Pancho Villa Thesis

The Mexican Revolution brought multiple parties and movements out of the woodwork. In John Womack’s Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, a story of one state’s drive for agrarian reform and its people’s evolving mission was told, with Emiliano Zapata as a pivotal leader. The dynamics of the revolution, however, reach deeper than Womack’s account portrays. While Womack documents the revolutionary path of the Zapatistas from the southern state of Morelos, the story of Pancho Villa, an arguably parallel character fighting for states in the North against the repressive powers of General Victoriano Huerta, reads more as a subplot. The writings of Samuel Brunk, Ana Maria Alonso, and Mariano Azuela shed light on the less simplistic dynamics of

In The Underdogs written by Mariano Azuela, the protagonist, Demetrio Macias is symbolized as the fuel of the Mexican Revolution. Heroes like Macias gave hope to the oppressed people of Mexico by fighting for what they felt they truly deserved, but, ironically, later becomes what he was fighting against. He does show great leadership and determination to oppress Pancho Villa's army. Pancho Villa, the dictator of Mexico during this revolutionary time, also shows prolific leadership qualities and care for his people; much like Demetrio Macias. However, at times Villa can be a ferocious general who destroyed villiages and killed innocent victims, he shows his compassion who helped those in need and rescued orphans providing them with food, education, and a home. Pancho Villa was a leader who only asked for your loyalty and trust, but was cruel when people tried to oppose him. Venustiano Carranza was another great leader that was a natural at commanding his followers through the struggle of liberty. He did not show any lack of a

Hernan (also Hernando or Fernando) Cortes was born in Medellin, Estramadura, in Spain in 1485 to a family of minor nobility.

Knowing that the Texans were not obeying Mexico’s laws, the Mexican President sent Antonio López de Santa Anna to fight and stop the revolting Texans. “Santa Anna gained his earliest military experience fighting for the Spanish army

     Francisco Pizarro was a conquistador born in Trujillo, Spain in about 1471. His father, Gonzalo Pizarro, was an infantry captain and he taught Francisco how to fight at an early age. Francisco Pizarro never learned to read and write but he was full of adventure.

During the sixteenth century Spain had control over land in the Caribbeans and America that was ten times the size of Spain. One of the most famous conquerors was a man by the name of Cortes. His first target was the Aztec Empire one of the richest empires in America. After a very bloody battle Cortes successfully conquered the empire “converting” its people to Christianity and taking their gold. From this Cortes became on of the richest men in the world. This event inspired many others to do the same with many choosing the life of a conquistador to find their riches in the new world. The amount of conquistadors started to make Spain worry if they were to try and rule New Spain and that they were killing more Indians instead of converting

However this source also addresses the opposite side due to the fact that he was a prisoner for a time. This source has helped me with my investigation by providing information that is partial to the Mexicans and specifically mentions how the peasants viewed Pancho Villa.

Francisco “Pancho” Villa (born Doroteo Arango on June 5th, 1878) was known as a bandit prior to his life as a Mexican General. Villa was born to sharecropper parents on a hacienda in San Juan Del Rio, Durango, Mexico. After the death of his father, Villa only in his teens became the head of his family. Villa soon found himself on the run from the law and the Haciendas owner after he shot the man in the foot after an altercation over Villa’s sister; this is what led to him initially becoming an outlaw. While on the run as a fugitive Villa adapted other well known bandito ways of making money including robbing haciendas, and sticking up wealthy mine owners, this is also when he officially dropped Arango and only used Francisco “Pancho” Villa (Katz, 1998). Some bits of folklore can be found when describing Villa’s actions during this time period. There are tales of him acting like a Robin

James Bowie was one of The Alamo’s greatest folk hero and an American pioneer. He is mostly known for his unbelievable knife fighting skills and his leadership in The Alamo.

In most history books, Pancho Villa is depicted as a often cruel but always fearless and cunning leader who courageously fought the dictatorial behavior of Porfirian Diaz in the Mexican Revolution. And some of this is certainly true. The great majority of reports and undocumented stories of Pancho Villa's epic struggles against injustice are all about males, but authors Anna Macias and Elena Poniatowska record the fact that women were a big part of the Mexican Revolution and that Villa was a viciously bloodthirsty scoundrel when it came to women and young girls. In order to set the record straight, Macias and Poniatowska present the writings of three women who ably report involvement of women in these moments in history; for example: a) there were women fighting on the side of Villa and his revolutionary band of warriors; and b) "hundreds of thousands" of women "of every class, were among the victims and casualties" of the conflict.

Since Francisco “Pancho” Villa had strong relations to Pablo Valenzuela, who had allegedly stolen goods by Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Ignacio Parra, Francisco “Pancho” Villa was spared from the death sentence which was enforced on some captured bandits. Francisco “Pancho” Villa was forced into the Federal Army which was a common practice adopted under President Porfirio Diaz regime to deal with troublemakers. Several Months after Francisco “Pancho” Villa was arrested, Francisco “Pancho” Villa deserted the Federal Army and fled to the state of Chihuahua. In 1903 Francisco “Pancho” Villa killed an army officer and stole his horse, this is when Francisco “Pancho” Villa got his nickname Pancho Villa. For the next seven years Francisco “Pancho” Villa didn’t do many outstanding or horrible acts, other than stealing and some cases of

Villa’s exploits on and off the battlefield have broadened into legends that remain an integral part of Mexican history and folklore, especially as a champion of the poor and landless. (Johnson)

When thinking of New York City, more often than not, the first things one visualizes is the beautiful skyline, the bright lights, and Times Square. But without a second glance, one might miss one of the important things about the city. New York is the most heavily Dominican populated city in the United States. It’s ironic that the first non-native American to migrate to and reside on what is today New York City, was from Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Throughout history, Dominicans have migrated to the US in search of economic opportunity. This is the factor that influences nearly every immigrant group that migrates to the US in history. In the early 1900s, The United States and the Dominican Republic had a very close diplomatic relationship, to the point where the President considered annexation. At one point, the United States completely controlled the Sugar industry, one of the country’s most profitable markets.

During the first weeks of 1911, Zapata continued to build his organization in Morelos, training and equipping his men and consolidating his authority as their leader. Soon, Zapata's band of revolutionaries, poised to change their tactics and take the offensive, were known as Zapatistas. On February 14, Francisco Madero, who had escaped the authorities to New Orleans, returned to Mexico, knowing that it was time to restart his revolution with an all-out offensive. Less than a month later, on March 11, 1911, "a hot, sticky Saturday night," the bloody phase of the Mexican Revolution began at Villa de Ayala. There was no resistance from the villagers, who were mostly sympathetic to the revolution, being sharecroppers or hacienda workers themselves, and the local police were disarmed quickly. Not all battles that followed were this quick, however. The revolution took its bloody course with the legendary Pancho Villa fighting in the northern part of Mexico, while Zapata remained mainly south of Mexico City. On May 19, after a week of extremely fierce fighting with government troops, the Zapatistas took the town of Cuautla. Only forty-eight hours later, Francisco Madero and the Mexican government signed the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez, which ended the presidency of Porfirio Díaz and named Francisco León de la Barra, former

The character of Demetrio Macias proves to be quite ironic. One facet of his character reveals his determination to find Pancho Villa’s army,