On this day, April 10, in 1919

Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and killed after the Mexican Government placed a bounty on his head. Zapata was a leader in the Mexican Revolution and general of the Liberation Army of the South. The majority of his followers were indigenous peasants, and he fought tirelessly for redistribution of agricultural land and communal land rights for Mexico’s indigenous population. Zapata drafted the Plan de Ayala, which proclaimed the Zapatista demands for land, liberty, and justice. The revolutionary ‘Zapatista Army of National Liberation’ in Chiapas, Mexico was named in Zapata’s honor.