Villa, Pancho (1878–1923)

Together with Emiliano Zapata, José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, better known by his nickname Pancho Villa, was one of the foremost rebel leaders of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). Villa is widely regarded as an outlaw, but his willingness to help the poor and oppressed has also made him a popular hero in the cultural history of modern Mexico.

When writing about Villa's life story, historians have to deal with the existence of many divergent and poorly documented accounts, the popular oral tradition, and the myth created by Hollywood films of the Mexican hero. But many facts are agreed upon and specialists have been able to create a widely accepted biography.

José Arango Arámbula was born in San Juan del Río, a local town in the Mexican state of Durango, on June 5, 1878, according to most sources. Son of a peasant family, he received very little formal education and spent much of his childhood in Durango. He was brought up as a peasant in the hacienda (Mexican word referring to a vast ranch, that is, an area of land, including buildings and structures, given primarily to the grazing of livestock) of a landlord in Durango, until, at age 16, his younger sister was sexually abused. He then killed the man who had raped her and escaped his homeland. Little record exists of the next 4 or 5 years of his life, during which time he changed his name to Francisco Villa, his nickname being Pancho Villa, in order to evade the law. He would then become an outlaw for official history but a revolutionary with a strong sense of social justice for the people who supported him.

By the time he was 20, Villa had moved north to the state of Chihuahua, where he underwent a transformation after meeting Abraham González, the political representative of Francisco I. Madero, soon to become Mexico's president. González gave Villa a basic education that opened his eyes to the political world and changed the way in which he thought about his own life and his relation to those in power. From this point until near the end of his life, Villa considered himself a revolutionary fighting for the people.

Villa had a very powerful and charismatic personality that influenced thousands of oppressed rural workers, who started to follow him. Depicted many times as possessing a Mexican Robin Hood style, he became a bandit and an outlaw by stealing cattle from [Page 1437]hacendados (owners of haciendas) and selling them to support his movement. During the years 1900–1909, he became a legendary hero to the poor, skillfully evading Porfirio Díaz's long-lasting and oppressive government, who wanted him for several crimes, among them, bank robbery, cattle rustling, and murder.

In 1910, the bloody and decade-long Mexican Revolution began, which overthrew the 34-year-old dictatorship of Díaz, who was supported by large landowners, miners, and oil-exporting companies. In 1911, with support from the United States along with Emiliano Zapata's forces in the Morelos region, Villa helped defeat the federal army of Porfirio Díaz in favor of Francisco I. Madero. The Treaty of Ciudad de Juárez was signed on May 17, 1911, and Madero became president; Madero, however, did not control the political and military scene.

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