He was born in the neighborhood of Gualupita, in Cuernavaca, Morelos, on 23 August 1884, to Pedro Neri and Faustina Jiménez.

[2] 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".

[3] He also applied the same punishment to deserters who left the Zapatista army in order to go back to work on the haciendas.

[5] On several occasions Neri and his men would come into confrontation with other Zapatistas, notably with the troops of Genovevo de la O, and at one time almost with Zapata himself.

[1] He was killed in January 1914, while returning from a campaign in Tepoztlan, by the Zapatista forces of Antonio Barona Rojas.