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The Posthumous Career of Emiliano Zapata: Myth, Memory, and Mexico's Twentieth Century. By Samuel Brunk. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008. Pp. x, 353. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $45.00 cloth.
It perhaps goes without saying that Emiliano Zapata has been the most enduring symbol of Mexico's 1910 revolution. As the embodiment of a peasant/indigenous claim to land, liberty and some sort of justice, Zapata has been invoked by actors across the political spectrum to make claims on the past and present. His name and image adorn subway stops, schools, towns, and any number of commercial products. Samuel Brunk, already a noted scholar of Zapata himself, views this ubiquitous presence as an opportunity to trace Mexico's twentieth-century political and social history, and to offer insights into the diorny questions related to hegemony and Mexican national identity. His insights are at moments compelling and original, but given the vast nature of the subject matter, it is not surprising that in places he falls short of his goal of explaining the continuing relevance of the rebel...