---
title: Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898/
description: A full-page illustration of Spanish infantry in light tropical uniform firing across a river from cover, one man fallen in the grass in the foreground…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/un-combate-en-el-rio-zapote-1898.jpg)

# Un combate en el río Zapote (A Fight on the Zapote River), Blanco y Negro

A full-page illustration of Spanish infantry in light tropical uniform firing across a river from cover, one man fallen in the grass in the foreground, above a printed panegyric to 'our admirable soldiers of Cuba and the Philippines'. The tells are the text's borrowed sacred prestige (they deserve 'not only the palm of heroes but the halo of martyrs') and its stacked virtue words ('la patria', 'heroic', 'sacrifice', 'valour') in place of any account of the fighting.

- **Date:** July 9, 1898
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Blanco y Negro (Madrid illustrated weekly), no. 375; illustration by Manuel Alcázar
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Spain](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=spain)
- **Medium:** [Print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=print)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Sagasta Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=sagasta-government)
- **Leader:** [Praxedes Mateo Sagasta](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=praxedes-mateo-sagasta)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Commemorate](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=commemorate)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [Spanish American War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=spanish-american-war)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (from the Internet Archive scan of Blanco y Negro, 1898)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1898-07-09,_Blanco_y_Negro,_Un_combate_en_el_r%C3%ADo_Zapote,_Alc%C3%A1zar.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1898; artist d. 1914; PD-scan, PD-old-auto-1923 per Commons) Manuel Alcázar, Blanco y Negro (Madrid) no. 375, 9 July 1898, via Wikimedia Commons

## Text on the object

Original (Spanish) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
UN COMBATE EN EL RIO ZAPOTE

En estos días de dolor tremendo, de horrible angustia para la patria, apenas si queda espíritu en el apenado ánimo para recordar el modo heroico con que han combatido nuestros admirables soldados de Cuba y Filipinas.
Luchando á la vez con el extranjero poderoso, con la insurrección creciente y con los horrores del clima, peleando siempre en terrible desproporción numérica y sin esperanzas de humano auxilio, con la convicción de que tanto sacrificio y tanto valor derrochados no han de ser útiles para la patria, nuestros soldados de Cuba y Filipinas merecen, no ya la palma de los héroes, sino también la aureola de los mártires.
Así han luchado los soldados de Linares en las cercanías de Santiago, así los cazadores de Filipinas en las provincias de la isla de Luzón, cuyos puntos y lugares estratégicos han sido regados con sangre española antes de emprender la retirada al exiguo perímetro de la ciudad de Manila.

[signature:] M. Alcazar
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
A FIGHT ON THE ZAPOTE RIVER

In these days of tremendous grief, of horrible anguish for the fatherland, scarcely any spirit is left in the afflicted mind to recall the heroic way in which our admirable soldiers of Cuba and the Philippines have fought.
Fighting at once the powerful foreigner, the growing insurrection and the horrors of the climate, always struggling in terrible numerical disproportion and without hope of human aid, with the conviction that so much sacrifice and so much valour squandered will not be of use to the fatherland, our soldiers of Cuba and the Philippines deserve not only the palm of heroes but also the halo of martyrs.
Thus fought the soldiers of Linares near Santiago, thus the Philippine light infantry in the provinces of the island of Luzon, whose strategic points and places have been watered with Spanish blood before undertaking the retreat to the meagre perimeter of the city of Manila.

[signature:] M. Alcazar
```

[← Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) [Les Anglais au Siam, en Égypte, au Soudan et autres lieux (The English in Siam, Egypt, the Sudan and Other Places), La France illustrée →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/les-anglais-au-siam-egypte-soudan-malbet-1898/)

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- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
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