Blog Post for the Week of February 17

 This week, I really enjoyed the film Viva Zapata. Hearing about the events surrounding the Mexican Revolution in Professor Starks part of the class is very interesting, but sometimes a visual representation like a film helps cement the information in my brain. In this case, the film made me consider a thought I had during our discussion of Diaz. I found it interesting that Diaz initially ran on the idea of no reelection for president, but then later in his life changed the laws so that he himself could be reelected. It made me think about how quickly a new leader who the people viewed as a savior can revert back to the ways of those he replaced. Many times a new leader coming to power can seem like turning a new leaf. However, they might simply go back to what the previous leaders had been doing. The scene of the movie that epitomized this to me was when Zapata began to circle the name of the indigenous man that had confronted him. It was like a perfect rerun of initial scene of the indigenous men talking to Diaz where he had circled Zapata's name. It seemed Zapata was picking up right where Diaz had left off. The only difference was that Zapata realized it, and immediately left the presidency to go help his friends. I think this serves as a warning for putting too much hope in a newly elected official as some sort of savior or liberator from the past officials. Unless the new official really stays true to their principles like Zapata did, they may very well not change a thing from the past leaders.