Artistic Surprises: Discovering Zapata in a Christmas Sketch

Sketch of Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Rebel by Ralph Contreras

Exploring Latinx Heritage: Drawing Zapata on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! This Christmas Eve I felt like drawing something different. I searched Pinterest for some inspiration. What I found was an image of a Mexican revolutionary. I thought this would be fun to draw. I’ve been feeling a pull to create art with some Latinx cultural influence. 

After sharing the sketch drawing on Instagram, one of my followers pointed out that the photo looked like Zapata, a famous historical figure from Mexican history. 

I went back and looked at the reference image, and it was a photo of Zapata. Emiliano Zapata was a Mexican revolutionary, a guerrilla leader during the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920.  I had no idea when I chose the picture to reference for a sketch drawing.

I used a blue pencil for this quick sketch drawing.  I forgot that blue pencils don’t erase easily, at least for me. This figure came out a little stiff, but for a sketch I still like the way it came out.