TLS in Spanish, one page both sides, 8 x 10.5, Correspondencia particular del General Emiliano Zapata letterhead, July 31, 1917. Letter to Don Genovevo de La O., in full (translated): “The present letter will be presented into your hands by Colonel Joaquin Rojas, whom I recommend to you for using his services, which I had already offered to you previously. This gentleman has been working as an agent in Mexico in this Headquarters to advise and inform on the situation of the enemies since December 15 of the past year; he has been in continuous correspondence with me. So much for this, as well as for the previous experience that I already have, I am convinced of his loyalty to our cause and, furthermore, he has been in Mexico the last few months. He had to enter Cuernavaca in July of this year to pick-up an electric battery to be delivered to General Benjamin Garcia. He was denounced by Jesus M. Ochoa, who previously had been his secretary, and conducted to prison in Cuernavaca. He was brought to Mexico four months later. After about one more month he obtained his freedom in November and, afterwards, he entered in contact with this Headquarters and with you. For this reason, you can follow up by giving him employment in your forces without any fear because I have widely examined him already. Without another topic, I leave you as the always affectionate friend and sincerely.” Partial separations to central horizontal and vertical folds (one vertical fold passing through a single letter of the signature), a small tear to left edge, some scattered light soiling, and tack holes to left edge, otherwise fine condition. Zapata, like Genovevo de la O, the recipient of this letter, was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution that removed President Porfirio Diaz from power. Viewed by many as one of Mexico’s outstanding national heroes, Zapata earned reverence from peasant and indigenous citizens who viewed him as a practical revolutionary intent on implementing the liberties and agrarian rights outlined in the Plan of Ayala. The loyalty Zapata references in this letter outlines the pressures he must have felt during this pivotal stretch of resistence, a desperate period in which the disintegration of the revolution outside of Morelos forced Zapata to seek allies among the northern revolutionaries, the southern Felicistas, and the Americans. On April 10, 1919, Zapata was betrayed and killed when Constitutionalist Army Col. Jesus Guajardo, having invited Zapata to a meeting with intimations that he planned to pledge his allegiance to the Southern Liberation Army, ordered his men to shoot down the Mexican agrarian and revolutionary. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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