Francisco Villa, the Mexican who invaded the US

VÍCTOR HUGO MORALES MELÉNDEZ

IT WAS the year 1916 when an intrepid Mexican revolutionary decided to invade US territory. He took a border town by surprise and caused casualties to the United States of America’s army. This has so far been the only military operation to invade the continental soil of the largest military power in the world. It would not be the only offence.

Who was that daring Mexican and what led him to such a memorable and, possibly, unrepeatable feat? I write these lines in commemoration of the centenary of the death of Francisco Villa, a revolutionary with a personal conflicting history, whose life and military actions deserve to be known.

Francisco Villa is a fictitious name or, if preferred, a reinterpretation of the character of someone born in 1878 with the name of Doroteo Arango, but who in his youth decided to give himself a new and powerful identity. With no formal education, the young Doroteo fled the ranch where he worked at the age of 13 and became a well-known outlaw.

Even during his youthful years, between robberies and pilfering and already known by his soon-to-be-famous name, it was evident that one motive for Villa’s misdeeds was to give to the poor. He was somewhat of a vigilante thief, a Mexican Robin Hood, as the famous journalist John Reed later dubbed him.

By 1910, when the Mexican Revolution started, Villa was 32 years old and had settled in the state of Chihuahua, on the US border. His life changed that year when he came into contact with the first revolutionaries. He experienced a kind of conversion when he understood that Mexican poverty was due to Mexican dictatorship. By listening to the revolutionaries, Villa realised that the revolution could give his acts of banditry a kind of redemption. Helping the poor would be a form of social justice.

Villa joined Francisco I Madero, the initiator of the revolution which managed to rid the country of the dictator. They expected that peace would be restored, democracy would be strengthened and there would be a better distribution of wealth. Soon, however, it would be revealed that it was just the beginning of a true civil war.

Madero became president but was assassinated in February 1913. Villa returned to the fight, rejoining the Constitutionalist Army against the assassin of President Madero and created the famous Division of the North, where he would become the centaur of the North.

Villa proved to be an extraordinary military strategist, contributing to several victories and, despite barely knowing how to read and write, was named governor of the state of Chihuahua, where he established a large number of schools.

He was a border revolutionary, he understood the value of maintaining good relations with the US and offering Mexico’s northern neighbours a sense of security. Even during the US invasion of 1914, Villa displayed no hostility towards the US.

Furthermore, Villa's strong personality seduced the emerging US film industry. That same year, he signed an exclusive contract with the US Mutual Film Corporation to film the battles of the Division of the North; just months later Villa was already a superstar, with the Lyric Theater in New York premiering the action-drama, The Life of General Villa.

With the assassination of President Madero, Villa's differences with the Constitutionalist Army’s leader, Venustiano Carranza, deepened. He accused Carranza of not fulfilling the promise of battle, which for Villa, who didn't consider himself an ideological revolutionary, was simply justice for the underprivileged.

Along with the other popular revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, they disowned President Carranza for his betrayal and refocused the fight against him. They entered and easily occupied the country’s capital but neither aspired to assume control. "This ranch is too big for us," Villa would say, and they retreated.

Until then, US President Woodrow Wilson’s government sympathised with Villa because of the assurances he had provided on the southern border. Wilson considered Villa the greatest Mexican of his generation and felt the border was safe with him. However, after abandoning the capital, Villa's military prowess slowly declined and he lost battles to President Carranza's generals.

Carranza was able to strengthen his presidency and in October 1915 the US government granted him recognition. For Villa this was a US betrayal, an affront to all the years of cultivating friendship with the Americans and guaranteeing them a secure border. His attitude to the US government changed and he began to regard the US as Mexico’s natural enemy.

As a result, he faced two mighty enemies – the federal Mexican state and the US government – and entered a period of uncertainty. But he decided not to give up the revolutionary struggle and to transform the previously powerful Division of the North into a guerilla force. A sense of injustice and revenge empowered Villa.

At the beginning of 1916, the rumour began to spread that Villa, wounded by his initial attachment to the US and pressured by the armed forces of the Mexican government, would launch a raid against his neighbours to the North. On February 22, at his General Staff Council, Villa announced his decision to invade Columbus, a US border town, as a way of showing his anger and disappointment against Mexico’s enemies.

He approached the border using zigzag movements to evade detection by US intelligence. Columbus had a reserve of 512 soldiers and 21 officers from the 13th cavalry battalion. After midnight on March 9, riding a horse called Canciller, Villa and his troops, estimated at just under 600 men, entered US territory.

The assault began at 4.25 am, preceded by shouts of Viva México! Viva Villa!, taking the US forces stationed in Columbus by surprise. Amidst the confusion of the attack, as many Americans as Villistas were lost and Villa withdrew his remaining troops, content with having conducted the raid. Revenge had been consummated.

No matter the size of the feat, nor the importance of the act, it was the first and only military invasion into US continental territory, and it was the Mexican Francisco Villa who undertook it without considering the consequences or the risk to Mexico. It rankled both sides. He immediately became the target of a manhunt by both Presidents Carranza and Wilson.

Two days later, the White House ordered a punitive expedition under the command of General John Pershing (soon thereafter a victorious general in World War I) to capture Villa. On March 15, Pershing crossed the border to detain the revolutionary with a force of 6,675 troops, among whom was the young Lt George Patton, later to be a triumphant military figure in World War II.

On familiar terrain, Villa slipped away, hiding in the mountains. The expensive expedition organised to seize a single man failed miserably and American troops were forced to leave Mexican territory a year later, on February 14, without having achieved their sole objective of capturing Villa.

What became the dominant military power of the 20th century, the USA, had suffered a double humiliation at the hands of an illiterate Mexican revolutionary. Not only had Villa invaded US territory and slain US troops, he had managed to escape from thousands of highly trained, well equipped US soldiers.

Villa, persevering in his armed struggle, would eventually cause the revolution to bring about a change in the new constitution and begin land redistribution programmes. His ideas prevailed, but the government still considered him a threat. After some military setbacks, Villa reached an agreement with the Mexican government and retired into private life to manage a farm. That was when a group of men who had not forgiven him for his past criminal overindulgences decided to kill him. It was July 20, 1923 when Villa was cunningly assassinated in an ambush.

Thus concludes the story of an outlaw-turned-revolutionary who achieved historical fame for having the courage and daring to invade the United States of America.

Víctor Hugo Morales Meléndez is the Ambassador of Mexico