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In
1909, a delegation of Indians from the Mexican state of Morelos travel to
Mexico City to plead for the return of land stolen from them. They are
received by president Porfirio Díaz, who has ruled as dictator for
thirty-four years, and his preferential treatment of landowners is revealed
by his condescending attitude toward the peasants. One of the men,
Emiliano Zapata, insists that Díaz give them authority to enforce their
rights, and Díaz circles Zapata's name on the petition so that he can be
watched in the future.
Back in Morales, when the Indians attempt to
survey their stolen land, soldiers set up a machine gun and a massacre
begins. Zapata leads the fight against the soldiers, and his actions
make him a wanted criminal.
While Zapata hides in the mountains with his
brother Eufemio, friend Pablo and follower Soldadera, news of his stand
against Díaz' corruption spreads, and he is visited by journalist and
political zealot Fernando Aguirre. Fernando suggests that Zapata join
the cause of Francisco Indalecio Madero, an exiled Mexican leader attempting
to overthrow Díaz, but Zapata, reluctant to trust someone he does not know,
sends Pablo to meet him.
Zapata then goes with Eufemio to a nearby town,
where he meets with his sweetheart Josefa, whose storeowner father, Señor
Espejo, refuses to allow her to marry the outlaw. Hoping to become
respectable, Zapata, renowned for his knowledge of horses, accepts a job
with Don Nacio de la Torre, who succeeds in obtaining a pardon for him.
When Pablo and Fernando return from meeting with
Madero, they urge Zapata to join him, but Zapata, hoping for a peaceful life
with Josefa, refuses. Before Zapata can win Josefa's hand, however, he
is outraged by the Federales' cruel treatment of an old Indian man, and
kills the soldiers. Espejo again forbids Zapata to marry his daughter,
but Zapata's popularity with the people is solidified when they prevent the
police from arresting him.
As the weeks pass, Zapata and his followers
engage in battles with Díaz' soldiers. One day, Zapata rewards a brave
youngster with his own treasured white horse. When Madera names Zapata
his general in the south, as Pancho Villa is his general in the north,
Espejo allows Zapata to court Josefa.
After Díaz flees Mexico and Madera assumes
control of the government, Josefa and Zapata marry, and on their wedding
night, Josefa begins to teach her husband how to read.
Soon after, Zapata visits Madera in Mexico City
and is infuriated when the well-meaning but naive Madera offers him a rich
estate as reward for his support, then declares that the reinstatement of
the Indians' land will take time. Fernando cynically states that
although Madera is honest, he is controlled by the same men surrounding Díaz,
but Zapata decides to give Madera time to prove himself. Corrupt
general Huerta urges Madera to kill Zapata, who he thinks is too powerful,
although Pablo persuades Madera to visit Zapata in Morales and see him with
the people. Madera attends a celebration in Zapata's village, where
the men turn in their weapons, but the fiesta ends when Huerta sends his
army in to kill Zapata.
Forced again to fight, Zapata engages in many
battles with Huerta's forces, while Madera is held captive and then
assassinated. Soon after, an ambush on Zapata's forces leads him to
suspect that a traitor has betrayed him, and when he learns that Pablo had
been communicating with Madera, he executes his old friend himself.
Huerta is soon defeated, and Villa and Zapata meet with other revolutionary
leaders in Mexico City, where it is decided that the weary Zapata will
become the president.
Later, a delegation from Morales visits Zapata
to inform him that Eufemio has turned into a despot, stealing land and other
men's wives. Infuriated when he finds himself circling the leader's name on
the petition, Zapata resigns and returns home to confront Eufemio.
Eufemio defends his actions, remarking that Zapata has remained poor, then
is killed by the husband of a woman he has seduced. Sick of politics,
Zapata returns to his army, and the new president, spurred on by Fernando,
decides that in order to consolidate his power, Zapata must be killed.
Using a cache of ammunition as bait, a trap is laid, and although Josefa
urges Zapata not to go, he travels to the fort where the ammunition is
supposedly held. There, Colonel Jesús Guajardo reunites Zapata with
his beloved white horse before he is shot by dozens of soldiers. After
the horse escapes, Zapata's mutilated body is displayed in a nearby village
courtyard. The people refuse to accept that the corpse is Zapata's,
however, and believe that his horse, running free in the mountains, is a
sign that he will return when he is needed. |
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