Everything about Francisco Villa totally explained
A rapid, hard-fought series of victories at Ciudad Juárez,
Tierra Blanca,
Chihuahua and
Ojinaga followed. Villa then became provisional governor of the state of
Chihuahua. Villa considered Tierra Blanca his most spectacular victory.
As governor of Chihuahua, Villa raised more money for a drive to the south by printing fiat currency. He decreed his
paper money to be traded and accepted
at par with
gold Mexican pesos, under penalty of
execution, then forced the wealthy to trade their gold for his paper pesos by decreeing gold to be
counterfeit money. He also confiscated the
gold of banks, in the case of the Banco Minero, by holding hostage a member of the bank's owning family, the wealthy and famous Terrazas clan, until the location of the bank's gold was revealed.
Villa's political stature at that time was so high that banks in
El Paso, Texas, accepted his paper pesos at
face value. His generalship drew enough admiration from the US military that he and
Álvaro Obregón were invited to
Fort Bliss to meet Brigadier General John J. Pershing.
The new pile of loot was used to purchase
draft animals, cavalry horses, arms, ammunition,
mobile hospital facilities (railroad cars and horse
ambulances staffed with Mexican and American volunteer doctors, known as
Servicio sanitario), and food, and to rebuild the railroad south of Chihuahua City. The rebuilt railroad transported Villa's troops and
artillery south, where he defeated Federal forces at
Gómez Palacio,
Torreón, and
Zacatecas.
Carranza tries to halt the Villa advance, the fall of Zacatecas
After
Torreón,
Carranza issued a puzzling order for Villa to break off action south of
Torreón and instead ordered him to divert to attack
Saltillo, and threatened to cut off Villa's coal supply if he didn't comply. Coal was needed for
railroad locomotives to pull
trains transporting
soldiers and supplies, and was therefore necessary for any general. This was widely seen as an attempt by Carranza to divert Villa from a direct assault on
Mexico City, so as to allow Carranza's forces under
Álvaro Obregón, driving in from the west via
Guadalajara, to take the capital first, and Obregon and Carranza did enter Mexico City ahead of Villa. This was an expensive and disruptive diversion for the
División del norte, since Villa's enlisted men were paid the then enormous sum of a
peso per day, and each day of delay cost thousands of pesos. Villa did attack Saltillo as ordered, winning that battle.
Villa, disgusted by what he saw as
egoism, tendered his resignation.
Felipe Ángeles and Villa's officer staff argued for Villa to withdraw his resignation, defy Carranza's orders, and proceed to attack
Zacatecas, a strategic mountainous city considered nearly impregnable. Zacatecas was the source of much of Mexico's
silver, and thus a supply of funds for whomever held it. Victory in Zacatecas would mean that Huerta's chances of holding the remainder of the country would be slim. Villa accepted Ángeles' advice, cancelled his resignation, and the
Division del norte defeated the Federals in the
Toma de Zacatecas (Taking of Zacatecas), the single bloodiest battle of the Revolution, with the military forces counting approximately 7,000 dead and 5,000 wounded, and unknown numbers of civilian casualties. (A memorial to and museum of the
Toma de Zacatecas is on the
Cerro de la Bufa, one of the key defense points in the battle of Zacatecas. Tourists use a
teleférico (
aerial tramway) to reach it, due to the steep approaches. From the top, tourists may appreciate the difficulties Villa's troops had trying to dislodge Federal troops from the peak. The loss of Zacatecas in June 1914 broke the back of the Huerta regime, and Huerta left for exile on
July 14,
1914.
This was the beginning of the split between Villa, the champion of the poor, and the rich, cynical
constitutionalistas of Carranza. Carranza's
egoismo (selfishness) would eventually become self-destructive, alienating most of the people he needed to hold power, and doom him as well.
Revolt against Carranza and Obregón
Villa was forced out of
Mexico City in 1915, following a number of incidents between himself, his troops and the citizens of the city, and the humiliation of President
Eulalio Gutiérrez. The return of Carranza and the Constitutionalists to Mexico City from Veracruz followed. Villa then rebelled against Carranza and Carranza's chief general,
Álvaro Obregón. Villa and
Zapata styled themselves as
convencionistas, supporters of the
Convention of Aguascalientes.
Villa's talent for generalship began to fail him in 1915. When Villa faced General Obregón in the First
Battle of Celaya on
April 15, repeated charges of Villa's vaunted
cavalry proved to be no match for Obregón's
entrenchments and modern
machine guns, and the
villista advance was first checked, then repulsed. In the Second battle of Celaya, Obregón lost one of his arms to
villista artillery. Nonetheless, Villa lost the battle.
Villa retrenched to
Chihuahua and attempted to refinance his revolt by having a firm in
San Antonio, Texas, mint more fiat currency. But the effort met with limited success, and the value of Villa's paper pesos dropped to a fraction of their former value as doubts grew about Villa's political viability. Villa began ignoring the counsel of the most valuable member of his military staff,
Felipe Ángeles, and eventually Ángeles left for exile in Texas. Despite Carranza's unpopularity, Carranza had an able general in Obregón and most of Mexico's military power, and unlike Huerta, wasn't being hampered by interference from the
United States.
Split with the United States and the Punitive Expedition
The
United States, following the diplomatic policies of
Woodrow Wilson, who believed that supporting Carranza was the best way to expedite establishment of a stable
Mexican government, refused to allow more arms to be supplied to Villa, and allowed Mexican constitutionalist troops to be relocated via US
railroads. Villa began to attack Americans. He was further enraged by Obregón's use of
searchlights, powered by American
electricity, to help repel a
villista night attack on the border town of
Agua Prieta,
Sonora, on
November 1,
1915. In January 1916, a group of
villistas attacked a train on the
Mexico North Western Railway, near
Santa Isabel,
Chihuahua, and killed 18 American employees of the
ASARCO company.
Cross-border attack on New Mexico
On
March 9,
1916, Villa ordered 1,500 (disputed, one official US Army report stated "500 to 700") Mexican raiders, reportedly led by
villista general Ramón Banda Quesada, to make a cross-border attack against
Columbus, New Mexico, in response to being ripped off by arms dealers. Reportedly, Villa had purchased firearms but on receiving them, discovered that the weapons were outdated and not what he'd paid for. Villa gave the dealers the choices of refunding his money or giving him the weapons he'd bought.
Others believe that the raid was conducted because of the U.S. government's official recognition of the Carranza regime and for the loss of lives in battle due to defective bullets purchased from the United States. They attacked a detachment of the 13th
US Cavalry, however the raid according to military standards was deemed a failure. The raiding party was forced to retreat, obtaining a few arms, ammunition, and money, but suffering significant losses in troops.
The Hunt for Pancho Villa
United States President
Woodrow Wilson responded to the Columbus raid by sending 6,000 troops under General
John J. Pershing to Mexico to pursue Villa. (Wilson also dispatched several divisions of Army and National Guard troops to protect the southern US border against further raids and counterattacks.) In the U.S., this was known as the Punitive or
Pancho Villa Expedition. During the search, the United States launched its first air combat mission with eight airplanes. At the same time Villa, was also being sought by Carranza's army. The U.S. expedition was eventually called off after failing to find Villa, and Villa successfully escaped from both armies.
After the
Punitive Expedition, Villa remained at large but never regained his former stature or military power. Carranza's loss of Obregon as chief general in 1917, and his preoccupation with the continuing rebellion of the
Zapatista and
Felicista forces in the south (much closer to
Mexico City and perceived as the greater threat), prevented him from applying sufficient military pressure to extinguish the Villa nuisance. Few of the Chihuahuans who could have informed on Villa were inclined to cooperate with the Carranza regime.
In 1920, Villa negotiated peace with new President
Adolfo de la Huerta and ended his revolutionary activity. He went into semi-retirement, with a detachment of 50
dorados for protection, at the hacienda of
El Canutillo. He was assassinated three years later (1923) in
Parral, Chihuahua, in his car. The assassins were never arrested, although a Durango politician, Jesús Salas Barraza, publicly claimed credit. While there's some circumstantial evidence that
Obregón or
Plutarco Elías Calles was behind the killing, Villa made many enemies over his lifetime, who would have had motives to murder him. Today Villa is remembered by Mexicans as either a
folk hero or a
murderer.
According to
Western folklore, grave robbers decapitated his corpse In 1926. His skull purportedly rests in the Skull and Bones Tomb in New Haven, CT.
A purported death mask alleged to be Villa's was hidden at the Radford School in
El Paso, Texas, until the 1970s, when it was sent to the
National Museum of the Revolution in Chihuahua; other museums have ceramic and bronze representations that don't match this mask.
The location of the remainder of Villa's corpse is in dispute. It may be in the city cemetery of
Parral, Chihuahua, or in
Chihuahua City, or in the Monument of the Revolution in
Mexico City. Tombstones for Villa exist in both places. A
pawn shop in
El Paso, Texas, claims to be in possession of Villa's preserved trigger finger.
His final words were reported as:
"No permitas que esto acabe así. Cuentales que he dicho algo." This translates as:
"Don't let it end like this. Tell'em I've said something."
location in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, news reporters at the scene, and Villa's bullet riddled corpse and auto.
Villa's battles and military actions
German involvement in Villa's later campaigns
Prior to the Villa-Carranza split in 1915, there's no credible evidence that Villa co-operated with or accepted any help from the German government or agents. Villa was supplied arms from the USA, employed American
mercenaries and doctors, portrayed as a hero in the US media, and didn't object to the 1914
US naval occupation of Veracruz (Villa's observation was that the occupation merely hurt Huerta). The German consul in Torreón made entreaties to Villa, offering him arms and money to occupy the port and oil fields of
Tampico to enable German ships to dock there, this offer was rejected by Villa.
Germans and German agents did attempt to interfere, unsuccessfully, in the
Mexican Revolution. Germans attempted to plot with Victoriano Huerta to assist him to retake the country, and in the infamous
Zimmermann Telegram to the Mexican government, proposed an alliance with the government of Venustiano Carranza.
There were documented contacts between Villa and the Germans, after Villa's split with the Constitutionalists. Prinicipally this was in the person of Felix A. Sommerfeld, (noted in Katz's book), who in 1915 funneled $340,000 of German money to the
Western Cartridge Company to purchase ammunition. However, the actions of Sommerfeld indicate he was likely acting in his own self interest (he supposedly was paid a $5,000 per month stipend for supplying dynamite and arms to Villa, a fortune in 1915, and acted as a double agent for Carranza). Villa's actions were hardly that of a German catspaw, rather, it appears that Villa only resorted to German assistance after other sources of money and arms were cut off.
At the time of Villa's attack on
Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, Villa's military power had been marginalized and was mostly an impotent nuisance (he was repulsed at Columbus by a small cavalry detachment, albeit after doing a lot of damage), his theatre of operations was mainly limited to western
Chihuahua, he was
persona non grata with Mexico's ruling Carranza constitutionalists, and the subject of an
embargo by the
United States, so communication or further shipments of arms between the Germans and Villa would have been difficult.
A plausible explanation of any Villa-German contacts after 1915 would be that they were a futile extension of increasingly desperate German diplomatic efforts and
villista pipe dreams of victory as progress of their respective wars bogged down. Villa effectively didn't have anything useful to offer in exchange for German help at that point.
When weighing claims of Villa conspiring with Germans, one should take into account that at the time, portraying Villa as a German sympathizer served the
propaganda ends of both Carranza and Wilson.
The use of
Mauser rifles and
carbines by Villa's forces doesn't necessarily indicate any German connection. These weapons were widely used by all parties in the
Mexican Revolution, Mauser longarms being enormously popular. They were standard issue in the
Mexican Army, which had begun adopting 7 mm Mauser system arms as early as 1895.
In films, video, and television
Villa appeared as himself in films in 1912, 1913, and 1914. The 1934
biopic Viva Villa! was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Picture. Actors that have portrayed Villa include:
Antonio Aguilar (1993) La sangre de un valiente
Victor Alcocer (1955) El siete leguas
Pedro Armendáriz (1950, 1957, 1960 twice)
Pedro Armendáriz, Jr. (1989) Old Gringo
Antonio Banderas (2003) And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
Wallace Beery (1917) Patria and (1934) Viva Villa!
Maurice Black (1937) Under Strange Flags
Gaithor Brownne (1985) Blood Church
Yul Brynner (1968) Villa Rides
Peter Butler (2000) (Video)
Leo Carrillo (1949) Pancho Villa Returns'
Phillip Cooper (1934) Viva Villa! (Pancho Villa as a boy)
Hector Elizondo (1976) (TV)
Freddy Fender (1977) She Came to the Valley
Guillermo Gil (1987) Senda de Gloria (TV series)
Rodolfo Hoyos, Jr. (1958) Villa!!
George Humbert (1918) Why America Will Win
Carlos Roberto Majul (1999) Ah! Silenciosa
José Elías Moreno (1967) El Centauro Pancho Villa
Mike Moroff (1999)
Jesús Ochoa (1995) Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda
Ricardo Palacios (1967) Los Siete de Pancho Villa
Alan Reed (1952) Viva Zapata!
Jorge Reynoso (1982)
Telly Savalas (1971) Pancho Villa!
Domingo Soler (1936) ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!
Juan F. Triana (1935) El Tesoro de Pancho Villa
Jose Villamor (1980) Viva Mexico (TV)
Heraclio Zepeda (1973) Reed, Mexico insurgente
Raoul Walsh (1912, 1914) The Life of General Villa
Mike Moroff (1992) The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal, "Mexico, March 1916"
In Popular Culture
Mexico City subway (Metro) station Metro Division del Norte is named after his command and the logo depicts him riding a horse
The French group Magazine 60 released in 1987 a song titled "Pancho Villa".
The Death Metal group Brujeria has a song about Pancho Villa, called "Division del Norte".
Víctor Jara released on his 1970 album Canto Libre the song "Corrido de Pancho Villa".
"Pancho and Lefty" is a folk song written by Townes Van Zandt.
In the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indiana tells Mutt that he rode with Pancho Villa when he was about Mutt's age (This was shown in the sixth chapter of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles).
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Francisco Villa'.
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