The Mexican revolution of 1910-1917 left an indelible mark on the social body of South America. Many people became victims of the civil war, and many made unprecedented careers and went down in history. One of the heroes of the revolution was Pancho Villa, whose biography is inextricably linked with the people's struggle for liberation and social justice. In many ways, the fate of this heroic person is typical of Mexico at the end of the 19th century.
Pancho Villa: family and background
At birth, the future leader of the revolutionary peasantry was named Jose Dorotheo Arango Arambula. The future Pancho Villa was born into a poor peasant family of a hereditary debtor who worked on the hacienda (large private estate) of a wealthy aristocrat.
Researchers agree that overwork, lack of rights, and constant violence by the owners influenced the revolutionary views of the young laborer and determined his political future.
One of the key determining events in the personal life of Pancho Villa occurred when the hero was barely 16 years old. One of the sons of the owner of the hacienda raped the younger sister of young Jose. Not wanting to put up with injustice, the peasant acquired a revolver and shot the offender, and then fled to the mountains, where he was hiding with other criminals and outcasts.
Outlawed youth
Mexico, in which the young Pancho Villiers happened to be born and grow up, lived under the strict dictates of Porfirio Diaz, as a result of which all the necessary conditions were formed in the country for the discontent of the lower layers of society. Perhaps one can safely say that the figure of such an outstanding revolutionary figure could appear only under an amazing combination of circumstances in which personal tragedy, trends of the time and political expediency converged.
Once on the run, Pancho Villa led a dangerous and adventurous life. As a result of one incident, he was seriously injured and lay on the side of the road in blood when he was found by rebels passing by. The year was 1905, and the local fugitive peasants and peons (those same hereditary debtors) fought a fierce battle with the police, landowners and local authorities who stood guard over the interests of the bourgeoisie. Soon the head of the detachment, picking up a young guy, was mortally wounded, and, dying, he appointed Pancho Vilya his successor. So yesterday the fugitive began the career of a professional revolutionary.
Upcoming revolution
For the next four years, Villa continued to lead a guerrilla struggle at the head of his small detachment until he met Abraham Gonzalez, who served as the local representative of the liberal presidential candidate Francisco Madero. However, hopes for a peaceful transfer of power by the dictator Diaz were melting before our eyes, and supporters of the liberal path of development raised an armed uprising, from which the Mexican revolution began, forever changing the history of the country.
The uprising served as a kind of springboard for the uneducated Villa, who barely knew how to read and write. At the very beginning of the uprising, the young commander proved himself to be a capable military leader. Under the leadership of Pancho Villa, whose photo is often decorated with a military uniform, rebel forces took one of the country's most important customs points - the city of Ciudad Juarez, whose population today numbers more than one and a half million people.
Flight to the USA
The fierce political struggle in revolutionary Mexico during the civil war threatened the life of Villa, who was sentenced to death. With the help of his senior associates, he managed to escape to the United States, but he was not destined to stay there for a long time. Soon in Mexico, Gonzalez and Madero were killed, which meant a new stage in the struggle against the oppressors was coming.
Having crossed the Rio Grande on a horse, Pancho Villa again found himself in his native country, where he embarked on a revolutionary struggle with renewed zeal. Upon his return to Mexico, Villa created an armed group, later called the "Northern Division". This corps consisted of several thousand people.
Continuation of the struggle
In a relatively short time, the young general of the rebel army managed to take control of the territory of the whole state of Chihuahua. Villa’s authority was so high that the local military elected him state governor, which significantly raised his status at the state level and opened up new prospects in the struggle for power over the whole country.
Villa's activity was so successful that it provoked limited US intervention, the navy of which occupied one of the largest Mexican ports of Veracruz. However, President Wilson, who received a warning from the Mexicans, did not dare to make a full-fledged military invasion.
In 1914, allied rebel forces inflicted a crushing defeat on dictator Worth, who succeeded Porfirio Diaz, and entered the country's capital, Mexico City.
At the head of a revolutionary army
On October 1, 1914, a national convention began in the capital, in which representatives of the revolutionary armies took part. Among the participants were such generals as Villa, Carranza and Obregon. Zapat was also present, but as an observer.
The delegates agreed that Eulalio Guttieres would become Mexico's interim president, but this decision was not approved by Carrans. After leaving the convention, Carrance went to Veracruz, and upon arrival there he refused to obey the decision of the congress and did not resign as a general. For this, he was called a rebel, and Pancho Villiers was assigned to deal with him. Thus, he became the commander of the entire revolutionary army and had to defend the cause of the revolution from the forces of Zapata and the rebel Carrans encroaching on the capital.
Numerical and technical superiority was on the side of the new commander in chief, and the territories of the rebellious general were scattered and poorly connected. In addition, Villiers managed to agree with Zapata on a joint attack on Carranza, which was carried out. On December 6, 1914, a ceremonial parade of 50 thousand soldiers of the armies of Zapata and Villa, who led the procession in an open car, was held in Mexico City.
Brave New World
The revolutionary redistribution of Mexico ended in the flight of the interim president, who was accused of plotting against the popular Villa. The new president was Roque Garza.
The territories controlled by Villiers were huge, and they demanded new rules of the game, since a long armed struggle led to the ruin of the economy and the mass exodus of the owners. The first step was to deal with land reform. Probably Villa remembered well the plight of his family, and how hard it was for them to be in the position of practically forced eternal debtors cultivating someone else's land.
The first thing Pancho Villa limited the large landowners in the rights and distributed the excess land to the peasants, who had to pay a small standard contribution to the treasury. Despite the high popularity among the people, a new threat loomed over the general.
Territory loss: impending defeat
Already in January 1915, Villa and Zapat lost Mexico City, which took Carrance, who won one victory after another with the support of the Americans, upon learning of which, Villa began to make the wrong decisions.
At first, the relations between the general of the rebel army and the Americans were restrained, and there was no heated disagreement between them. However, when he learned of the support that the U.S. military had provided to Carranza, Villa decided to provoke a U.S.-Mexican war and invaded U.S. territory by attacking the city of Columbus, killing seventeen American citizens and about a hundred Mexican rebel fighters.
In response, President Wilson ordered the organization of a punitive expedition to Mexico with the goal of destroying Villa. The idea, however, failed, as the Mexican revolutionary was too popular among the people. In 1920, Villa entered into an agreement with the new president of the republic, and settled on the hacienda allocated to him, in the vicinity of which, on the areas allocated to him, former fighters of the rebel army worked.
It seemed that the times of struggle were a thing of the past, and you can safely enjoy the changes achieved, but everything turned out to be not so simple. In 1923, Villa’s car was shot by the former owner of the hacienda, on which the general lived. As a result of the attempt, the revolutionary died.
Image in culture
One of the most popular examples of popular culture dedicated to the personal life of Pancho Villa was the 2003 film with Antonio Banderas in the title role. The film tells an amazing story about how one famous American director, risking his life, comes to Mexico to make a film about a popular revolutionary.
The film about Pancho Vilyu was released in 2003 and became a remarkable work of Banderas, in which he demonstrated his many acting talents. However, despite the promising story, the film story unfolds extremely slowly.
Cinema about Pancho Villiers, reviews of which are extremely inexpressive, is not popular among moviegoers. Most reviews are rather negative. In some, there is a peppy tie, but a rather pale game of Banderas. Others, on the contrary, pay attention to the quality play of the Hollywood actor.