In the United States he’s known as Pancho Villa, in Mexico and most especially in his native Chihuahua he’s known as General Francisco Villa, and after decades of neglect they love him, at least the people who think about him at all tend to revere him.
The melodrama of his death is recorded fully in the museum dedicated to his memory in Parral. Francisco Villa was in retirement when he was gunned down on July 20th 1923 outside the building dedicated to him as a museum since just 1967. His body has been moved to Mexico City as he is now officially a national hero who led the war in the north during the 1914 revolution.
Six hours after he died driving his car on the streets of Parral they made a death mask of the General including at least one fatal shot to the forehead. Some people report his last words as “Don’t let me be remembered like this, tell them I said something important,” but in point of fact he died instantly in a hail of bullets. Four of his six bodyguards also died and his Secretary Miguel Trillio sitting next to Villa who was driving, also died in the hail of bullets from six conspirators hidden in the museum building. Just like that:
One bodyguard played dead and survived by hiding under the car. Two injured men ran toward the River Parral under a bridge nearby. That’s the brown structure above the white car in the photo below, beyond Villa’s statue:
The conspirators caught one of the fugitive bodyguards and shot him to death. The other injured man got away. Thus ended the life of the hero of the revolution, three years retired on a ranch given to him by the government. He lived there surrounded by loyal former fighters safe from the numerous enemies he had made. He was only in town for a family baptism and to spend a couple of nights with his mistress before driving his 1922 Dodge convertible back to his home across the state line in northern Durango. On this trip he only had four bodyguards with him.
As assassinations go it was pretty dramatic but the reason for the murder of the retired revolutionary is not completely clear even today. The guy in black below is blamed as the “intellectual author” of the murder but there were other powerful figures known to be involved. Why? No one knows for sure but after the sudden death, Villa’s memory faded from public view.
Some historians think President Àlvaro Obregon had to have given at least consent if not active approval of the plot to kill Villa. A congressman called Jesus Salas confessed to the killing and was sentenced to 20 years before his sentence was almost instantly commuted and he was released after a few months. And that was that. Villa was buried the next day after a huge procession through town and later his body was moved to Mexico City.
Villa was a sturdy peasant, a man of impressive leadership skills and great military prowess even though he lost a few critical battles. He knew the value of publicity so there are lots of heroic photos of him you may have seen. They are reproduced in the museum of course!
In retirement running his 160,000 acre farm as a worker’s cooperative:
A life of adventure! Misspellings included!
The Communist journalist John Reed who gained fame in the Russian Revolution rode with Villa and wrote a stark account of the miseries of life on the front lines. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
In the photo below the man with the thin face and blanket-like coat is General Toribio Ortega credited with starting the revolution of 1914 which devastated Mexico for years. He revolted against the dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1910 and died of typhus in Chihuahua in 1914 a year after the photo was taken.
Villa said he liked women horses and cock fighting most in life but he also like to ride his Indian motorcycle. He lived large.
His biggest and weirdest strategic error came on the morning of March 9th 1916 when hundreds of his remaining soldiers attacked Columbus, New Mexico. Villa’s dwindling army had been recently defeated at Agua Prieta by President Venustiano Carranza’s forces supported by arms sales from the US government. It’s suspected that was the reason Villa decided to exact revenge by invading the US his former supporter. The predawn raid took the city and the 13th Cavalry garrison by surprise, and in the 90 minutes it took to defeat Villa and push him back, the city was torched and pillaged. 18 Americans died and about 80 Mexicans were killed. The first invasion of the US since 1812 and the last until Japan took some of the Aleutian Islands in World War Two.
General Pershing was in charge of the pursuit of Villa in Chihuahua and the US army returned the compliment by invading Mexico and hounding Villa across the desert. They never caught him but they made the point.
By 1920 the quirky unrepentant revolutionary had made a whole raft of enemies. President Venustiano Carranza was assassinated in May 1920 and President Adolfo de la Huerta decided to call a truce by giving land to Villa and his 250 hard core followers if Villa promised to take up branching and retire from politics. Huerta quit as President in November and Villa’s sworn enemy Alvaro Obregon became President.
The assassinations revolutions murders and plots of Mexican politics are enough to make your head spin and the turbulent era was as bad as any. Villa made tons of enemies as he waged war in his own back yard, northern Mexico. I suppose it was inevitable he should die a violent death. He was a man of principle surrounded by politicians of the worst type and perhaps because of that I really rather like him. I wish I could have been there like John Reed watching him on the front lines. In his private life he was a mess seducing any woman he fancied with no respect for anyone. As a politician he was a failure because he had no ability to compromise which sounds fantastic except he was in a world full of compromises and shifting loyalties. His saving grace was that he knew it. What you can admire as a leader is hard to admire as a man. What I find fascinating is the confusion of morality.
The bed used to lay out his body preparatory to burial:
I loved being at the museum and seeing the spot I had read about. I can’t say I like Villa the man but I am totally absorbed by his story of success and failure. He must have been a powerful threat if he had to be murdered even when retired. I found no answers but more questions at the site.
Parral, a charming town of 110,000 residents worthy of a proper visit. Founded in 1631 as a mining town it produced vast quantities of silver till 1930 when it was pretty much abandoned. We found it to be lively and quite charming in our brief time there.
42 Pesos = $2.40
Sorry about this lengthy exposition of my obsession. Up next: more road trip including the Copper Canyon.
“The People’s Revolutionary” He’s being celebrated in this the 100th anniversary of his murder in Parral, where they happen to have a museum that closes at five on a Saturday afternoon…
