Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against the president Porfirio Diaz. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary force, the Liberation Army of the South, during the Mexican Revolution. Emiliano Zapata was born to Gabriel Zapata, a peasant who trained and sold horses, and Cleofas Salazar in Zacatepillo . Zapata's family were Mestizos, being of mixed Nahua and Spanish ancestry; Emiliano was the ninth of ten children. A peasant since childhood, he gained insight into the severe difficulties of the countryside. He received a limited education from his teacher, Emilio Vara. He had to care for his family because his father died when Zapata was 17. Around the turn of the 20th century Anenecuilco was an indigenous Nahuatl speaking community; there exist eyewitness accounts stating that Emiliano Zapata spoke Nahuatl fluently.