Pancho Villa Hero

Born as José Doroteo Arango Arámbula on the 5th of June in 1878, Pancho Villa later in life became one of the most important and controversial leaders of the Mexican Revolution. As being one of the most ionic symbols in Mexican history, Pancho Villa made a lot of choices in life that in the end ended his life but made such a huge impact on the Mexican society today. Is Pancho Villa really a “hero” as some people make him out to be or is he someone that doesn’t deserve the recognition that he gets?

Early on in Pancho Villa’s life is when his trouble-making all started. It all started after his father died when Pancho Villa was only 15 years old. Moving away from his home in San Juan Del Rio in Durango at age 16 to go to Chihuahua to live by

himself probably wasn’t the best idea he had. Since I grew up with my mother I had the structure and boundaries like normal teenagers do and that is something that Pancho Villa did not have. He was able to do whatever he wanted. Shortly after moving he returned home to track down Agustín Lopez Negrete because he had sexually assaulted Pancho Villa’s younger sister. After Pancho Villa tracked down and killed Agustín, he stole a horse and fled to the Sierra Occidential Region in Durango and started roaming the hills as a bandit. Picking to roam the hills as a bandit wasn’t the best idea that Pancho Villa, it just stirred up more trouble for him down the road. Agustín may have been the first person that Pancho Villa had killed, but he surely wasn’t the last, and because of this, it seems he had no remorse for the lives he took. He just took them.
Pancho Villa was arrested for stealing mules and for assault in 1902. As you can see, his stealing only got worse. After getting spared his life by the rurales for having connections to the powerful Pablo Valenzuela, he was forced to join to the army. You would think this would straighten him up, but honestly it just made him more powerful. The revolution of Francisco Madero is what inspired Pancho Villa early on. In 1910 when the Mexican Revolution began and as it started to spread, Pancho Villa joined Madero’s forces. Against Madero’s orders (not surprised) in 1911, Pancho Villa with General Pascaul Orozco by his side, attacked Ciudad Juárez and won. This victory is significant in bringing Madero into power. Pancho Villa never lost admiration for Madero for taking the first steps in the revolution even though Madero pushed Pancho Villa to the sidelines after he attacked Ciudad Juárez. Any battle won by anyone is really impressive and being the first battle that he won, I believe it is significant in Pancho Villa’s future battles.
After his victory in 1911, Pancho Villa left the army and returned back to Chihuahua. He returned shortly after in 1912 because of the counterrevolution of Pascaul Orozco. General Victoriano Huerta who was on Madero’s side, viewed Pancho Villa as a strong-minded competitor and then later accused Pancho Villa of stealing a horse and for his rebelliousness. General Huerta was 100% right about Pancho Villa, he is a thief, a rebel and a very good competitor. General Huerta then had Pancho Villa sentenced to execution in attempt to get rid of him. While Pancho Villa was in front of the firing squad waiting to be shot, they received a message from President Madero that said for his sentence to be changed to incarceration instead. This was surprising to me since Pancho Villa had went behind Madero’s back to attack Ciudad Juárez. Or was his plan to have him suffer longer? Pancho Villa later escaped after only serving a short period of time in jail. After serving a few months in the United States for banishment, February 1913, Pancho Villa returned to Chihuahua to retaliate the over throw and assassination of Madero by General Huerta. Pancho Villa being as intelligent as he was, I was not surprised to hear that he had escaped from jail, my only thought is, why they didn’t punish him after his banishment from escaping? It seems to me that after all the bad he does, he just gets let off the hook like nothing even happened.
Pancho Villa loved being photographed and being in the spotlight.

Because of the fat that he worked so close to the border of the United States and Mexico it meant that he would always be in the spotlight here in the United States. Hollywood’s Mutual Film Company wanted to film Pancho Villa’s battles and in 1913, he signed a contract with them to do just that. He was very selfish when it came to his power and his fame, all he wanted was to be known and to be respected, but going all the way to get the battles filmed I don’t think was the way he really wanted to do that. A lot of times battles were re-scheduled or staged for the safety of the cameramen. At this time, Pancho Villa was on the United States’ good side and they were supply him with guns and

ammo.
The battles of Zacatecas and Ojinaga stuck out above all of Pancho Villa’s achievements during this era. Venustiano Carranza a political leader at the time tried to damage Pancho Villa’s improvement to Mexico City by sending him to an irrelevant target, Saltillo, rather than sending him to Zacatecas. The people that disliked Pancho Villa only seemed to make him stronger and better than he was before. Pancho Villa’s chief strategist, Felipe Ángeles had once again persuaded him to violate orders and his victory at Zacatecas happened to be one of the bloodiest battles of the revolution, but it helped to defeat General Huerta once and for all. Pancho Villa was not only known for being a hero in the revolution, he was also known for his brutality in the face of betrayal. Pancho Villa’s “assassin-man,” Rudolfo Fierro and him were both known for their brutal ways in which they would hustle their enemies. Pancho Villa had a lot of enemies, so this means that he hustled a lot of people. He was not only brutal in the way he fought, but he was brutal in the way that he treated people.
Carranza tried to get rid of Pancho Villa after taking power. There seemed to be quite a bit of people that wanted to get rid of him. In 1915, Pancho Villa and his exclusive soldiers which were called the dorados, lost numerous battles to Carranza’s general which then became a turning point in the revolution. Everything kind of went downhill for Pancho Villa following these defeats and it surely showed. These defeats definitely got into his head. A surprising defeat happened at the brutal battle of Celaya which sent seemingly unbeatable Pancho Villa staggering. He lost more than 14,000 men at the battle of Celaya. Having only 19th-century-style assistance, which coming across 20th century technology from World War I in Europe it didn’t set up a good outsome for Pancho Villa and his army in the battle of Agua Prieta. This battle resulted in an annihilation of Pancho Villa’s troops because of their use of barbed wire, stylish machine guns, and guerrilla warfare. I don’t believe Pancho Villa was expecting this and it made him very frustrated which just led to him wanting to fight more to prove to everyone that he can still fight.
Because of Pancho Villa’s numerous defeat, the United States removed their support for him in favor of recognition of Carranza. Pancho Villa viewed the United States removal of their support as betrayal. Pancho Villa started to realize that his hopes for staying in power were starting to decline and that angered him. Pancho Villa seemed to be the kind of guy you didn’t want to anger and if you did anger him then you should be prepared for a fire back. But because of what he saw as betrayal by the United States, he decided to attack Columbus, New Mexico.
On March 9th, 1916 in the morning darkness Pancho Villa and the guerrillas of the Mexican Revolution attacked the small town of Columbus. By sunrise, the center of Columbus was a blazing fire. This attack on Columbus is very significant in Pancho Villa’s life, at this point Pancho Villa just wanted to prove that he was still a powerful man and to show this it meant killing people, which is something that he was very good at. Pancho Villa’s attack on the town was much known by telegraph and it was making newspaper headlines across the United States. In reaction to the raid, the United States sent troops on a train to follow Pancho Villa back into Mexico.
Before Pancho Villa ordered the raid on Columbus, New Mexico he decided to attack a train that traveled through their area knowing the majority of the people on that train were upper middle class.

The two officers under Pancho Villa’s command were Pedro Lopez and Rafael Castro are the ones who ultimately started the shooting. There was a group of 18 Americans on the train, 15 of which worked for American Smelting and Refining Company and out of the 18 Americans, there was only one survivor. After the math, Pancho Villa admitted that he ordered the attack but he denied that he gave his officers permission to kill American blood. This isn’t surprising at all, Pancho Villa seemed to be the type of guy who will admit to his actions, but never take full responsibilities for what happens. When in reality he knew exactly what he wanted to do and what he wanted to happen but it was obviously just too difficult to take

responsibility.
By the time the battle had ended, there were 8 United States soldiers and 10 civilians that lay dead. Much of Columbus had been reduced to just smoke and ashes. While losing more than 100 of their 400 men, the Mexican soldiers still managed to get away with cash, valuable and horses. Pancho Villa’s motives for this attack are still unsure. President Woodrow Wilson ordered an expedition to go into Mexico and capture Pancho Villa. Days after the raid there were nearly 5,000 American Troops had gathered at Camp Furlong. On March 15th, with President Carranza’s permission, the first United States soldiers crossed the border and entered into Mexico.
While in Mexico the Americans fought several fights with “Villistas” but failed to catch Pancho Villa himself. Suspicious of the invasion, the Carranza government had denied the United States the use of railroads, forcing them to use motorized vehicles on Mexico’s rugged roads. In their last engagement the United States troops even disagreed with Mexican soldiers, threatening a full-scale war. But neither side wanted that, especially the Americans who were already facing an increase in the German aggression. President Wilson ordered a withdrawal. The last of the United States troops entered Columbus in February 1917.
The effort of trying to avoid the United States troops took its toll on Pancho Villa. He was never the same as he had been in the height of his power. In 1923, in an agreement with the then president alvaro Obregon, Pancho Villa retired to an estate in Canutilla, near Parral, in Chihuahua. He seemed to be living a quiet life of a rancher, surrounded by former comrades and friends, many of whom now served as his body guards. But Obregon, and his soon-to-be-successor Plutarco Elias Calles, wanted to take no chances that Pancho Villa would regain his strength. He seemed to be living a quiet life of a rancher, surrounded by former comrades and friends, many of whom now served as his body guards. But Obregon, and his soon-to-be-successor Plutarco Elias Calles, wanted to take no chances that Pancho Villa would regain his strength. By the end of Pancho Villa’s life, he seemed to have toned down quite a bit as far as all of the fighting and the battles, but even with trying to be quiet, he still managed to have people at the edge of their seat waiting to see what big thing he was going to do next.
The day after Pancho Villa’s death is when his funeral was held. Thousands of his supporters in Parral followed his casket to his burial site. Shortly after his death, there were two theories that had emerged as to why he was killed. One of them included that he was killed as an act of family revenge by Jesus Herrera, who was the last surviving son of Pancho Villa’s former General Jose de la Luz Huerrera. The second theory that happened to emerged was that he was killed for political reasons. Around the time of his death, Pancho Villa had taken an interest in running for President in Mexico and would have been presented as a challenge to his rival Plutarco Elias Calles. If Pancho Villa was trying to live life quiet and not stir anything up, it doesn’t make any sense as to why he would want to run for President because that would just stir up more trouble for him. But Pancho Villa always loved the trouble, maybe he had had enough from living life quiet and didn’t to spice it up more.