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Emiliano Zapata Hand Painted Portrait in a Hand Carved and Painted Frame
This is an original painting based on a portrait made during the Mexican Revolution. It is set in an original hand carved and painted folk art frame and made to look like an antique from the period.
Emiliano Zapata is probably the greatest hero ever in the pantheon of heroic Mexicans. He lived and died selflessly trying to defend the peasants of the Mexican state of Morelos from the extermination policy of the Mexican government, which was bent on driving the farmers off of the land that they had held since well before the arrival of the Spanish in the early years of the 16th century. While village holdings shrank down to only a few acres of the most miserable land, and some villages were wiped off of the map - villages that had been known to exist for 600 years or longer - the hacienda owners gobbled up the best land and the peasants were forced into what amounted to near slavery. When Zapata and other village self defense organizers mounted armed resistance to the encroachments that threatened their very existence, the Mexican government set out on a scorched earth policy, burning down villages and forcing the inhabitants into concentration camps. After the fall of the old government of Porfirio Diaz, the Revolutionary Government of the Francisco I. Madero continued on the same policy, as did that of his successors, Victoriano Huerta and Venustiano Carranza - sending supposedly revolutionary generals who had fought for the same cause as the Zapatistas into state to continue the repression of the peasants there. Zapata was assassinated in an act of treachery by one of Carranza’s minions, but his followers fought on, and the struggle did not end until the final victor in the ongoing conflict, Alvaro Obregon, rode in to Mexico City in the company of one of the last of Zapata’s generals - the enigmatic Genovevo de la O - and began the process of land reform that would assure that the peasants would regain title to their lands that had been expropriated by crooked judges and politicians during previous administrations.
Zapata fought to remove the Dictator Porfiorio Diaz from power, and then Emiliano hoped that he might retire from the conflict and lead a peaceful life. He was hoping that the victory of the Maderistas at the close of the first phase of the conflict might mean that the cause of land reform might now flourish. He was to be disappointed, and the gun and sword he posed with were soon to be employed once again in avenging the blood of the long suffering Morelos villagers in a long and drawn out guerrilla campaign, which some say has yet to be resolved in that part of the world, where, in the states of Chiapas, Guererro, Veracuz, and Michoacan - all bordering right on Zapata’s home state of Morelos, and in which states the Zapatistas operated during Emiliano’s lifetime - the struggle between Indian farmers and white plantation owners continues just as it had in Zapata’s day - and the rebel defense forces even adopt the name of “Zapatistas”.
These pieces are made with recycled wood - Mexican fruit crates - or “rejas” as they are called - by Bryant "Eduardo" Holman. the self styled "King of Taco Deco".
From Fausto's Art Gallery in Ojinaga, Chihuahua.
(Shipped from Presidio, Texas)