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The expression Zapata moustache, and its variants, designate a type of moustache in which the two ends extend downwards to the chin.
This expression refers to the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919), who was portrayed with a moustache of this kind by Marlon Brando (1924-2004) in the U.S. film Viva Zapata! (1952), directed by Elia Kazan (1909-2003).
The following is from The Mustache Sprouts Again In London, published in The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) of Saturday 22nd July 1967 [page A3, columns 1 & 2]:
London, July 21 (Reuters)—The traditional British stiff upper lip is bristling again.
[…]
[…] The droopy “Zapata” mustache has caught the imagination of the fashion trendsetters, lending a lean-and-hungry look to the faces along Carnaby street.
The Mexican revolution of 1910, American actors and Marlon Brando, in particular, have been the main influence on the mustache vogue.
In the film “Viva Zapata” in 1950 [sic], Brando played the role of Emilio [sic] Zapata, a Mexican peasant turned general. It has taken a long time, but from the lush growth that adorned Brando’s mouth in that film has flourished the latest addition to this cult-crazy city—the Zapata.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the expression Zapata moustache and variants that I have found:
1-: From the column In London Last Night, by Peter Chambers, published in the Evening Standard (London, England) of Wednesday 15th January 1958 [page 6, column 4]:
—Alexander ‘Sandy’ Wilson (1924-2014) was a British composer and lyricist:
Success doesn’t improve everybody. Mr. SANDY WILSON, the author wore sideboards, a Viva Zapata moustache and a scarlet bow-tie.
2-: From Ron Rice and the Angry Men: The World of the Beat Filmmakers, by Harold Sheehan, of the Newspaper Enterprise Association, published in the Glasgow Daily Times (Glasgow, Kentucky, USA) of Tuesday 16th October 1962 [page 2, column 3]:
—Charles Ronald Rice (1935-1964) was a U.S. film director:
Rice, though a spokesman for the beat generation, shuns the usual trappings of the beats. His concession to non-conformity is the cultivation of a zapata moustache. He smokes heavily when he can afford cigarettes.
Photograph of Ron Rice, published in the Glasgow Daily Times (Glasgow, Kentucky, USA) of Tuesday 16th October 1962:
3-: From In the Addams Tradition: A Love Story?, by Rona Barrett, published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) of Sunday 23rd August 1964 [TV Star: page 14, column 2]:
—The U.S. actor John Allen Astin (born 1930) interpreted Gomez Addams in the U.S. sitcom The Addams Family (1964-1966):
Sporting a new “Zapata” style mustache he didn’t wear in “I’m Dickens . . . He’s Fenster,” John Astin, who’ll now star as Gomez, lifted the Pentagon lid from his show.
Photograph of John Astin as Gomez Addams, published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) of Sunday 23rd August 1964:
4-: From Johnson Unmoved By Plea To Halt N. Viet Bombing, by Edwin A. Lahey, Chief of the Akron Beacon Journal Washington Bureau, published in the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio, USA) of Tuesday 26th October 1965 [page C10, column 4]:
SOME Texas branches of the Ku Klux Klan announced their support of the administration’s Vietnam policy, and talked about a demonstration next weekend in Austin, to rally around the President.
Hells Angels, a group of motorcycle hoods in California, have likewise aligned themselves with the Administration and against the war critics in Zapata mustaches and shaggy sweaters.
5-: From Nancy Sinatra Tests “Boots For Walking”, published in the Journal Herald (Dayton, Ohio, USA) of Saturday 9th April 1966 [page 39, column 4]:
Sean Connery’s sporting a Zapata-type moustache, which seemed to tickle the fancy of Barbara Nichols, who was his dinner partner at the chic soiree given by public relations man Glenn Rose atop his new high-rise apartment building.
6-: From a review of The New Left: The Resurgence of Radicalism among American Students (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1966), by the U.S. author Phillip Abbott Luce (1935-1998)—review by Tim Bleck, published in the Journal Herald (Dayton, Ohio, USA) of Tuesday 17th May 1966 [page 5, column 1]:
Dayton rubs shoulders with the New Left’s moody brood frequently: these terribly serious unwashed pariahs, lower lips aquiver in suppressed outrage at all the false gods contemporary America bows to.
Phillip Abbott Luce, he of the “Viva Zapata” mustache, was one of them.
Photograph of Phillip Abbott Luce, published in the Journal Herald (Dayton, Ohio, USA) of Tuesday 17th May 1966:
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