Felipe Neri (sometimes known as Felipe Neri Jiménez; 23 August 1884 – January 1914) was a soldier and general in the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

Early life

He was born in the neighborhood of Gualupita, in Cuernavaca,

Morelos Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuer ...

, on 23 August 1884, to Pedro Neri and Faustina Jiménez. Before the

Mexican revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

Felipe Neri worked as a kiln operator at a Chinameca hacienda.

The Revolution

He joined the rebellion in March 1911 and took part in the

Battle of Cuautla The Battle of Cuautla was a battle between the forces of Emiliano Zapata and the federal army of the Mexican government that took place in the state of Morelos from May 11–19, 1911, during the Mexican Revolution. It has sometimes been describe ...

. A bomb which he mis-threw exploded nearby and left him completely deaf.Samuel Brunk, ''Emiliano Zapata: revolution & betrayal in Mexico'', UNM Press, 1995, pg. 71

/ref> Subsequently he served with Emiliano Zapata, Zapata as an explosives expert and

divisional general Divisional general is a general officer rank who commands an army division. The rank originates from the French (Revolutionary) System, and is used by a number of countries. The rank is above a brigade general, and normally below an army corps ...

. He constructed bombs for the revolutionaries out of

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

cans.Samuel Brunk, ''Emiliano Zapata: revolution & betrayal in Mexico'', UNM Press, 1995, pg. 99

/ref> According to some sources the incident that took away his hearing made Neri particularly ruthless in how he treated captive prisoners; he either had them executed or he would cut off one of their ears as a "

mark of Cain The curse of Cain and the mark of Cain are phrases that originated in the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis. In the stories, if someone harmed Cain, the damage would come back sevenfold. Some interpretations view this as a physical ...

".Frank McLynn, ''Villa and Zapata: A History of the Mexican Revolution'', Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2002, pg. 9

/ref> He also applied the same punishment to deserters who left the Zapatista army in order to go back to work on the haciendas. His injury and this practice earned him the nickname of ''mochaorejas'' - "clipper of ears".Enrique Krauze, ''Mexico: biography of power : a history of modern Mexico, 1810-1996'', HarperCollins, 1998, pg. 285

/ref>

On the Zapatista Revolutionary Junta

He became part of the ''Zapatista's'' ruling Revolutionary Military junta, Junta, headed by Emiliano Zapata, in May 1913, together with

Eufemio Zapata Eufemio Zapata Salazar (1873, Ciudad Ayala - June 18, 1917, Cuautla, Morelos) was a participant in the Mexican Revolution and the brother of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. He was known as a womanizer, a macho man, and a very heavy drinker. ...

Genovevo de la O Genovevo de la O (January 3, 1876 – June 12, 1952) was an important figure in the Mexican Revolution in Morelos. He was born in Santa María Ahuacatitlán, Morelos,Genovevo de la O accessed Dec 28, 2018 to sharecropper parents. He ...

, Amador Salazar,

Otilio Montaño Sánchez Otilio Montaño Sánchez ( Villa de Ayala, Morelos, December 13, 1877– Buenavista de Cuéllar, Guerrero, May 18, 1917) was a Zapatista general during the Mexican Revolution. Otilio Montaño was born in Morelos to Esteban Montaño and Guada ...

, and

Manuel Palafox Manuel Palafox (born Puebla, 1886–1959) was a Mexican politician, soldier and intellectual. Palafox studied in Puebla, his city of birth, and became an entrepreneur. In 1911, he joined the Liberation Army of the South (AWL) of Emiliano Zap ...

(who acted as the secretary).Frank McLynn, ''Villa and Zapata: A History of the Mexican Revolution'', Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2002, pg. 185 pg.

/ref>

Conflicts with other Zapatista chiefs

On several occasions Neri and his men would come into confrontation with other ''Zapatistas'', notably with the troops of

, and at one time almost with Zapata himself. In November 1913 Neri had appropriated some guns from the other ''Zapatista'' commanders which earned him a rebuke from Zapata. Neri answered with a bold letter in which he refused to return the guns, accused Zapata of favouritism and not giving him enough credit, and threatened that if Zapata tried to collect the guns again, he would break off and fight Huerta on his own. He was killed in January 1914, while returning from a campaign in Tepoztlan, by the Zapatista forces of

Antonio Barona Rojas Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

. According to some authors, there is strong circumstantial evidence that the killing was done on the orders of Zapata himself, although an explicit order to that effect has not been found. Barona was never held accountable for the killing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neri, Felipe Mexican soldiers Zapatistas People from Morelos Mexican revolutionaries 1884 births 1914 deaths