Villa and Zapata vividly chronicles the decade of bloody events that followed the eruption of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 and made legends of the rebels Francisco "Pancho" Villa and Emiliano Zapata. Mexico's was the first massive social revolution of the twentieth century, visiting economic, cultural, and racial strife on a country already exploited by oppressive officials and crippled by poverty, but also offering hope to its people. The ruthless Villa and his army of ex-cowboys in the north and Zapata, recruiting his infantry from the sugar plantations of the south, successfully waged a devastating war on two fronts and brought down a string of autocrats in Mexico City. But the two men failed to make common cause and ultimately fell victim to intrigues more treacherous than their own.