Pancho Villa

BIOGRAPHY

Francisco "Pancho" Villa (1878-1923) was born Doroteo Arango on a hacienda, or rural estate, in the northern Mexican state of Durango on June 5, 1878. His parents, Agustín Arango and Micaéla Arámbula, were sharecroppers who had four more children after Doroteo: two more sons, Hipólito and Antonio, and two daughters, Mariana and Martinita. Information concerning Doroteo's childhood is limited, but it seems he received little, if any, formal education and probably spent most of his time helping his parents eke out a very modest living--cutting wood, farming, and doing odd jobs for a local merchant. When his father died in 1893, Doroteo became the man of the house until an untoward event changed his life. According to his own recollection, when he returned from the field on September 22, 1894, he saw his mother pleading with the owner of the hacienda to leave his sister Martinita alone. Sneaking off to the house of his cousin, he retrieved a pistol, returned to his home, and shot the hacendado three times, seriously wounding him; he then fled on horseback. The next day, learning that a posse was looking for him, he sent word to his mother to leave the hacienda. At age 16, he was a fugitive running from the law.

Doroteo Arango spent the next few months in the mountains near his home living off the land. Early in 1895, he was captured and taken to jail. One morning, when forced to grind corn, he killed his guard with the grinding stone and made his escape. In October of the same year, he was recaptured by seven men, but while they were preparing lunch Arango reached for a revolver hidden under his blanket. In a burst of gunfire, he sent his captors searching for cover and ran to his horse hidden a few hundred yards away. Three months later, he again had to fight for his life against rurales, or rural mounted policemen. Almost trapped, he led them into an ambush, killed three of them, and escaped. It was during this first year of life as a fugitive that Arango adopted the name Francisco Villa, apparently taking his paternal grandfather's last name in order to hide his true identity.

In June of 1896, Villa joined two locally known bandits. He did well as a bandit, robbing payrolls and shipments of money from mines around Durango and Chihuahua. Generous with his money, Villa helped friends and family in financial straits, but took good care of himself, too. Brigandage did not come cheaply, however; late in 1896, rurales made another attempt to capture Villa, slightly wounding him in the chest. Despite the price on his head, Villa did make attempts to sustain himself with an honest living. He established a butcher shop in the state of Chihuahua (though he was not always too discriminating as to whose cows he butchered). He also worked briefly at mining and stonemasonry. Again and again, however, Villa found it necessary to flee to the mountains and live as an outlaw.

Villa's career as a bandit occurred during the last years of the autocratic rule of Porfirio Díaz, president of Mexico for four decades. Under Díaz, Mexico had a closed political, social, and economic system to which outsiders and the underprivileged could not gain access. Many who were forced out chose to live as outlaws, often being supported by the discontented common people. By 1910, many wealthier people, especially in the northern states, were also unhappy with the government. When Díaz was re-elected president in 1910, his methods set off a signal that something drastic had to be done. Díaz had imprisoned his main challenger, Francisco I. Madero, who escaped and fled to the United States. Declaring the election void and espousing liberal political principles, Madero called for a revolution. One of his supporters, Abraham González, helped turn Villa's talents as a bandit into those of a revolutionary; Villa would now be able to fight a regime that had caused him misery since childhood.

Villa's first act as a revolutionary was the assassination of two political enemies: one a former compadre, or friend, turned traitor, and a judge who was a Díaz supporter. Afterwards, Villa recruited over 300 men and attacked the small town of San Andres near Chihuahua city, tasting his first victory. Unlike regular army troops, these revolutionary bands were loosely organized, made up of anyone who owned a horse and a gun, which in northern Mexico included quite a range of people. Poor people, along with people of moderate means, and even a few well-off hacendados joined the ranks of the revolutionary guerillas, all unhappy with the central government.

Villa Motivates Revolutionary Forces

Coordination began to develop in late 1911 with the emergence of Pascual Orozco, Jr., as the principal tactician of revolutionary forces and Pancho Villa as its greatest motivator and active military leader. Meeting in December, the two decided to engage the federal forces in open combat at Cerro Prieta. But the revolutionaries were outpositioned and outgunned. Defeated and forced to retreat, Villa fled with his men into the mountains. The next few weeks were difficult. Without horses and short of supplies, Villa obtained what he needed by foraging, receiving food and supplies from sympathizers, and, perhaps most importantly, confiscating goods and money from wealthy hacendados opposing the revolution. A major breakthrough for the revolutionaries came with the capture of the Northwestern and Mexican Central Railway in early March 1912. This enabled them to isolate Ciudad Juárez, Mexico's major port of entry from the U.S. and principal railhead, and gave them greater mobility.

About this time, Villa met Francisco Madero. Impressed with Madero's concern for the common folk of Mexico, Villa recalled in his Memoirs that "if all the rich and powerful in Mexico were like him, there would be no struggle and no suffering." Agreeing that the revolutionary troops were still not well enough armed to meet the federales in anything more than guerilla attacks, they decided to suffocate the north by capturing Ciudad Juárez. Control of the railways and the flow of both military and civilian commerce would be invaluable. By late April, the revolutionaries were at the gates of Juárez, but Madero could not decide whether to negotiate with Díaz or seek a military victory. This left the revolutionary forces of Villa and Orozco, now swollen to about 2,500 men, with no orders to fight. But Villa and Orozco were men of action, and they eventually provoked an altercation with the federales of Juárez, precipitating a full-scale battle. The conflict raged from May 8-10, with Villa and the revolutionaries defeating the federal troops, acquiring great quantities of arms, ammunition, and some artillery pieces. The victory proved to be a major turning point in the revolution. Seeing little point in continuing the fight, Díaz resigned as president in May of 1911 and sailed to Europe.

Madero and the revolutionaries had won; they had also--as Díaz had warned--"unleashed a tiger." The "tiger" was the country itself with its different factions loyal to an assortment of regions, clients, and ideologies. Villa, having been an unwitting party in an act of insubordination that was led by Orozco, retired in shame to private life. Unhappy with the new regime, Orozco eventually rebelled against the Madero government and offered Villa 300,000 pesos to join him. But Villa remained loyal to Madero. Leaving Chihuahua for the sierras in 1912, he gathered men for the inevitable battle against Orozco. Although Villa was the most important revolutionary leader in Chihuahua to stay loyal, he was still a subordinate. As leader of the irregular militia units, he was to coordinate them with the regular forces under General Victoriano Huerta, the designated commander of the Federal Division of the North.

Winning some battles and losing others, Villa fought Orozco and his colorados until Huerta--unfamiliar with the style of guerilla warfare--had Villa arrested for insubordination and robbing civilians in late May 1911. Only the intervention of Madero saved Villa from execution. Sent to the federal prison in Mexico City, Villa spent the next few months meeting and talking with important people from both sides of the political spectrum, while improving his rudimentary reading skills. Despite the education he was receiving, prison was not for Villa; he escaped with the help of a court clerk in late December. Heading for the American border and eventually to El Paso, Villa sent word to Governor González warning that Huerta, who had defeated Orozco's forces, had decided to revolt against the Madero government himself. Villa's warning was prophetic.

Madero Dies; Villa Opposes Huerta

In February, the Ten Tragic Days (or the Decena Tragica) marked the end of Madero and the rise of Huerta. With the help of the military, the Mexican congress (at least those who did not support Madero), and even the U.S. ambassador, Huerta was able to depose Madero. But despite guarantees of safe passage out of the country, Madero was shot in the back of the neck on February 22. With Madero removed, his supporters were in danger, and on March 7 Abraham González was also killed. Madero's death had great repercussions. "[It] erased the memory of his failings," wrote historian Alan Knight, "and established him as the martyred Apostle of Democracy, in whose name multitudes could unite in a crusade of vengeance." Fiercely loyal, Pancho Villa returned to Mexico on March 13, 1913, to avenge the deaths and to remove Huerta. His reentry into Mexico was not conspicuous, crossing the border with only eight other men, a little money, and a few armaments. But it was perhaps the fact that Villa had remained loyal to González and Madero that according to Knight, "enabled him to emerge . . . as the pre-eminent Chihuahuan revolutionary, perhaps the greatest popular caudillo of the age."

Villa was not the only leader to pronounce himself against the forces of Huerta. On March 26, the governor of the state of Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza, also proclaimed himself the leader. As general of the Division of the North under Carranza's coalition of disparate forces, Villa gathered men quickly; by late June, he controlled most of Chihuahua. The capture of Torreón on October 2, an important rail center in southwest Coahuila, was Villa's greatest early victory; the booty included 13 cannons and hundreds of guns and grenades. This marked the transition of Villa's forces from a hit-and-run band to a modern army, complete with machine guns, heavy artillery, and troop trains. The addition of Felipe Angeles, an artillery specialist and competent military strategist, also lent Villa's troops military knowledge which proved invaluable.

After Torreón, Villa turned his attention to Chihuahua City but was repulsed by well-entrenched huertistas; he then set his sights on Juárez. The capture of this important city on November 15 was illustrative of Villa's bravado. Having intercepted a coal train, Villa unloaded the coal from the cars, substituted himself and his men, and rode his "Trojan train" into Juárez. The surprise was so complete that the city was conquered in only a few hours. This marked the turning point in the northern campaign against Huerta: with Juárez in their hands, the villistas (Villa's followers) had access to smuggled arms from across the border. The U.S. had imposed an arms embargo until they decided who to recognize as the legitimate leader of Mexico--Huerta or Carranza. Villa prepared for the final assault of Chihuahua City, routing the Federal troops led by his old enemy Pascual Orozco at Tierra Blanco, 30 kilometers from the capital on November 24. By the time Villa arrived at Chihuahua, most of the federales and Spanish civilians had evacuated and moved to Ojinaga. In early January 1914, Villa captured this town as well. By this time Villa's army had been professionalized into a true war machine with nine brigades, including one of artillery. Numbering about 9,000 men, Villa maintained good control of his diverse group: takeovers were orderly and efficient with very deliberate arrests, fines, and confiscations. Although Villa continued to extort cash and supplies, these were to support the revolution and to pay his men, not to enrich himself.

Carranza and Villa Defeat Huerta's Forces

By mid-March, Villa's División del Norte was ready for the final offensive against Huerta. The first task was to recapture Torreón and its environs which Villa had been forced to abandon. The attack began on March 28 and the city fell on April 3. Carranza then ordered Villa to take Saltillo, which fell easily on May 20. Villa then focused on Zacatecas, the capital of Coahuila and a huertista stronghold which he attacked on June 23, without official sanction from Carranza. By nightfall, the city was his. This defeat broke the back of Huerta's forces, which suffered thousands of casualties--sources vary from 5,000 to 8,000--and Huerta "resigned" as president on July 15. Carranza, with the help of Villa, had won back Mexico for rule by constitution. But there was no unity in victory, for Villa never felt the same respect for Carranza as he had for Madero. To Villa, Carranza was surrounded by wing-collared and waist-coated chocolateros perfumados--perfumed chocolate drinkers--who knew little about fighting a revolution. The personification of Mexican machismo (even though he neither drank alcohol nor smoked), Villa saw himself as his own boss in Chihuahua, and his rash actions and quick temper did not help his relations with Carranza. The William Benton episode in February of 1914 is a good illustration. Benton, a British hacendado in Chihuahua, with a notorious local reputation for being a harsh employer, made the mistake of insulting or threatening Villa who, true to his temper, had Benton killed. Charged with an inability to control his so-called subordinates, this brought serious international pressure on Carranza and jeopardized his ambition to be recognized as the legitimate leader of Mexico. Villa and Carranza also disagreed over who should have civilian control over areas liberated in Chihuahua. Villa never coveted the national presidency, preferring to be boss or caudillo of northern Mexico.

By September of 1914, Villa and Carranza formally broke allegiance. On November 10, a convention at Aguascalientes, held within Villa's political and military sphere, declared Carranza to be in rebellion. Villa and Emiliano Zapata, another revolutionary leader from the state of Morelos, met in Mexico City on December 4 to coordinate a strategy to defeat Carranza, who had evacuated to Veracruz. Both Villa and Zapata felt uncomfortable outside of their home regions and vacated Mexico City quite quickly, giving Carranza the opportunity to organize his forces. Villa's and Zapata's regionalism played a large part in their inability to defeat the nationalistic Carranza. As well, Villa's supporters were an amorphous amalgam of conservative ex-federales, liberal Maderistas and cabecillas, or local revolutionary leaders, each trying to influence the ideologically pliable Villa. Villa's easygoing and parochial nature made him tolerant of anyone who pledged allegiance to him. Often their strongest bond was their common anti-Carranza sentiments. Carranza's forces, on the other hand, had a clearer vision of a united Mexico.

Villa's decline as the most powerful military leader of the revolution began in the spring of 1915 with his engagements against Alvaro Obregón, Carranza's leading general. The beginning of the end for Villa started on April 6, when for two days he attempted to take Celaya. Obregón had set up a strong defensive position complete with trenches and barbed wire. The typical Villa frontal assault, wave after wave of motivated men, was mowed down by machine-gun fire. On April 7, when Villa left the field, 2,000 of his men did not. Against the advice of his artillery specialist Angeles, who wanted to turn Celaya into rubble with a barrage, Villa again sent wave after wave of men only to lose up to 4,000 more and suffer a devastating defeat. Villa's reputation of invincibility was all but destroyed. But his forces were not spent and his Waterloo would be a long fragmented mosaic of skirmishes, defeats, and victories around Trinidad (León) between April 29 and June 5. Not willing to change his strategy of all-out attack, Villa lost over 10,000 men, dead, wounded or dispersed. One month later came the final blow. On July 10, Villa's army was sent fleeing by Obregón's troops at Aguascalientes, marking its end as a concentrated, conventional force. Reverting to his early days as leader of smaller bands of bandit/guerilla revolutionaries, Villa continued to cause problems for the Carrancistas for some time, but his star was waning. With eventual American recognition of the Carranza regime in October of 1915, Villa found it more difficult to obtain arms and supplies, and lost another battle at the border town of Agua Prieta on November 2. A mood of anti-Americanism began to fester in the minds of Villa and his supporters. Previously, hoping for support from Washington, he had been careful not to offend U.S. citizens, but now he persecuted them in and outside Mexico. In January of 1916, one of Villa's followers, Pablo López, stopped a train near Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, killing 17 Americans. More famous is the Villista raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in the early morning of March 9, 1916. Villa led the charge himself, burning buildings and killing a handful of Americans, both soldiers and civilians.

General Pershing Pursues Villa

These attacks precipitated a U.S. Expeditionary Force led by General John J. Pershing. Although the force entered Mexico with the permission of the Carranza government on March 15, it soon became a problem for Carranza domestically. The longer the expedition took to capture Villa, the more embarrassed and unpatriotic Carranza looked. Meanwhile, Villa's already near legendary status grew to that of a daring patriot fighting the meddlesome gringos. The expedition ended in failure almost a year later; although it had slowed Villista raids on both sides of the border, they began again in late 1916. From 1917 to 1919, Villa's life continued to be one of a marauding bandit revolutionary. But times had changed, people were tiring of the constant fighting, and popular support for Villa--the "Centaur of the North"--was decreasing. The people, who were living in desperate economic conditions after a decade of war, saw little to gain from supporting Villa who promised little. He merely represented their collective dislike of Carranza. Consequently, Villismo turned into an "unsocial" banditry or pistolerismo, and cries of "Viva Villa" came to denote anti-Carranza sentiments rather than a positive commitment to the northern caudillo. Villa's major reason for continuing to fight was eliminated when Venustiano Carranza was assassinated on May 20, 1920. Carranza's successor, Adolfo de la Huerta, quickly signed an agreement with Villa to end his revolt against the government and to disperse his men. The agreement gave Villa the hacienda at Canutillo, on the border between Chihuahua and Durango, plus state-paid bodyguards and benefits for the widows and orphans of his men. Villa then settled down to life as a rural hacendado. Although he continued to hold a grudge against the Americans for what he considered their betrayal, his fighting days were over.

But his affluent retirement was not a long one. On July 20, 1923, Francisco Villa was gunned down while driving his car through Parral, Chihuahua, with six bodyguards and friends. The shots came from eight assassins hidden in a building. Villa, the "caudillo of the north," who had ridden into battle to fight his enemies face to face was shot while taking an early morning drive. His death was probably the result of a personal vendetta of a local cattle dealer and the desire of national politicians to see Villa dead, fearing he would one day rise again and revolt against the government. With his death, however, the legend of Pancho Villa did not fade but grew to mythic proportions. Despite his unclear ideological commitments which produced no real program of reform, Villa represented the aspirations of the common people of northern Mexico, their desire to be free to rule their own society, and to work and be educated so they could improve their lives. Always supporting vague ideas of land and educational reform, Villa represented for the people a regional patriotism which found expression for years to come in corridos (songs) and cries of "Viva Villa."

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Pronunciation: VEE-ya. Born Doroteo Arango on June 5, 1878, in the village of Rio Grande in the northern Mexican state of Durango; assassinated on July 20, 1923, while driving his car in Parral, Chihuahua; eldest of five children of Agustín Arango and Micaéla Arámbula; married: Maria Luz Corral, 1911 (may have had four legal wives at one time and 24 wives in total; five widows claimed his estate at his death); children, many.

FURTHER READINGS

Books:

LINKS

SOURCE

"Francisco "Pancho" Villa." Historic World Leaders. Gale Research, 1994. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group. 2004. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
revised 2/1/06 by Schoenherr | Songs | Films | Maps