0:00 / 0:00

    Español

    Pancho Villa

    José Doroteo Arango Arámbula nació en San Juan del Río, Durango, México el 5 de junio de 1878 y fue uno de los jefes de la Revolución Mexicana. Conocido como El Centauro del Norte, fue decisivo en la derrota del régimen de Victoriano Huerta. Es muy famoso en la cultura popular debido al poder que logró alcanzar en el norte de México y su invasión a Columbus, en los Estados Unidos.

    En 1894, Doroteo Arango disparó a un terrateniente que había violado a su hermana y debió refugiarse en las montañas hasta casi 1910. Allí conoció a una pandilla de bandidos liderada por un hombre llamado Francisco Villa. Con esta banda asaltó pueblos y delinquió en otras áreas. Un día, el líder de la banda fue herido mortalmente de bala y, agonizando, nombró a Doroteo Arango líder de la pandilla. A petición de los integrantes de la banda, Arango adoptó el nombre que todos conocemos: Francisco “Pancho” Villa.

    Ya en 1910, se unió a la lucha revolucionaria en favor de Francisco I. Madero, logrando importantes victorias militares el norte del país, lo que abrió la posibilidad de elecciones democráticas y libres donde Madero sería electo presidente, dando fin a los 30 años de gobierno de Porfirio Diaz, conocidos como “Porfiriato”. Con todas estas victorias, Villa causó la envidia de su superior, el general Victoriano Huerta, quien ordenó fusilarlo por el “robo de una mula”, pero Madero intervino y, como alternativa, fue enviado a la prisión de Santiago Tlatelolco en la Ciudad de México.

    En 1912, Villa se fuga de la prisión y llega hasta El Paso, Texas. Un año después, en 1913, se entera del asesinato del Presidente Madero y de su amigo Abraham González por parte de Victoriano Huerta y decide sumarse a la lucha revolucionaria convocada por Venustiano Carranza. Con una fuerza de nueve hombres entró en Chihuahua y comenzó su participación una nueva etapa en la Revolución Mexicana.

     

    End of free content.

    To continue, please LOG IN.
    If you don't have a subscription, please CLICK HERE to sign up to this program.

    Ingles

    {/mprestriction}
    Pancho Villa
    José Doroteo Arango Arámbula was born in San Juan del Río, Durango, Mexico on June 5, 1878 and was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. Known as El Centauro del Norte, he was decisive in the defeat of the Victoriano Huerta regime. He is very famous in popular culture due to the power he achieved in northern Mexico and for his invasion of Columbus, in the United States.

    In 1894, Doroteo Arango shot a landowner who had raped his sister and had to take refuge in the mountains until almost 1910. There he met a gang of bandits led by a man named Francisco Villa. With this gang he assaulted towns and committed crimes in other areas. One day, the leader of the gang was fatally shot and, dying, named Doroteo Arango leader of the gang. At the request of the members of the band, Arango adopted the name that we all know: Francisco “Pancho” Villa. Already in 1910, he joined the revolutionary struggle in favor of Francisco I. Madero, achieving important military victories in the north of the country, which opened the possibility of free democratic elections where Madero would be elected president, ending the 30-year government by Porfirio Diaz, known as “Porfiriato”. With all these victories, Villa caused the envy of his superior, General Victoriano Huerta, who ordered him to be shot for the “robbery of a mule”, but Madero intervened and, as an alternative, he was sent to the Santiago Tlatelolco prison in the city of Mexico. In 1912, Villa escapes from prison and reaches El Paso, Texas. A year later, in 1913, he learned of the murder of President Madero and his friend Abraham González by Victoriano Huerta and decided to join the revolutionary struggle called by Venustiano Carranza. With a force of nine men, he entered Chihuahua and began a new stage in the Mexican Revolution. Having formed the famous Northern Division of the Constitutionalist Army, Villa took the entire state of Chihuahua and became governor. In office he founded more than thirty schools (where he attended classes to learn to read and write), lowered food prices, founded the state bank and printed bills known as "two faces" with the faces of Madero and Abraham Gonzalez.

    In 1914, once Victoriano Huerta was defeated, problems arose between the First Chief, Venustiano Carranza, and Villa. Carranza despised Villa for his reputation as a bandit and never recognized him as a general. The definitive break occurred when Pancho Villa's plan to hold a convention of revolutionary leaders and propose a plan for government and elections was rejected. Then Villa meets with Emiliano Zapata in the beautiful city of Aguascalientes, where they decide to confront Carranza. They immediately take Mexico City with 60,000, and Carranza is forced to take refuge in Veracruz. But, once Carranza's army was reinforced, under the command of Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles, Villa was defeated in many battles in a row in the center and south of the country, having to flee north, where he decided to attack the American town of Columbus. , to punish the neighbor to the north for having supported Carranza with modern weapons and to "look for the merchant Sam Ravel, who had stolen from him." It is said that the town was attacked by 1500 horsemen before dawn on March 9, 1916. It was the second invasion that the United States suffered since the Anglo-American War of 1812, since the famous outlaw Juan Nepomuceno Bandera had invaded Brownsville in 1859. Due to this fact, President Woodrow Wilson ordered General “Black Jack” Pershing (who would command the US forces in World War I), the capture of Pancho Villa. For eleven months, Pershing pursued the Mexican caudillo in Chihuahua with ten thousand soldiers, never being able to reach him.

    In the following years, the power of Pancho Villa was greatly diminished, but he continued to fight until the time Adolfo de la Huerta assumed the presidency, and signed the Agua Prieta treaty with Villa, by which Pancho Villa gave up his arms, and the state donated to him an hacienda known as "El Canutillo" for his services to the revolution. But already in 1923, due to the fear that Villa would return to arms against the imposition of General Plutarco Elías Calles to the presidency, the assassination of the caudillo was ordered. On the afternoon of July 20, 1923, while Pancho Villa was going to a family party in Parral, Chihuahua, he was ambushed and killed.

    Curious facts

    - Villa came to have contracts with Hollywood for the filming of the battlefields and, on one occasion, he was even given new uniforms for his troops.
    - It is said that Villa had children with 23 different women!
    - Some affirm that, at the time of Villa's death, his body was beheaded and his head sent as a trophy to the king of the American press, William Randolph Hearst.
    - There are many monuments, buildings and towns that have been named in honor of Villa and his work, for example the División del Norte subway station in Mexico City.
    - There are many historians who despise the role of Pancho Villa as a Mexican hero, since they recount the murder of more than 1,500 innocent civilians on the orders of the caudillo.