Pancho Villa

Anxious Youth

José Dorotheo Arango Arambula was born on the Asiend Gogohito, near the village of San Juan del Rio, Durango , in a peon family. The owner of the hacienda was Laureano Lopez Negrete. Jose Dorotheo lost his father early and was forced to work on an asyend, but due to unbearable conditions he tried to escape several times. In 1894, one of the owner’s sons - Agustin Lopez Negrete - raped his older sister. In response, Jose Dorotheo acquired a revolver, shot the owner and ran into the mountains. His youth passed there ^[1] .

Living outside the law, Jose Dorotheo was seriously injured in 1905. From death he was saved by a detachment of rebellious peasants passing by. The rebels picked him up and fed him. They were runaway peons, waging an armed struggle with the local police, landowners and federal troops. The leader of the detachment was Francisco Villa. As part of the detachment, Jose Dorotheo participated in daring raids on asyends and small towns. Soon he became the confidant of the leader. Once Francisco Villa was mortally wounded and, dying, appointed Jose Dorotheo Arango the head of the squad. At the request of the rebels, Arango abandoned his former name and became Francisco Villa II . Under his command, the detachment continued its raids. During one of them, Francisco Villa II killed the offender of his sister, Agustin Lopez Negrete.

Mexican Revolution

Francisco Villa II continued his guerrilla warfare until, in 1909, he met Abraham Gonzalez, the local representative of the liberal presidential candidate Francisico Madero . Gonzalez became a political mentor and friend of Villa, and he joined the forces of Madero, who rebelled against President Porfirio Diaz , which grew into the Mexican revolution.

During the uprising, the uneducated Villa, who could only read and write, showed himself to be a capable commander. The talent of the commander, knowledge of the area and the indigenous population helped Villiers create a division of well-trained soldiers. On May 10, 1911, Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco's troops took Ciudad Juarez , which was an important customs point, control of which made it possible to freely obtain arms and ammunition from the United States ^[2] , after which the revolutionaries were able to go on the offensive in almost all states. After the rebel victory, Villa remained in the partisan army. In 1912, during the rebellion of Pascual Orozco, General Victoriano Huerta fabricated a charge against Villa, who remained loyal to the Madero government, and sentenced him to death ^[3] . Vilyu was saved by the intervention of Madero, who sent him to prison. In November 1912, Pancho Villa fled to the United States ^[1] .

After Huerta arranged a military coup and assassination of Francisico Madero, as well as his ally Abraham Gonzalez, Villa, having crossed the Rio Grande , he returned to Mexico in March 1913 to fight the usurper. He created a formation of several thousand people, later called the "Northern Division" ( Division del Norte ). Combining his units with the Constitutionalist army of Venustiano Carranza , Villa opposed the dictatorial regime of General Huerta. When the units of Villa entered Torreon on the night of October 1, 1913 , this was a turning point in the campaign. Government forces lost 800 dead as a result of the battle

Villa soon gained control of almost the entire territory of Chihuahua, and in mid-November occupied the border town of Ciudad Juarez and the state capital, Chihuahua. Local military leaders elected him state governor. In this campaign, Villa also proved to be a talented commander, having won several victories. Ambrose Beers , an American writer and journalist who accompanied him, witnessed Villa’s most impressive victory - the Battle of Tierra Blanca on November 24, 1913.

The activities of Francisco Villa became one of the pretexts for the open intervention of the US Navy, which captured Veracruz - one of the largest ports in Mexico. The immediate cause was the Benton Affair: in February 1914, British landowner William Benton was shot dead in Mexico, who came to the headquarters of a revolutionary general and threatened with weapons and demanded the return of lands confiscated from him in favor of the peasants. However, he, as an attempt on Villa’s life, was captured and transferred to a military field court , which passed the death sentence. The United States demanded exhumation of the body and subsequent examination. Venustiano Carranza, to whom Villa formally submitted, rejected this claim. He also warned the Wilson government against aggression, saying that Mexico would defend its sovereignty by force of arms

At the head of the revolutionary forces

Carranza and Villa inflicted a decisive defeat on Wert in the Battle of Zacatecas in June 1914 , and then entered Mexico City ^[1] . However, substantial disagreements soon emerged between the temporary allies: the peasant revolutionaries of Vilya demanded radical social reforms and the solution of the agrarian question, and the political program of Carranza did not provide for either one or the other ^[6] . In an attempt to resolve the differences, Alvaro Obregon held several meetings with Vilya ^[7] . To resolve issues of power and the upcoming reforms, it was agreed to convene a convention of commanders of revolutionary armies. It opened on October 1, 1914 in Mexico City, and then was transferred to Aguascalientes ^[8] . The delegates to the Convention were divided into three main factions: supporters of Villa, supporters of Carranza and a group of officers of the Obregon army; at the suggestion of the villists, representatives of the close Zapata , who received observer status, were invited to the Convention. On October 31, the Convention decided that Villa and Carranza should resign. On November 1, delegates elected General interim president of Mexico. ^[9] Carranza did not recognize the decisions of the Convention and, leaving the capital, went to Veracruz . After Carranza's refusal to resign, the Convention declared him a rebel, and President Gutierrez ordered him to be defeated by Villiers, who was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Convention.

By the beginning of the final stage of the revolution, the formal advantage was on the side of the forces of the Convention led by Vilya. The main railway lines from the US border to Mexico City were under the control of Villa, while the capital itself was threatened by Zapata detachments , while the territories subordinated to Carranza were scattered and had no direct communication. By the end of November 1914, Villa occupied Mexico City, along with another famous revolutionary from the people - Southerner Emiliano Zapata . On December 4, there was a meeting of two revolutionary leaders who agreed on the directions of the offensive. However, both commanders did not seek to move far from their main bridgeheads: Villa from Chihuahua , and Zapata from Morelos . Therefore, Villa had to defeat Carranza in the north, and Zapate was to take Puebla and Veracruz. On December 6, a ceremonial procession of 50 thousand soldiers of the armies of Villa and Zapata, who led the procession in an open car, took place in Mexico City. At the end of the procession, Zapata and Villa, along with interim president Gutierrez, greeted the residents from the balcony of the National Palace .

In mid-December 1914, Villa occupied the capital of Jalisco Guadalajara , and his other units - the administrative center of Coahuilla Saltillo . When taking the city among the archives of the former chairman of the Convention, Villarreal, letters of President Gutierrez were found, offering Obregon to unite against Carranza and Villa. Villa immediately ordered the arrest of the interim president, but he managed to escape to San Luis Potosi ; the new interim president was .

In the territories under his control, Villa, like Zapata, set about carrying out land reform. In the fall of 1914, on behalf of Villa, the former Minister of Economics in the Madero government, Manuel Bonilla, drafted a reform project for the distribution of uncultivated landowners' land, according to which the peasants were asked to buy the expropriated land at the expense of low-interest state loans. Villa also advocated the free distribution of land, especially among veteran villiists. In May 1915, he published his reform plan, according to which all peasant lands exceeding a certain size were to be distributed among the peasants. The owners of the expropriated land received compensation, and the new owners had to buy these plots from the state in small installments. Moreover, in his native state of Chihuahua, Villa offered to distribute land for free. In addition to agrarian reforms, Villa pursued a policy of helping poor people: pensions were established for war invalids, and a free hospital for civilians was funded in Chihuahua in the state capital ^[10] .

Partisan Leader

However, in January 1915, Villa and Zapata lost the capital. Under the onslaught of the Carranza troops, Villa's forces retreated to the mountains in northern Mexico. Carranza sent his general, Alvaro Obregon , against the peasant revolutionary, who inflicted heavy defeats on the troops of Vilya at the battles of Zelaya (April 6-15, 1915) and at Trinidad (April 29 - June 5, 1915). By the end of 1915, Villa was almost defeated by the federal Mexican army. On October 30, he suffered a crushing defeat at Agua Priet from the government forces of General Plutarko Elias Calles . Having lost his army, Pancho Villa again became a partisan commander.

In addition, Villa learned that the Carransists owed their last victory to the United States, which allowed them to transfer reinforcements for the forces of Calles and provided them with spotlights. Villa, previously benevolent towards the Americans, finally changed his policy towards the United States. There is a version that he decided to provoke an American-Mexican war, which could either force Carranza to conclude a truce with him, or force patriotic generals of the Carransist army to overthrow the latter and unite with Vilya to repel foreign aggression ^[11] .

To demonstrate his disobedience to Carranza, who was supported by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson , on January 9, 1916, a squad of willists under the command of Pablo Lopez removed and killed 17 U.S. citizens from a mining company near Santa Isabel . However, this incident did not cause complications in US-Mexican relations, since the US government was busy with events in Europe . Two months later, on the night of March 8–9 , Villa attacked the city of in New Mexico , killing 17 Americans (8 of whom were military); while the Mexicans themselves lost about a hundred people ^[12] .

In response, Woodrow Wilson intervened on the territory, sending a punitive expedition led by General John Pershing to find and capture Vilya in the area. On March 16, 1916, the 8,000th expeditionary force of the United States, consisting of one infantry and two cavalry brigades, crossed the US-Mexican border . The Americans gained several victories in clashes with the forces of the vilists, But due to the popularity of Vilya among the people and the dissatisfaction of the Mexican government with the presence of Pershing in the Mexican territory, Villa was never caught ^[1] .

During the conduct of hostilities in Mexico, Villa did not adhere to the rules of war, ordering the execution of all federal officers and colorados ^[13] .

Murder

After Alvaro Obregon overthrew Venustiano Carranza , in 1920 Villa entered into an agreement with the interim president of Mexico, Adolfo Huerta, and withdrew from the revolutionary struggle. He settled on the Kanutillo asyend (bought by the government for him), where his army’s veterans worked in the areas allocated to him ^[14] . At 7 o'clock in the morning on July 20, 1923, Villa was shot in his car in the city of Hidalgo del Parral ( Chihuahua ) ^[15] . Four more satellites died along with him: Vilya’s personal bodyguard, General Madreno, Tamayo’s secretary, Colonel Trillo’s chauffeur and Huertado’s guard.

The gang of killers was led by the deputy of the legislative assembly of the state of Durango - Jesus Salas Barras, who was proud of the murder of Villa; it also included the landowner Meliton Lozoya (former owner of Hacienda Villa), Colonel Felix Lara (commander of federal troops in the region) and others. None of the 12 killers were punished. Although this has not been fully proven, most historians agree that the murder was organized by Plutarko general and politician Elias Calles, along with his associate Joaquin Amaro, with the consent of President Alvaro Obregon .

In 1926, his former subordinate Holmhadl was arrested on charges of stealing the skull of Villa. Half a century later, the remains of Pancho Villa (with the exception of the skull, whose fate remains unknown) were transferred to the Russian Revolution Monument on the Paseo de la Reforma . Villa's widow ignored this ceremony.

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  Equestrian portrait of Villa in the national sombrero

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  General Villa in the uniform of the federal army

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  Pancho Villa, interim president of Mexico Eulalio Gutierrez, Emiliano Zapata

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  Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata

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  The car in which Villa was shot

John Reed , American journalist and left -wing journalist:

Villa hates all kinds of magnificent and unnecessary ceremonies, and therefore any of his public appearances makes a strong impression. He has an extraordinary ability to express the feelings of the masses ^[16] .

• Among the US military who failed to destroy Vilya were John Pershing and George Patton .
• The story of the death of Villa formed the basis of a fairly well-known Mexican folk song " Cucaracha ", also known in the USSR .
• In honor of Pancho Villa, the famous Filipino boxer Francisco Guillo , who in 1923 became the first Asian world boxing champion among professionals, performed under his name and surname.
• In 1934, an American film (fiction biography) “ Viva Villa !” Was created with Wallis Beery in the title role.
• В американском фильме 1968 года «Вилья в седле» роль Вильи Панчо блестяще исполнил известный голливудский актёр русского происхождения Юл Бриннер .
• Панчо Вилья упоминается в песне Мирей Матьё « Ciao Bambino, Sorry ».
• В фильме режиссёра Брюса Бересфорда «And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself» 2003 года главную роль сыграл Антонио Бандерас .
• В фильме режиссёра Сергея Бондарчука «Красные колокола» 1982 года роль Панчо Вильи сыграл Эраклио Сепеда .
• В игре «The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles» на игровой приставке NES , Индиана Джонс встречается с Панчо Вилья в заставке к 2 главе «Мексика».
• Мексиканская группа Brujería посвятила песню División del Norte с альбома Brujerizmo (2000) .
• В запланированном фильме Эмира Кустурицы « Дикие розы, нежные розы » (первоначальное название « Семь друзей Панчо Вильи и женщина с шестью пальцами ») роль Панчо Вильи должен был исполнить Джонни Депп ^[17] , но проект остался нереализованным.
• В 1916 году боевики Панчо Вильи использовали мотоциклы «Харли-Дэвидсон» для налётов на пограничные с Мексикой американские города. Им противостояли войска под командой генерала Першинга на мотоциклах «Индиан» [1] .

• 2008 - Панчо Вилья / Pancho Villa aqui y alli (реж. Матиас Кеильбурт / Matías Gueilburt)

• Альперович М. С., Руденко Б. Т. Мексиканская революция 1910—1917 гг. и политика США. — М. : Соцэкгиз, 1958. — 336 с.
• И. Лаврецкий . Панчо Вилья. Жизнь замечательных людей, Молодая гвардия, 1962 г.
• Платошкин Н. Н. История Мексиканской революции. Истоки и победа 1810—1917 гг. — М. : Университет Дмитрия Пожарского : Русский Фонд содействия образованию и науке, 2011. — Т. 1. — 432 с. — ISBN 978-5-91244-034-2 .
• Платошкин Н. Н. История Мексиканской революции. Выбор пути 1917—1928 гг. — М. : Университет Дмитрия Пожарского : Русский Фонд содействия образованию и науке, 2011. — Т. 2. — 456 с. — ISBN 978-5-91244-035-9 .
• Строганов А. И. Латинская Америка в XX веке : пособие для вузов. - 2nd ed., Rev. and add. — М. : Дрофа, 2008. — 432 с. — ISBN 978-5-358-04657-3 .

• Биография Вильи (англ.) в Encyclopædia Britannica