Inheritors Of The Struggle Invoke Zapata's Name

OLD-TIME Chicano activists say that during the 1960s, Emiliano Zapata's image was so prevalent that the Los Angeles Police Department once put out an all-points bulletin on him.

Today, this hero of the Mexican revolution remains a symbol to Chicano youth. During a recent national gang summit, while black youth walked in wearing images of Malcolm X, Chicano youth wore Zapata T-shirts. At Stanford University, Chicano students live at a center known as Casa Zapata.

"His image is powerful: a bandolera across his chest, a big sombrero, a big mustache, and he stands straight," says Valentina Hernandez, a Chicana student at Harvard's graduate school of education. "They don't teach Zapata in schools for good reason. If they did, they would be creating a lot of little revolutionaries."

It was Emiliano Zapata who said, "It is better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees."

Eighty years ago, the mestizo (mixed blood) Zapata exhorted Indians and campesinos to turn their "face" against bad government - to rebel. In the Nahuatl tongue, more than in English, "face" is synonymous with character and identity. During the Chiapas rebellion, the inheritors of Zapata's struggle have invoked his name and his deeds.

While Zapata is undergoing a rebirth in Mexico, north of the border he has long been part of the Mexican-American psyche. His legacy is not just history. His stand in the land wars and the indigenous movement he forged have instilled a pride and spirit of resistance that remains strong on both sides of the border.

"We still have that Zapatista rebellion inside of us," said Daniel "Nane" Alejandrez, director of the National Coalition to End Barrio Warfare, in Santa Cruz, Calif., "because we will not stand for the abuse of our people."

Mexican biographer Jesus Sotelo Inclan wrote that Zapata was not one man, but many people before and after him. The campesinos of Southern Mexico still refer to him as "mi general." He serves as a symbol for landless urban dwellers. Even the government has appropriated his image. The presidential plane and helicopter both bear his name.

Every April 9, the anniversary of Zapata's death, the president visits his birthplace. Sometimes a man rides a white horse, as Zapata did, as part of the commemorative service. In the past, there have been times when old campesinos had to guard his bones to protect them from being transferred to government hands.

As a people dispossessed and without power, Chicanos share with campesinos and Indians an ancestral memory and spiritual connection. Their identity is more strongly rooted in the memory of their Indian ancestors who lived on this continent for thousands of years than with Mexico as a nation. After centuries of colonialism, in Mexico to this day it is an insult to be called an Indian.

In the 1960s, Chicanos sought to replace this shame with pride, reclaiming both Zapata's revolution and their own indigenous past. In coming to terms with their racial identity, they found the courage and strength to speak out against oppression.

It is not surprising that Mexican Americans and other Latino groups have rallied to the cause of the Zapatistas in Chiapas.

(Copyright, 1994, Chronicle Features)

Latino Spectrum by syndicated columnists Roberto Rodriguez and Patrisia Gonzales appears Tuesday on editorial pages of The Times.