Wisconsin Roots Too; 2; Zapata

[Bonita Cornute] Torn from his family and set adrift in a strange land, Joseph Zapata awakened one day to find himself alone and penniless in Madison, Wisconsin in 1916. For him the Mexican Revolution erased a long history of family tradition and marked the beginnings of a new chapter in his family's saga. One of the many tragedies of slavery was the dismantling of the family. For Joseph Zapata it was the Mexican Revolution. We've come to the home of his son Eugene Zapata to talk with him about his father's experiences in Mexico and here in Madison at the University of Wisconsin. Mr. Zapata, could you tell us why your father came to this country? [Eugene Zapata] Well, his folks wanted him to attend the university and go to have higher education in the United States and-- or, his mother wanted him to uh stay in the United States whereas his father wanted him to go to Germany for advanced schooling. So, uh As my dad mentions that there was quite a controversy going on at home but he did wind up

going to college and uh finishing high school in the United States. He went to University of Notre Dame to go to high school. And he was there for several years and he He-- [clears throat] Came to Madison to go to the University of Wisconsin and his father was a mining engineer, had a mine, a silver mine which he had discovered and at that time it was the largest silver mine in Mexico. And through those uh proceeds they were able to buy a huge ranch and had livestock and horses and-- Well just very wealthy, wealthy ranch life, I'm telling you he could ride around all day the perimeter of the ranch and never really reach the other -- where you started because it was so huge. [Cornute] But all of that was destroyed by the revolution? [Zapata] All of a sudden the revolution started and he lost track of his family. His brother was here in United States but

he never did find out what happened to his mother, and he lost track of his father for A good number of years and at that time the Cubana Zapata was a revolutionary Zapata, certainly what the French were looking at came along and took over the ranches and subdivided and gave them to the peasants for their own development. And at that time he was also married. He tells me about an older woman coming along with her marriageable daughter and seeing all that money and one thing led to another and they got married when he was 16 and his wife was 12 years his senior. She was 28 at the time so. It was very shortly after that that the Revolution broke. And all of us and everything was wiped out. [Cornute] Mm hmm. [Cornute] You told me earlier that he had an interesting experience on the train out of town. Tell us about that.

[Zapata] Well he had gone back to Mexico with his wife and her mother and he left them there and I believe in one of the border towns in the United States and he himself went into Mexico to try to find some someone from the ranch or try to look up what had happened to his father and mother. You know he traveled for a number of days on the top of boxcars and hitching a ride wherever he could. And at one time he was shot at. And I know they mistook him for a revolutionary himself and at another time he was arrested by the police because they thought he was the son of bandit Zapata. [Cornute] Same name. [Zapata] Same name and I believe they were just detaining him ready to shoot him the next morning. And uh along came a former schoolmate of his and identified him as no, it was a different Zapata, it is a common name in Mexico but in this particular case they thought he was a son of a bandit.

[Cornute] We know that he attended the University of Wisconsin, what were his college days like? [Zapata] Well, he went to University of Platteville just prior to World War One and he was there on a fellowship. And they paid his tuition but he had to work as a janitor sweeping up the classrooms and offices. And he graduated from there in 1916 and was immediately drafted into World War One. So he went over and spent the last part of the years in France in World War One, and it was after that he came back that he entered the University of Wisconsin. And he got a Veteran's Administration loan at that time to continue his schooling at the university which he graduated from in 1924. At the age of 28. [Cornute] He later worked for the State Division of Highways is that correct?

[Zapata] Well he started with the state after graduating from the university and he was a materials tester with the state and he and another professor and I believe one or two other people helped to start the materials lab. They were initiating the tests and procedures that were required for uh testing the tools, the material for road building. And that whole area was mushrooming as far as development and the growth of roads in Wisconsin and they started the materials lab and started the testing procedures that were used on doing this material. [Cornute] But despite these successes his work was questioned by a legislative committee I understand, what was that all about? [Zapata] As much as I can recall he, had been uh Rejecting car loads of petroleum products sent in by some of the largest oil manufacturers which will remain nameless of course [laugh] but he had rejected a number of car loads

and eventually got to the point of this company [clears throat] questioned the tests that he was using and they were questioning this uh materials lab who just recently had its origin in Madison here and they were unable to see why that we would -- or my father would find certain things wrong with the materials whereas their chemists and their Professionals said it was alright. Well it turned out that they set up a legislative committee and one day he got a call that it was the next morning they were supposed to have a hearing and he was to bring all those materials. All his data, all his research, all those test procedures to uh this legislative hearing the next morning. Well he and his assistant, Eva Summers. And he worked that entire night getting all this material

ready for this meeting the next morning. They went to the meeting and they were questioned by this oil company and they were in front of legislators who were questioning them. And as it turned out they not only vindicated themselves but they were required, as a result of this hearing, they required that my dad initial every single car load test that came into the state of Wisconsin. [Cornute] Thank you very much Mr. Zapata. [Zapata] Thank you. [silence]