ABSTRACT
The Mexican Revolution would change the course of Mexican history. From 1910 to 1920, about 1.5 million Mexicans died as a result of the revolution and a million more fled north to the United States. Carlos Fuentes has characterized the Mexican Revolution as a series of smaller revolutions—one in the north, another in the south, and one at the center of the country, each with its own objective, personality, and leadership structure. Villa’s army, closely connected in geography to the United States, saw firsthand how political and social forces in the United States condemned Mexicans to poverty and powerlessness. A horse trainer and a man with a clear sense of the injustices of land-holding patterns and legal structures, Zapata organized peasants in the south to fight for tierra y libertad, land and liberty. The Constitution of 1917 had a salutary effect and its implementation suggested that the revolution had emerged from the most violent phase.
