Pancho Villa: Wild Roses, Tender Roses

Pancho Villa was angry. Pancho Villa was really angry. He had the governor of the state of Chihuahua, but he should be President of Mexico. He knew it. The people knew it. He suspected that even the President of the USA knew it; but the Americans had not only sided with Carranza, but had also sabotaged his own cause. As far as Villa was concerned, his former allies, the USA, were now his enemies.

But he could also use them. The USA had already invaded Veracruz. If Villa could spark more hostilities from their Northern neighbour, then even the war-weary Mexicans might rise up again en masse. With Carranza out, then Villa would have to take the country. He would have the popular vote.


Villa's troops amass in Agua Prieta.
There were a few skirmishes, notably up in Agua Prieta, Sonora, right on the border with Arizona, on 1 November 1915. Though the Americans were not openly lured into combat, they did provide much of the equipment used to repel Villa's men, including searchlights powered with American electricity.

Then, three months later, a train carrying American employees of the Mexican mining company ASARCO was attacked near Santa Isabel, in Chihuahua. Villa admitted to ordering the attack, but he denied giving the command to kill the seventeen dead Americans. But worse was to come; and when it came, Villa did not deny a thing. He had invaded the USA.


On March 9th, 1916, Villa took 500 men on a raid into New Mexico, USA. The town of Columbus had a garrison of American cavalry attached to it and it was this which was targeted by Villa. In the early hours of the morning, the Villistas burst into the area, in a two-pronged attack on both town and garrison. Fierce fighting raged through the streets, with the Mexicans yelling, "¡Viva Villa!". It left the Americans in no doubt whatsoever as to who had arrived.

There are many twists and versions of this horrific event. Many chroniclers hailed it a defeat for Villa, as the Mexican dead far outstripped the American. But Columbus was practically razed to the ground and Villa escaped back into Mexico with the majority of his men. His objective had been to provoke the USA into invading Mexico and that was successful.


On March 14, 1916, the Mexican Expedition, or Pancho Villa Expedition, began, with American troops entering Mexico. Their sole objective was to find, capture and/or kill Pancho Villa. 4,800 ground troops took up the hunt, with military Curtiss "Jenny" airplanes providing aerial surveillance. But the countryside closed around Villa and the people hid him. For nearly a year, the American military searched before admitting defeat. On February 7, 1917, they finally withdrew empty-handed.


Contemporary cartoon depicting the Mexican Expedition
In the meantime, Villa had twice entered the US state of Texas and his raids had seen American dead.

Moreover, Carranza had not been happy about the American military wandering Mexico without his invitation. There were several battles between the Mexican Federal Army and the Americans. Diplomatic relations soured between Presidents Carranza and Wilson.

This reached a head, when one of Villa's officers sneaked a letter over the border, informing the Americans that Carranza was working with the German Empire. America had just been drawn into World War One, with Mexico nominally neutral. Villa's intelligence report stated that the Germans were going to use Mexico to attack the USA, thus keeping them from arming the Allied forces over in Europe.

The news was taken very seriously and, on August 27, 1918, violence erupted in the border split-town of Nogales. Half of this lies in Arizona, USA, and the other half in Sonara, Mexico. It was here that American troops met Mexican Federal troops, in the Battle of Ambos Nogales. By evening, Carranza's men surrendered and the fighting was over. The USA had won, but the humiliation was on both sides.


Nogales, showing the Mexican-American border through its center
Pancho Villa remained at large for the rest of his life. Despite substantion rewards offered by the American government and private individuals, he was never betrayed by the people of Mexico. There are unsubstantiated reports that he was also able to travel at will through some areas of the USA, especially California.

Nevertheless, his reputation was in tatters over the border. The 'Robin Hood' moniker was squashed under a wealth of new stories circulated about him. He was a mass rapist, who killed any woman who would not submit to him; he was nothing but a low-life leader of a criminal gang, akin to a Mafia Don; he was a murderer and a thief, with no value for human life; he had 26 wives and a score of illegimate children; he conspired with the Germans; he had no morals at all.

The American public turned against him, especially in the northern states, where he had never been personally known. Yet, even today, in the places where these attrocities were alleged to have taken place, Villa's name is uttered with respect. He appears, through the memories of the Mexican poor, as much a folk hero now, as he did then. Time has not tarnished the image and, as Hollywood prepares for another film about his, it has restored some of the gloss.


Carranza had never regained his lost credibility and so hadn't stood for re-election. However, the President had gone out of his way to try and discredit General Obregón, another popular revolutionary choice. Carranza's efforts including stripping Obregón of his rank and military honors, which only served to enhance the revolutionary's popularity.

Another uprising appeared imminient, but it ended quickly with a single battle between the forces of Obregón and Carranza. The President stepped down and fled towards Veracruz. He never made it, but was assassinated, in Puebla, by another revolutionary, Rodolfo Herrero. Obregón was elected and that signalled the end of the Mexican Revolution.


Obregón and his government
It was around this time that Pancho Villa announced his intention to retire from revolutionary life. There was no love lost between him and Obregón (the two had fought each other in battle a few times), but the signs were bright that Obregón was the president that Mexico needed.

There were a series of reforms passed which sought to finally realise some of the demands of the Revolution. He was even standing firm against the USA, over demands from their northern neighbour that article 27 of the Mexican Constitution; though other concessions were unpopular amongst his people, even while they salved US relations.

Villa knew that he couldn't become President of Mexico now. It would be like painting a giant bull's eye on his back, as that was a very public office for someone with such a bounty on his head. Instead, he disbanded his army, but for a small personal bodyguard, and withdrew with Sra. María Luz Corral de Villa and their children to a hacienda in Chihuahua. It had been awarded to him, as part of a peace agreement with the Mexican government, following the assassination of Carranza.


Pancho Villa and his wife, Maria Luz Corral de Villa
On July 20, 1923, Pancho Villa drove to the local bank, with just two bodyguards, to take out the wages for his hacienda staff. His car was ambushed and Villa died instantly, peppered with bullets, along with one of his men. It has never conclusively proved who killed him.

Places to Visit

* There is a statue of Pancho Villa, on horseback, in the city of Chihuahua.

* Cerro de la Bufa, Zacatecas. There is an aerial tramway to the memorial and museum dedicated to Pancho Villa here. A telescope can be used to survey the actual, arduous terrain that Villa needed to traverse in order to take the silver town.

* The Historical Museum of the Mexican Revolution, in Chihuahua, has many artefacts belonging to Pancho Villa, including the bullet-ridden car, in which he was killed, and his death mask.

* Villa's grave is in Parral Cemetery, Hidalgo del Parral, in Chihuahua. However, his remains were removed from and buried under the Monumento a la Revolución (Monument of the Revolution), in Mexico City. He shares a mausoleum with other figures from this historical time, including Madero and Carranza.

* A Hollywood film, entitled 'Wild Roses, Tender Roses', is due to begin filming next year. It will tell the story of Pancho Villa.

Pancho Villa: The Second Mexican Revolution

It seemed that Pancho Villa could do no wrong. On both sides of the Mexican-American border, he was proclaimed a hero.

Years later, chroniclers and reporters would travel through Chihuahua, Durango and Sonara, collecting stories of orphans delivered to safety and given treats; of the robbed having their possessions returned; of widows and the elderly given money and care; of wrongs righted and justice served.

In the USA, Hollywood moguls jostled for the rights to tell the story of Pancho Villa. From Washington to California, there were people singing his praises. Viewed as a modern-day Robin Hood, Villa could get a free meal anywhere. This was before we even got to revolution.



For Villa, the rise of Huerta to the presidency was a personal matter. Not only had the man once framed Villa for horse theft and almost had him shot, but he had undone the meagre gains of the Mexican Revolution. Huerta's policies were more than a return to those of Díaz. It was a full on dictatorship, forged in blood and heavy-handed responses to any who criticized him.

Moreover, Huerta arrested and executed Abraham González. This academic had been the brains behind the proposed reforms of the Revolution. He had written a far-reaching Constitution, which would have helped the Mexican poor out of poverty. He had advised Madero and recruited Villa to the cause. Now he was dead. Much later, Villa was to hunt down González's remains and give him a proper funeral. Villa probably would have rode out anyway, but the murder of González sealed the deal.

Villa crossed into El Paso, Texas, in the USA, to make his plans. He was well respected there. He funded his army on beef and cattle sold to the Texans, who willingly paid in arms or money. As Villa's prestige grew, and Huerta's correspondingly fell, Villa even started producing his own currency, which was readily accepted in Texas. His coinage was good and stable. He also had a contract with a studio in Hollywood. They would film his revolution and he would receive 50% of the door profits to fund it.


By the time Villa crossed back into Ciudad Juárez, the call had gone out. This Division of the North had never officially disbanded after the first Revolution and it quickly reassembled. Villa was in touch with other discontented leaders, such as Venustiano Carranza, and he was well stocked with American fire-arms. It didn't take long for practically the entire north of Mexico to fall under rebel control, with Pancho Villa's name attached to many of the major battles. (His military prowess and genius at battle strategies was impressive enough for the American army to start studying them; then using them in training exercises amongst their own personnel.)

Huerta hadn't quite been the puppet president that the USA had anticipated. In fact, he had acted with downright hostility towards American businesses in Mexico. The Americans were concerned enough to station navy ships in the Gulf of Mexico. The situation was to reach its zenith in the Tampico Affair.


Tampico, in Tamaulipas, was the site of a large American oil refinery. As Villa and Carranza closed upon it, President Woodrow Wilson sent messages to Huerta to ask what he was going to do about it. Meanwhile, US navy ships rushed into the area to evacuate their civilians from the town. Federal Mexican troops, controlled ultimately by Huerta, raised their guns on an American ship, the USS Dolphin. There was no-one amongst them who spoke both Spanish and English, on either side, thus the Americans on board were arrested and taken into custody.

They were eventually released, but not without bad feeling on each side. Rear Admiral Henry T. Mayo, of the US navy, demanded a written apology of Huerta and the placement of the Stars and Stripes to fly over Tampico. Huerta didn't respond, though the governor of Tampico did write the apology. All requests for the American flag to stand on Mexico soil were refused. President Woodrow Wilson ordered an invasion and American forces took Veracruz.


All the time, Villa and Carranza waited, not advancing, though it was obvious that they could have done. They were piling on the pressure in full knowledge of how the Americans would react. It forced Huerta to fight on too many fronts, without the backing of either his own people or their powerful northern neighbours. The people, en masse, were supporting Villa. It was his charisma and integrity which brought them from their fields; his strategy and generalship which won the battles; and the sheer presense of the man that foresaw a better future for Mexico. On 15 July 1914, Huerta bowed to the inevitable and fled the country.

It felt, at the time, that Villa was poised to become Mexico's next president. Wherever he went, the people would rush from their homes to cheer him. "¡Viva Villa! ¡Viva Villa! ¡Viva Villa!"


But there had already been some puzzling maneuvering along the chain of command. On the eve of Huerta's flight, Carranza had asked Villa to take his troops to attack Saltillo, a town which was still loyal to the president. Villa did so with his usual flair, winning the territory outright. In the meantime, Carranza had entered Mexico City in triumph.

Villa was outraged and immediately diverted his forces onto Zacatecas, the source of much of Mexico's silver wealth. It was a daring target, with easily defensible terrain to cross, but Villa did it. Carranza might have secured the capital city, but Villa had Mexico's economy.

It once again felt cut and dried. Villa would become president and he would ensure that all of the revolution's reforms would be applied. But there was one more sting in the tale. President Woodrow Wilson gave the order that the USA was siding with Carranza. The wily revolutionary politician had already done a deal with Standard Oil, the largest US oil company represented in Mexico. He would protect their interests first.


President Carranza (bearded with a stick) and his government
Villa continued to hold Zacatecas, but he ordered a half of his northern army to attack Carranza. They should have won. Villa's strategies were there and they had the strength and experience. But they were also fighting with ammunition, which had just arrived from Texas. The bullets were duds. 14,000 of Villa's men died on the field and the US president used that as justification for the fact that Carranza was the stronger candidate. From now on, no American arms would be supplied to Villa and no more financing was to come from north of the border.

Pancho Villa felt betrayed. He declared war upon the USA.

Pancho Villa: Huerta's Usurpation

Pancho Villa was in prison. For many, this would have been a moment of disaster and shame, but for Villa, it was an opportunity.

As a child, he had been a slave in all but name, out on a Durango hacienda; as a teenager and a young man, he had been a futigitive up in the mountains of Durango and Chihuahua; and now he was a soldier. None of this had provided much in the way of schooling.

But Villa's cell-mate was Gildardo Magaña Cerda, a Zapista teacher. He spent his days teaching Villa how to read and write. It wasn't a bad sojourn.

For all his endeavours and a raft of quite legitimate charges that could have been set against Pancho Villa, this one was false. He was in prison on chumped up charges of stealing a horse, by a man who was not winning friends and influencing people amongst the revolutionaries.

The ambitious General Victoriano Huerta had originally been an ally, switching sides as Díaz had fell, in order to head up Madero's federal forces. Villa had originally resigned his command of the same, because of differences with Pascual Orozco.

This reading of the situation now appeared very justified, as Orozco, bitter at not receiving high office in Madero's government, led an uprising in Chihuahua. Madero sent Huerta to put it down, while also asking Villa to assist him. This was, after all, Villa's home ground.

The two armies joined forces and Orozco's rebellion was defeated, though the man himself was not captured.

But close proximity had allowed Huerta to gain the measure of Villa. He could see the general's charisma and the love of the people for him. Villa was going to be a rival, if Huerta's plans at taking the presidency for himself were to continue. Villa had to be put down.

So Huerta suddenly accused Villa of stealing a horse and quickly sentenced him to death by firing squad. Villa's supporters swiftly rode to get messages to Madero, who responded instantly. At the very moment when Villa was blindfolded and the guns were being readied to fire, the horsemen returned. The sentence had been commuted by the president. It was imprisonment, not death. Thus Villa received some schooling and another story was added to his popular legend.


Madero's presidency, which Villa had so strongly supported, was not becoming a happy one. Much of the infrastructure and and civil servants, which had propped up Díaz's rule for so long, was still in place. There had been some lip-service reforms, but nothing which really affected the poor who had risen for him. Moreover, many of the haciendas seized in the Mexican Revolution, had been returned to their original owners.

Villa's response was basically to wait and see what happened. He reasoned that Madero had only just taken power and the previous dictator had been there for a long time. Unravelling things would take time, especially if the replacement system was to be sound.

(Pictured Madero (center) and Huerta (right))

However, other revolutionary leaders weren't so patient. They wanted results now. Madero sent Huerta to put them down and many atrocities occurred, as the army swept through the countryside. General Huerta wished to send a message to the people. He did that in blood. Madero openly condemned this and demoted Huerta. Villa, on the verge of rising again, stepped back down.

But Madero's enemies were not just domestic. One of his reforms had been to place a taxation on oil for foreign companies on Mexican soil. This did not go down well with the USA, who had several large oil plants, especially up in the Tampico area.

The American ambassador, with the presumed approval of Washington, arranged for Huerta and Díaz's son, Felix, to meet within the American Embassy. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson openly reported, in both official documents and to the press, that he had negotiated a settlement between them and remodelled the Mexican Constitution to better suit the interests of the USA.

The upshot was the American backed assassination of President Madero and his vice-president; and the military coup of Huerta, who became head of state, tacitly and then officially, from February 19, 1913.


President Huerta and American Ambassador, Henry Lane Wilson
Now Pancho Villa was ready to rise again; and he had the army to do it. Phase two of the Mexican Revolution was now on.

Pancho Villa: The Mexican Revolution

It is 1910 and the call goes out. Francisco I. Madero was rising an army and leading it against Mexico's long-term ruler, Porfirio Díaz. Madero was himself a wealthy landowner, one of the very class which benefitted so well under the president, but he was a idealist too. He could see that Mexico couldn't go on like this and his rhetoric espoused change.

He tried to run against the president, legally, in an election, but was jailed. Madero's supporters spoke out. Díaz was a dictator. The people were suffering in poverty. If he wouldn't leave office then there was only one course of action. Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!


The Revolutionaries by David Alfaro Siqueiros
This wasn't the first uprising in Mexico. Before Díaz had become president, the jostling for power had been incessant. But it was the first serious challenge to him in a generation; and the ordinary people had not risen up in such numbers since the War of Independence. After thirty years of dispossession and fear of the police, they had had enough.

Up in the mountains of Chihuahua, another man, adept at reading the way the wind blew, watched the stirrings of revolution with interest. Francisco Villa had progressed through the ranks of Durango banditry and crossed the border into Chihuahua.

At 32 years old, he had become something of a folk hero. Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, in the best traditions of Robin Hood; he was viewed widely as less of a bandit and more a force for justice and the fair redistribution of wealth. While the poor put in all of the hard work, the landowners took all of the benefits. Francisco Villa's gang were simply redressing the odds.

From Durango to Chihuahua, he was known fondly by a pet name for Francisco: Pancho. He couldn't starve. The poor fed him. If he rode through, then the pursuing police would find that no-one had seen a thing. He wasn't a blood-thirsty criminal, he was their Pancho. They loved him and they trusted him.

Thus, in these states, the Revolution wasn't particularly real, until the moment when Pancho Villa came down from the mountains and declared his intention to raise his own army in support of Madero. Then, and only then, did people in the haciendas put down their tools en masse. The División del Norte (Northern Division) of the Revolutionary Army was formed.


It should be noted that Villa wasn't just influential in Northern Mexico. Over the border, in the USA, he was also largely viewed as one of the good guys. When he raised his own revolutionary army, many Americans took up their arms and raced to join him. There were so many, in fact, that Villa created a whole American squadron under the command of Capt. Tracey Richardson.

The rest of his vast army was largely made up of poverty-striken Mexican labourers. They were armed by sympathetic citizens of the USA or else they created their own weapons. Homemade cannons, guns and bayonets flooded into the battlefield. It wasn't just the men out there. Women and children also took up arms in their own defense. The surgency, under Villa, swept the board. Madero's army accepted them into their ranks gladly, though, in many ways, they had no choice in the matter!


Click images for a larger view.


Fighting broke out throughout Mexico, though Villa's activities were restricted to the north. This fell quickly. Mexcali and Chihuahua City were soon in rebel hands. Then Pancho Villa's troops joined with Pascual Orozco's army to take Ciudad Juárez. This was significant. It meant that a city, bordering the USA, was now out of Díaz's control. Weaponry, from Mexico's northern neighbour, could flood unchecked into the country and provide the rebel army with even greater fire-power.

Moreover, Madero had escaped from prison and he was hiding in Texas. The taking of Ciudad Juárez, which borders the Texan city of El Paso, allowed Madero to just step back into Mexico and appeal directly to the Mexico people and their president.

Díaz was worried. Any fighting, in places like Ciudad Juárez, drew the risk of stray artillery injuring or killing Americans in El Paso. That might be all the excuse that the government of the USA needed to declare open war. The territorial desires of the USA had a strong precedent. During the past few decades, they had already taken northern California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. It wasn't a huge stretch of the imagination to consider the loss of Baja California, Sonara, Chihuahua and Coahuila too.

Díaz did not want to be remembered as the president who had further lost parts of Mexico. He agreed to meet with Madero and sign a peace treaty. The Treaty of Ciudad Juárez was signed on May 21, 1911. Under the terms of it, Díaz was to step down and install Francisco León de la Barra as an interim president, until proper elections could be held. Díaz did just that, then fled to France. He was never to return to Mexico again.


Revolutionary leaders, including Pancho Villa, after the signing of the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez
However, commentators at the time noted that, in the Treaty, Madero had not pressed for any of the reforms that had fuelled the ideology of this revolution. Where were the terms of 'free suffrage and no re-election'? Where were the land laws, which protected against just 5% of Mexicans lording it over the other 95%? In fact, the whole government was left intact, with just a new figurehead.

Some just assumed that Madero would change things once he was in power. They shook their heads over the fact that he didn't just assume control now, but that was all. It became academic shortly afterwards, when an election was held and Madero won a landslide victory. The revolution had been a success. Díaz was out and the self-proclaimed champion of the poor was in. Madero was president and the war was over. Hurrah!




Pancho Villa had taken Ciudad Juárez with Pascual Orozco, but he didn't like the man. Something about him just rubbed Villa up the wrong way. With the onset of peace and the installation of Madero as president, Villa resigned his command as general. This doesn't mean that he lost his army. The people were there for him, not some distant politician. They might have largely returned to their homes, but Villa was still their general. He only had to give the call and they would rise again.

Fortunately, despite some unsettling signs, that didn't appear imminently necessary. Pancho Villa declared his intention to lead a quiet life. He would retire to the mountains, perhaps buy a hacienda of his own. In the meantime, he would make an honest woman of his girlfriend, Maria Luz Corral. They married, in Chihuahua, on May 29, 1911.


Pancho Villa and Maria Luz Corral.
They thought it was all over, but the Mexican Revolution had only just begun.

Pancho Villa: The Storm That Swept Mexico

Enigmatic, charismatic, history-making general, Pancho Villa divided opinion even during his life-time. On both sides of the Mexican-American border, there were those who would call him hero, bandit, freedom fighter, terrorist, statesman, charro, the best or worst individual ever to come out of Mexico.



He recently made headlines again, when American actor, Johnny Depp, turned down the lucrative lead in a Hollywood movie about Pancho Villa's life. Depp, taking his cue from the campaigns of Racebending, argued that a Mexican should be cast in such a high profile Mexican role.

My dilemma is just the fact that it’s Pancho Villa. It is Pancho Villa, and it’s one of the great heroes of Mexico. And for me, I feel like it should be played by a Mexican, and not some, you know – not some mutt from Kentucky, you know what I mean? I think I still feel very strongly about that.
Johnny Depp, actor

Last night, American television audiences were treated to another airing of the docu-drama, 'The Storm That Swept Mexico'. It chronicled the life and times of Pancho Villa. So who is this man?


TRAILER - The Storm That Swept Mexico from Paradigm Productions on Vimeo.
Back in September, we ran a series of blogs on the Mexican War of Independence. It would have been nice to write that that was the end of the story and that Mexico then settled down to a lovely couple of intervening centuries. Unfortunately, it wasn't like that at all. The next 100 years were some of the most turbulent in Mexico history. Heads of State came and went, some lasting no more than days or weeks at most.

There was a crippling war with the USA, which resulted in the border being repositioned, cutting Northern Mexico off from the rest of the country. Central Mexico became (and still is) the new north. The French invaded and were repelled, in the events still celebrated as Cinco de Mayo. They returned and ruled Mexico for three years, until another revolution threw them out again.

Yet still there was no stability in the reappointed Mexican government. Some presidents lasted mere hours, before being replaced. None of this was good for the country's economy and it certainly wasn't great for the people.

The War of Independence had left such high hopes, but the reality had seen more war and oppression than had been felt under the rule of the Spanish. Poverty was rife and still the guns blazed.

Then, in 1877, Porfirio Díaz (pictured left) became President of Mexico on a ticket of 'no re-election'. He was ousted, but returned. When he was sworn in, in 1884, he was there to stay. Díaz held office for the next thirty years. For some, that was stability; but, for most, that was a dictatorship.

It was a particularly bitter pill to swallow, when it is considered that only the ruling elite got the perks during this regime. The poor became poorer and few opportunities for advancement went on. Wealthy landowners became mini monarchs of their own sprawling haciendas. The mass of people worked, practically as slaves, upon them. It was like the War of Independence had never happened.

It was into this world that José Doroteo Arango Arámbula was born, on June 5th, 1878, on the Rancho de la Coyotada, Rio Grande, San Juan del Río, in Durango. He was to become better known to the world as Pancho Villa.


Pancho Villa, in later life, on horseback.
The young José was the eldest son of hacienda workers, Agustín Arango and Micaela Arambula. Life was tough and became even tougher when Agustín died, while José was barely out of puberty. Nevertheless, he did his best to be the man of the house, helping his mother with his four younger siblings and working hard to bring a bit of money in.

Haciendas were like petty kingdoms of their own, with the owners calling the shots and doing what they would upon their own land. Lopez Negre, who ruled the Rancho de la Coyotada, was no exception and, in 1894, his gaze fell upon José's 12 year old sister. As he pinned the girl down, in an attempt to rape her, José raced for a gun and shot the man dead.

He might have saved his sister, but he had just about condemned himself and his family. At just sixteen years old, José fled into the Durango mountains and hid out.

Capture meant instant, summary execution. His family were being watched. Without a main wage-earner, they teetered on the edge of starvation. Then José was found.

It wasn't Díaz's countryside police who found him; nor was it the marauding bands of men from the hacienda. It was members of a bandit group headed by infamous outlaw, Ignacio Parra. José was taken to meet their leader, who instantly took him under his wing. The boy was advised to change his name, to further avoid capture. He decided to take his surname from his grandfather, Jesus Villa. As a first name, José chose Francisco.

From now, until 1910, Francisco Villa was one of many Robin Hood characters, roaming the Durango countryside. Their aim was to raid rich haciendas and to redistribute the gains to the poverty-striken common people. To many, they were merely criminal gangs, intent upon breaching all facets of law and order. But in this way, Villa managed to keep his family fed.

But his major role in history was just about to come.

Los Insurgentes: The Guerilla Fighters Pt 1

Sometimes, the road to independence can feel like a relay race. As one leader is captured and executed, another picks up the fallen baton and runs with it. They do not operate in a vacuum, but build upon the momentum of those who went before. But they do so in full knowledge of what awaits them, should they fail. They have to inspire and incite people, who have watched their compatriots killed or sold into slavery. They have to plan their strategies, aware of the torture meted out to Morelos; in the certainty of the firing squad beyond it all. Yet they did it anyway.

As Morelos fell in a hail of bullets, not one but several people rushed to take his place in the rebellion. It was a period which saw the rise, not of vast armies of the dispossessed, but smaller bands of guerilla fighters. This is the story of four of them.

Victor Rosales

Before Hidalgo's shout had even gone up in Dolores, Victor Rosales was in trouble as an insurgent. He'd moved to Mexico City, with the intention that he would become a lawyer. To this end, he'd enrolled at the Real y Pontificia Universidad de México (the Royal and Pontifical University) to study law. This particular establishment had also educated Hidalgo, Morelos and Quintana Roo. Ironically, none of them had managed to be expelled for speaking up against the Spanish government in Mexico. Rosales did just that.

Without the qualifications, Rosales couldn't work as a lawyer. He'd had to return to his home city of Zacatecas, in Zacatecas state. He set up in commerce instead, but with a certain sense of dissatisfaction. This was not what he wanted to do with his life. He was 34 years old, when Hidalgo roused the Army of the Americas. Now Rosales knew what he wanted to do. It didn't take him long to close shop and rush to join the insurrection.


Victor Rosales
Rosales became attached to the regiment of Ignacio López Rayón. They marched north and participated in all of the battles that marked Hidalgo's campaign. Rosales was reasonably close to the center of action, because of his regiment. López Rayón was Hidalgo's private secretary. When the padre announced that he was forming a government and López Rayón was named as the Secretary of State. However, shortly afterwards, both López Rayón and Rosales escaped the capture and execution that befell the leaders of their cause.

López Rayón led his regiment back to the south and into Rosales's home city. Zacatecas was an important target. The population were mostly sympathetic to the insurgency; plus there were munitions manufacturers working there. López Rayón decided to take it for the rebels. There was resistance from the Realistas (Spanish army in Mexico) stationed there, resulting in a series of pitched battles. But, on April 15th, 1811, the rebels emerged victorious.

With Zacatecas under his control, López Rayón was able to regroup, recruit and arm his troops. It was a decidedly larger force that left, to join Morelos's campaign in the south, than had arrived. It was also inevitable that the Realistas would try to regain Zacatecas. López Rayón needed to leave behind someone he could trust to defend the city. He left Rosales.


Zacatecas
Rosales ensured that a steady stream of weapons made their way out of Zacatecas, down to Morelos's army in the south. When the stakes were high enough, he was also called upon to join them personally, bringing his own small army with him. He was present at the Battle of Uruapan. The city was then temporarily used as Morelos's insurgent capital.

In January 1813, Rosales returned again for the attack on Valladolid and, a couple of weeks later, the Battle of Puruarán. They both ended in defeat for the insurgents, with the latter also costing the life of Mariano Matamoros, the movement's second in command. It was demoralizing for all of the Army of the Americas, but, for Rosales, there was an added sting. His prolonged absense from Zacatecas had given the Realista General José María Navarrete an opportunity to enter it.

Navarrete's Realistas stationed themselves in the corn exchange building, in the Plaza de St Augustine. On September 25, 1813, Rosales led his troops into the city, in a bid to overwhelm the mainshift barracks. The Realistas fought back fiercely enough that Rosales sounded the retreat. It wasn't a defeat, but neither was it victory. While they'd not regained control of the city, nor even the corn exchange, they had managed to steal several cases of munitions from the Realistas.


Portal de Rosales, Zacatecas (on the site of the barracks)
However, in the confusion of the rebel flight to safety, Rosales had lost sight of his eleven year old son. Most of the Rosales family were now involved in the struggle; and they lived in this city. Young Timoteo Rosales Gordoa had been there, at the barracks, but now he was in the hands of Realista soldiers. Timotheo was dragged in front of Navarrete, who recognised him immediately. He had no hesitation in giving his order. Shoot the boy, as a message to the people that insurrection would be given no quarter. His father viewed it as an act of revenge. Navarrette could not catch Rosales himself, so he'd killed his child.

In 1814, Morelos promoted Rosales to Field Marshal. He put him in charge of the insurgent activities in Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Michoacan region. For the next four years, Rosales harried the Realistas in those states, even after Morelos's execution left the insurrection in a dire situation. However, lack of resources meant that Rosales was never able to successfully take back his city.

On May 20, 1817, Realista Generals Miguel Muñoz and Miguel Barragan combined their forces against Rosales's men. They met at El rancho de la Campana, in Ario, Michoacán. But it was one fight too many for Rosales. He was killed in action, under the onslaught of the Realista artillery.

Until this year, the location of Rosales's grave was unknown. Then, in May 2010, the remains of the heroes of the independence were removed from their crypt, beneath the Angel of Independence, in Mexico City. Forensic examination revealed that Rosales had been amongst his compatriots all along.

Guadalupe Victoria

For some, it's not enough to merely be prepared to die for your cause. They want something - a tattoo; an endless retelling of events; a medal; a badge of honor; a symbol; a secret language - anything that would mark them out as having been there. Enpassioned with a righteous belief that the cause is all that matters and, even should they die, they want their participation in it to be paramount. They want the world to remember them and it in the same breath. It's that important.

It was after the Battle of Oaxaca that the Fernández brothers decided to change their name. Miguel and Francisco had heard the call of Padre Morelos and left their white collar jobs to take up arms. Thus it was that they were here, on November 25th, 1812, walking in triumph though the gates of one of the richest cities in Mexico. Inside, Morelos would find a reserve of silver bars. It promised to fund the rest of the insurgency. Independence had to be just around the corner.

Miguel, the elder of the two brothers, was particularly enflamed by events. He had played a prominent role in the Battle of Oaxaca and that had been noticed. Life had been slightly disappointing for the 26 year old, until now. Miguel was epileptic (a seizure would eventually kill him). He had trained as a lawyer, at Colegio de San Ildefonso, in Mexico City, but had only been able to find work as a teacher. Then Mexico had erupted to the call of Hidalgo's independence movement. Miguel had already been named Congressman for his native Durango, in Morelos's rebel government. It was heedy stuff and Miguel Fernández was riding the crest of this wave all of the way.


Hidalgo's Banner
His birth certificate said that he was José Miguel Ramón Adaucto Fernández y Félix, son of Manuel Fernández and Alejandra Félix, of Tamazula, Durango. From now on, he would answer only to a name that encompassed all the hopes, dreams and passions of the insurgency. Guadalupe Victoria. Guadalupe, after the Virgin of Guadalupe, that incarnation of Mary, Mother of Christ, favored by the lower classes. She was the symbol of their insurrection. Ever since Hidalgo had raised them in Her name and stuck Her picture on his lance as their flag, they had marched under the divine protection of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Victoria, as in the Spanish for victorious. ¡Guadalupe Victoria! ¡Mexicanos, viva México!

His younger brother could hardly change his first name to the same thing. That would be too confusing. Francisco Fernández settled for just matching his surname with that of his brother. Francisco Victoria.

By 1814, Guadalupe Victoria had been assigned the leadership of all insurgency movements around the Veracruz area. With an army of 2,000 men, he harried the Realistas (Spanish army in Mexico) throughout the area.


Guadalupe Victoria
For a year, his headquarters were in the rebel stronghold of Puente del Rey, close to the main highway between the Veracruz capital, Xalapa, and its main port, Veracruz. This was a road that Realistas were often forced to travel along. The port was the gateway to Spain. The fort, at Puente del Rey, acted as a great watchtower, with commanding views across the entire terrain. Many Realista convoy were intercepted, after being spotted from it. Prisoners and supplies were taken for the rebels.

After the capture and execution of Morelos, the Spanish viceroy thought that he'd won. He wrote home to Spain that the insurgency was under control; and he was confident enough to offer pardons to those who just went home. Many did, but Guadalupe Victoria was not one of them. He had a job to do and that was to maintain the pressure on the Realistas in Veracruz. He stayed to do his job. Even more remarkably, all 2,000 of his men stayed with him.

Nevertheless, the going was tough and there weren't supplies of artillery and practical things, like food, getting through. Victoria's men survived on what they took from the Realistas or were given, as donations, from local supporters. In late 1815, they lost Puente del Rey.


Puente del Rey
For two years, the troop were constantly on the move, throughout the Veracruz and Puebla regions. Harrassing the Realistas where they could; or, occasionally, actually meeting them in pitched battle. They knew that they weren't as alone as the Spanish would have them believe. Victoria was in sporadic contact with other isolated leaders. He had to keep the faith that it was only a matter of time before the insurgency gathered momentum again. Then the country would be free.

In 1817, Victoria's forces suffered a crushing defeat, at the hands of the Realistas, near to the small town of Palmillas, in Veracruz. Demoralized, Victoria went into hiding. He spent some time in a cave, near to the city of Puebla. Later, he transferred to a hacienda, in Paso de Ovejas, Veracruz. He was under the very noses of the Realistas there, as the hacienda bordered Puente del Rey, the fort that he had lost to them. He was not discovered.

Victoria was to remain concealed from the Realistas for four years. He emerged, in 1821, at the request of another rebel leader, Vicente Guerrero, to read over a proposition. Victoria helped negotiate the terms of independence, on behalf of the insurgents. A few months later, he was one of three men at the helm of the vast army that swept into Mexico City, to claim their country's independence.

In 1824, Guadalupe Victoria became Mexico's first president.


President Guadalupe Victoria

Where to Visit:


* Villa de Tamazula, Durango. This village was the birthplace of Guadalupe and Francisco Victoria. There is a monument to Guadalupe in the main plaza. The house in which he was born is also still standing and may be viewed by the public.

* Calera de Víctor Rosales, Zacatecas.

* Zacatecas, Zacatecas. The birthplace and home city of Victor Rosales. The Portal de Rosales, a local meeting place and monument to him, was built on the site of the old corn exchange, in 1827. This had been the spot where the Realistas had their barracks and where Rosales's 11 year old son was executed.

* Puente Nacional, Veracruz. After independence was achieved, many placenames lost their reference to the Spanish crown. Puente del Rey was no exception. The fort held by Guadalupe Victoria is here. There's a pleasant walk up to it and replicas of soldiers to show how it was defended.

World Heritage Status for Two Mexican Sites

UNESCO today announced that it has inscribed World Heritage status on two Mexican sites. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and the prehistoric caves of Yagul and Mitla, in the Central Valley of Oaxaca, were both honored.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is as international a concern as its name implies. The 34th session of the World Heritage Committee met in Brasilia, Brazil, to consider the applications of 39 sites dotted around the globe. Six were added to the World Heritage List, while a seventh received an extension. The list is formed of those places which are deemed to represent humankind's 'cultural and natural heritage', with 'outstanding universal value'.

Mexico already had 25 cultural and 4 natural sites inscribed on this list. These can be explored on-line at the UNESCO World Heritage site. The two new additions boost our number to 27 cultural sites.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (The Royal Road of the Interior Land) is a long-distance trade route that stretches from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico, USA. It is 2560 kilometers (1600 miles) long. The American section of it has been on the US National Historic Trail list since 2000.



UNESCO's statement read:

Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was the Royal Inland Road, also known as the Silver Route. The inscribed property consists of 55 sites and five existing World Heritage sites lying along a 1400 km section of this 2600 km route, that extends north from Mexico City to Texas and New Mexico, United States of America.

The route was actively used as a trade route for 300 years, from the mid-16th to the 19th centuries, mainly for transporting silver extracted from the mines of Zacatecas, Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí, and mercury imported from Europe.

Although it is a route that was motivated and consolidated by the mining industry, it also fostered the creation of social, cultural and religious links in particular between Spanish and Amerindian cultures.

UNESCO press release: 'World Heritage Committee inscribes three new cultural sites, three natural sites and one extension on World Heritage List'

There is a virtual tour of the trail on the American Bureau of Land Management site. However, it should be noted that, for some, the road actually extends as far as Veracruz. John Todd has written all about that on his site.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is a very scenic route to travel along. It would take several days to thoroughly enjoy its views and the wayside attractions. A good place to start might be the National Museum of Viceroyalty, in Mexico City, where the 'Plata. Forjando México' (Silver. Forging Mexico) runs until October 2010. This exhibition shows the historic silverware that was such a mainstay of those using the trail. Other major urban stops along the way are Zacatecas, Durango, Parral and Chihuahua, before crossing into America.

Prehistoric Caves of Yagul and Mitla

There are around 100 caves and rock shelters in the Central Valley of Oaxaca, around Yagul and Mitla, which contain evidence of pre-historic human habitation. Many contain cave paintings, ceramics or stone tools dating to around 8000 BCE. The site has been on Mexico's Lista Indicativa de México since 1998.



UNESCO's statement read:

This property lies on the northern slopes of the Tlacolula valley in subtropical central Oaxaca and consists of two pre-Hispanic archaeological complexes and a series of pre-historic caves and rock shelters. Some of these shelters provide archaeological and rock-art evidence for the progress of nomadic hunter-gathers to incipient farmers.

Ten thousand-year-old Cucurbitaceae seeds in one cave, Guilá Naquitz, are considered to be the earliest known evidence of domesticated plants in the continent, while corn cob fragments from the same cave are said to be the earliest documented evidence for the domestication of maize.

The cultural landscape of the Prehistoric Caves of Yagul and Mitla demonstrates the link between man and nature that gave origin to the domestication of plants in North America, thus allowing the rise of Mesoamerican civilizations.

UNESCO press release: 'World Heritage Committee inscribes three new cultural sites, three natural sites and one extension on World Heritage List'

Entrance to the vicinity of the caves is free, as it is maintained by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History). Nearby are the ruins of a later settlement, where the Zapotec founded their great city, in Yagul, around 500 BCE. The nearest modern city is Tlacolula de Matamoros.