zapata
Zapata is a Spanish-language surname. It is most closely associated with Emiliano Zapata Salazar (1879–1919), a central figure in the Mexican Revolution. Zapata organized peasant communities in the southern state of Morelos and commanded the Liberation Army of the South. He championed agrarian reform and land rights, arguing for the restitution of lands confiscated during the Porfiriato. The Plan de Ayala, issued in 1911, articulated his program for land redistribution and autonomy for peasant communities. Although his forces were eventually unable to sustain the broader revolutionary project, Zapata’s ideas influenced the development of Mexico’s post-revolutionary constitution and agrarian policy. He was assassinated in 1919, an event that shaped subsequent phases of the conflict, but his legacy persisted in Mexican political culture as a symbol of rural rights and regional autonomy.
Beyond Emiliano Zapata, the surname is borne by many people across the Spanish-speaking world and appears in