Zapata Issues the Plan of Ayala and the Cry of 'Tierra y Libertad'

What happened

Emiliano Zapata, a farmer and horseman from Anenecuilco, Morelos, elected president of his village council in 1909, had already spent years fighting hacienda encroachment on communal land before Madero's revolt against Diaz began. After Madero took the presidency but showed little interest in immediate land reform, Zapata refused to disarm his forces and, with schoolteacher Otilio Montano, wrote the Plan of Ayala on 28 November 1911, the revolution's most radical document, demanding the return of land stolen by haciendas and confiscation without compensation of estates that refused to comply. The plan's rallying cry, eventually shortened after Zapata's death to 'Tierra y Libertad' (Land and Liberty), drew Nahua, Maya, and Zapotec communities across central and southern Mexico into his movement. By 1914 Zapata's forces controlled Morelos and threatened Mexico City itself, and he allied briefly with Pancho Villa before returning home to pursue land reform directly; he was ambushed and assassinated on 10 April 1919.

How we know

The Plan of Ayala survives as a written document from November 1911; Zapata's biography, land seizures, and eventual assassination are documented across period photographs and records held in the Library of Congress's collection on the Mexican Revolution.

Sources

• The Mexican Revolution and the United States exhibit, Library of Congress. Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919) / Zapata's Platform Rallies Indigenous Support · Primary sourceloc.gov · The domain "loc.gov" is on our Primary source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
• The Mexican Revolution and the United States exhibit, Library of Congress. Emiliano Zapata's 1910 Revolt against Diaz · Primary sourceloc.gov · The domain "loc.gov" is on our Primary source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)