Pancho Villa

June 5 1878-July 20 1923

Born under the name Doroteo Arango, Pancho Villa was a Mexican revolutionary leader. Born in a hacienda in San Juan del Rio, Villa lived a peasant’s life as a sharecropper’s son. During Villa’s childhood in the hacienda, the rich grew in power by stealing and keeping down the poor, and the poor were treated like slaves. Villa’s father died early in his son’s life, leaving Villa to support his mother and four siblings on the wages of a sharecropper.

In 1894, Villa arrived to his home to to learn that the hacienda’s owner had raped Villa’s 12 year old sister. In retaliation, Villa killed the hacienda owner with a pistol and ran to live in the mountains. In his time spent in the mountains (1894-1910), Villa outran the law and survived on his own. However, in 1896, he joined a group of bandits and became their leader.  While in the group of bandits, he abandoned the name of Doroteo Arango, and adopted Francisco (Pancho) Villa.  As the bandits’ leader, Villa committed crimes against the wealthy and gave to the poor. Because of this, he was viewed as a Robin-Hood figure to the poor community.

Villa’s role as the bandits’ leader was recognized by people planning a revolution on Mexico’s current president, Porfirio Diaz who abused the lower class. Acknowledging Villa’s skills, they knew he could be used as a fighter in the revolution. Villa agreed to join the revolution as a leader on the side of Francisco Madero, who promised to give back to the lower class if he was made president. Villa served as the revolutionary leader until May 1911 when he stepped down from command due to altercations with Pascual Orozco Jr, another commander in the revolution.

After leaving the revolution, Villa attempted to settle into a quiet life. However, his rest came to an end in the spring of 1912, when the commander Pascual Orozco Jr became outraged when he was left out of what he considered to be his position in the new Mexican government. In this rage, he began a revolution against the current president Francisco Madero, who was the very man the revolution fought to put in power. Villa came out of resting to oppose the revolution with General Victoriano Huerta to protect Madero.  However, Villa was later betrayed by Huerta when he ordered Villa to be executed under the suspicion that Villa stole Huerta’s horse. Villa was saved from the execution by Madero, but was still thrown in jail from June 1912 to December 1912 when he escaped.

After Villa’s escape, Huerta turned against president Francisco Madero and killed him on February 22, 1913 taking the seat of Mexican President for himself.  In outrage, Villa allied with Coahuila’s Venustiano Carranza to fight against Huerta. Villa’s forces were in Chihuahua, where he ruled northern Mexico as a warlord. Along with Carranza’s forces, the two fought Huerta’s dictatorship of Mexico. Huerta was eventually unseated, and Carranza became Mexico’s new president. However, a later split among revolutionary leaders turned Villa and Carranza against each other.  Villa and his forces had several battles over the span of many years with Carranza, as Mexico becomes the grounds of a civil war between the two factions of Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza.

In the battle, the United States chose to aid and support Carranza’s presidency. In retaliation, Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico on March 9^th, 1916. This attack was one of the first raids on American grounds since 1912. To fight back, the United States sent thousands of soldiers to Mexico to search for Villa. However, the search for Villa turned up mostly fruitless as they searched for over a year and never caught him.

Pancho Villa finally left behind his life as a revolutionary leader when Adolfo De La Huerta became president of Mexico after Carranza was assassinated and granted him a hacienda in Chihuahua as part of a peace agreement for Mexico. Upon receiving the hacienda in 1920, Villa enjoyed retirement until he was shot in his car on July 20, 1923.