The faces and people of the Mexican Revolution. Mrs. Naft, Reading Specialist,

Objective: Students will know the roles men, women and children played during the Mexican Revolution in order to identify, discuss and write about how peoples’ lives were changed by the war.

What do you know about the American Revolution? Turn to a partner and list facts you remember. (Hint: who, what, where, when, why and how?) Can you list some of the heroes of the American Revolution?

In 1910 the Mexican president had not changed in forty years. There had been no fair elections for new leaders. The president, Porfirio Diaz, was really a dictator, that is a ruler who acts like a king.

Many Mexicans wanted a democracy. More and more land was being taken over by the rich. The farmers and some poor people started a revolution against their own government, demanding the land be returned to the Mexican people who farmed it. The fight lasted for 10 years.

Emiliano Zapata- Leader of the Mexican Revolution in the South of Mexico Zapata was a leader who wanted the many poor farmers to be able to feed and support themselves and their families. He led a rebel army to force the rich to pay the farm workers fairly and give the land back to the poor who farmed it.

Look carefully at this picture. What do you notice about this leader of the Mexican Revolution, Emiliano Zapata?

Pancho Villa was the leader of the revolutionary army in the north.

As a young man, Pancho Villa worked in the silver mines, sold stolen cattle, robbed banks, and was a leader of bandits. He later became a revolutionary leader of an army of thousands. He fought to give land of the rich to the poor.

What generalizations can you make about the revolutionary soldiers in the next slides?

This boy was in Zapata’s army. He was 10 years old.

Infer why this woman might be walking with the soldiers. What might she be carrying in her basket?

The women who followed the army were called “Adelitas”.

Today the women soldiers, soldaderas, are still honored in song and dance.

The Mexican Revolution lasted for 10 long years and during that time about one and half million people died.

In 2009, 789,814 people lived in Baltimore. That number is half of all the people who had died in Mexican revolution.

We will watch some movie footage of the Mexican fighters. Remember, they were not fighting a foreign government, but against people of their own county for a new government.

In the end the Mexicans formed a new government that wasn’t very different from the one they had before. Peace was established, but many of the hoped for changes did not come for the poor farmers and the workers.

The rich landowners still ruled the country. The poor were still poor. A rich landowner’s farm was called a hacienda.

Farm workers on a hacienda by painter Diego Rivera

Describe how the lives and roles of family members were changed by the Mexican Revolution.