these elder men were younger, including his father, they were involved in the fights against French rule eventually becoming heroes in his eyes. Having to grow up rather quickly after both of his parents died by the time he was just sixteen years old Zapata learned quickly what it meant to be considered the head of the household and had to continue to work the plot of land inherited from his father. Although he was fortunate enough to inherit some land from his father, Zapata knew what it was like having to work not only for himself, but to fuel the ever-growing demands of haciendas after renting extra land from one in hopes of gaining more revenue.