A Song For Zapata

A SONG FOR ZAPATA

Fifty years ago, on April 10, 1919, Emialiano Zapata, General in chief of the Mexican Liberation Army of the South, rode into an ambush and was killed. The following day, onr of the survivors of his guerilla group scrawled this on a wall in Cuernavaca: "It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." Panco Villa, Zapata's countr-part in the North of Mexico, composed the following words (not the ones in the school books ) to "La Cucaracha" in reference to the Fascist pig generals who killed Zapata and who's rule led to an opedemic and famine which killed a million people in the state of Morelos after the murder of Zapata:

La Cucaracha, la cucaracha

Ya no puede caminar,

Poque no tiene,

Porque la falta,

Marijuana que fumar.

The roach, the roach

He can't go anywhere,

because he doesn't have,

because he' s lacking,

Marijuana to smoke.