Pancho Villa Essay, Research Paper

Doroteo Aranga learned to hate aristocratic Dons, who worked he and many other

Mexicans like slaves, Doroteo Aranga also known as Pancho villa hated

aristocratic because he made them work like animals all day long with little to

eat. Even more so, he hated ignorance within the Mexican people that allowed

such injustices. At the young age of fifteen, Aranga came home to find his

mother trying to prevent the rape of his sister. Aranga shot the man and fled to

the Sierra Madre for the next fifteen years, marking him as a fugitive for the

first time. It was then that he changed his name from Doroteo Aranga to

Francisco "Pancho" Villa, a man he greatly admired. Upon the outbreak

of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1911 against the Mexican dictator Porfirio

Diaz, Villa offered his services to the rebel leader Francisco I. Madero. During

Madero?s administration, he served under the Mexican general Victoriano

Huerta, who sentenced him to death for insubordination. With his victories

attracting attention in the United States, Villa escaped to the United States.

President Woodrow Wilson?s military advisor, General Scott, argued that the

U.S. should support Pancho Villa, because he would become "the George

Washington of Mexico." In August of 1914, General Pershing met Villa for

the first time in El Paso, Texas and was impressed with his cooperative

composure; Pancho Villa then came to the conclusion that the U.S. would

acknowledge him as Mexico?s leader. Following the assassination of Madero and

the assumption of power by Huerta in 1913, he returned to join the opposition

under the revolutionary Venustiano Carranza. Using "hit and run"

tactics, he gained control of northern Mexico, including Mexico City. As a

result, his powerful fighting force became "La Division Del Norte."

The two men soon became enemies, however, and when Carranza seized power in

1914, Villa led the rebellion against him. By April of 1915, Villa had set out

to destroy Carranzista forces in the Battle of Celaya. The battle was said to be

fought with sheer hatred in mind rather than military strategy, resulting in

amass loss of the Division del Norte. In October of 1915, after much worry about

foreign investments, in the midst of struggles for power, the U.S. recognized

Carranza as President of Mexico. When Pancho Villa learned of this he felt

betrayed by President Wilson and assumed Carranza had signed a dangerous pact

with the U.S., putting Mexico in United States? hands. As a result, this set

the stage for a confrontation between the U.S. and Pancho Villa. Hence, the

United States put an embargo on Villa, not allowing him to purchase guns,

ammunition, equipment, etc., in American border towns. His transactions were,

thus, made illegal, which automatically doubles his price. Considering his

shortages, troops through harsh terrain to Aagua Prieta. Villa assumed it would

be poorly protected and by capturing it, he would create a buffer zone with the

U.S. to transport arms in his campaigning efforts. Too his surprise, Agua Prieta

was heavily protected, because Wilson had allowed Carranza to transport 5000

Mexican troops to American soil, which had arrived before Villa. The trains of

soldiers forced Villa?s tired horseback troops into retreat. The U.S. was

delighted when Carranza declared Villa done for good. Consequently, Carranza

invited old U.S. investors (from before the Revolution) to invest again. On

March 9th 1916, Villa crossed the border with about 600 men and attacked

Columbus, NM killing 17 American citizens and destroying part of the town.

Because of the growing discrimination towards Latinos, the bodies of Mexicans

were gathered and burned as a sanitary precaution against "Mexican

diseases." A punitive expedition, costing the U.S. about twenty-five

million dollars, dispatched and about 150,000 troops to be mobilized in efforts

to capture Pancho Villa, who was now known as a bandit in U.S. territory and a

hero to many in Mexico. The Tenth Cavalry, which was made up of

African-Americans and headed by Anglo-American officers, were labeled the

"Buffalo Soldiers" because they were tough men who would punish the

Mexicans. This was first time the United States used heavily armored vehicles

and airplanes, which in turn served as a practice run before W.W.II. General

John Joseph "Blackjack" Pershing had already earned a respectable name

in the U.S. with his service in the Apache campaign, Therefore, he was assigned

to head the Punitive Expedition, an attractive assignment. His mission

objective, as he understood it, was to bring Villa in dead or alive. On March

16th, the New York Times reported, "When Word Was Given, All Were After

Villa." The expedition included new machinery, which the American people

were not familiar with yet. Tanks weighing up to four tons, along with the

production of trucks and planes, were the reason for the deaths of many American

soldiers who did not know how to operate them. None-the-less, Pershing ordered

many pilots to board and land as he wished. Villa?s troops did not have

uniforms, so wherever American troops traveled, they paralleled the route.

Hence, their survival was based on their familiarity with the land. Towards the

end of March, Pershing established his headquarters 125 miles south of

Chihuahua. Pershing realized how strong Pancho Villa?s countrymen supported

him and his raids, when he was met with dramatic hostility and resentment. In

actuality it is ostensibly logical to believe that the hostility was due to fear

of foreign powers on their territory. Most of the blood spills were amongst

townspeople and Carranzista troops, because Pershing?s troops never caught

sight of Villa. On the second day of April of 1916, Pershing received word of

what was supposed to be Villa?s hiding place. Major Hank Tomkins, commander of

the thirteenth cavalry was ordered to Parral, which is about 410 miles south of

the U.S. border. This was the deepest penetration of U.S. troops into Mexico to

look for Villa. The townspeople responded by saying that the Americans were

invading them and Mexican families. When two tired American soldiers decided to

bathe in a public fountain of the humble and conservative, town, the children

began to throw stones at them. As the chaos grew into an uproar, the Mexican

people began to retaliate and shots fired. Carranzista troops trying to stay

away to avail battle, were not too far off and joined the retaliation. The

American troops retreated sixteen miles way in a small village. With the death

of a few Americans, Pershing was outraged and decided to counterstroke. In

support, the American people demanded a full-scale invasion of Mexico. Within

two months, more than 150,000 troops were on active duty from Texas to

California; this was the largest military duty since World War I. After many

weeks, Mexico began to pressure Carranza more decisively against the Punitive

Expedition. Carranza, claiming Pancho Villa was no longer a dangerous threat,

formally demanded the retreat of American troops. Wilson refused, which lead to

a full-scale war between Mexico and the United States. On the morning of June

18th, 1916, the commander of the tenth cavalry arrived in a small town named

Carrizal, saying they would have to pass through the town to reach their ordered

destination. Carranza refused, proclaiming his uncertainty of the peoples

reactions to such an event. The commander of the American troops refused to go

around and began to march on through, firing at those who refuted. To the

surprise of many Americans, the captain was killed along with about eighty men

of the tenth cavalry, claiming fourteen Americans killed and twenty-four taken

prisoners. As a result, Wilson prepared a letter to Congress demanding a

full-scale war and an ultimatum was sent to Carranza, demanding the release of

all American prisoners, which Mexico had already threatened to kill. Within

days, all prisoners were released and all international bridges were seized.

Although Carranza was finished, Pancho Villa was not ready to throw in the

towel. Thus, he prepared for a series of attacks to come. General Pershing

reported to Wilson of Villa?s repeated violence, but Villa continued,

capturing many towns held by Carranzista forces. On January 1917, Pancho Villa

gathered his forces to capture Toreon. In the end, hundreds of his men were dead

and his defeat was seized upon by Wilson as a convenient way out of the problems

in Mexico. The U.S. would then prepare to withdraw, declaring the Punitive

Expedition a success, although they failed to ever capture Villa. After the

overthrow of Carranza in 1920, Villa formed a truce with the new government by

laying down his arms in exchange for land and amnesty. He then retired to a

ranch near Parral, Chihuahua, where he was assassinated by political enemies in

1923.