Few countries employ John Ford's closing maxim for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance—”When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”—more effectively than Mexico. Statues of martyred Indian chiefs tower triumphantly over the country's metropolises while Montezuma's descendents languish in poverty. Government officials publicly pretend as if the United States doesn't dictate Mexico's future yet acquiesce to nearly every demand the pinche americanos make.
Then there's the 1912 Mexican Revolution. Thousands of campesinos took up arms during that war under the illusion that their spilled blood would bring about land reform, voter equality and the demolishment of class disparities. Instead, these men and women saw the promise of revolution ignored by the elites who soon took over the country. The elites, in turn, commodified the years of rebellion into the official rhetoric of the Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI), the world's longest-ruling “democratic” party. Revolutionary in name only, the PRI sung the glories of the Mexican Revolution at every opportunity yet never bothered to implement the pledges its leaders made to secure power for more than seven decades.
The battle between legend and fact is the primary tension fueling Los Últimos Zapatistas, Héroes Olvidados (The Last Zapatistas, Forgotten Heroes), a 70-minute documentary consisting of interviews with the living repositories of revolt that are the surviving soldiers of rebel icon Emiliano Zapata. The film does not concentrate on the polished revolution Mexico's government continues to venerate, however. Director Francesco Taboada interviews men and women who fought under Zapata in their current living conditions—severely impoverished, some on their deathbed, their contributions largely forgotten. Taboada makes the point that many of these nonagerians live in conditions marginally better than what prompted them to take up arms. To hear the stirring testimonials of these people is to see the living revolution—and its ultimate betrayal.
But these warriors are not bitter. It's a delight to see these ratchety old coots assail neo-liberalism as it threatens to destroy yet another Mexican century, urging the country's youth to carry on the fight they continue to wage through their testimonials. “We didn't make the revolution for us; we made it for you young people,” one especially elderly man croaks to Taboada. “Now it's your turn to continue this fight and to make our people's rights be respected.”
Los Últimos Zapatistas, Héroes Olvidados screens as part of the Newport Beach Film Festival at the Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Dr., Newport Beach, (949) 253-2880; www.newportbeachfilmfest.com. April 5, 6:30 p.m. $8.
