The Mexican Revolution (1910–ca. 1920) began as a revolt against the dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz, who ruled Mexico as a caudillo, or political-military leader, until 1911. José Clemente Orozco’s initial enthusiastic support for the revolution soon evolved into deep disillusionment in the face of the harsh realities of the prolonged civil war, which included numerous incidents of rape, torture, pillaging, and executions.

Orozco’s "Acordada," which takes the Mexican Revolution as its subject, depicts a group of men and women who have been taken prisoner by the acordada, or soldiers employed by political leaders, of the title. The prisoners are followers of Emiliano Zapata, a revolutionary who fought for the economic and political liberation of Mexican peasants with the motto “Tierra et Libertad” (“Land and Liberty”). The acordada often committed war crimes against civilians, the group that always suffers most in time of war