WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.659 You know, usually when we sit down to talk about 00:00:01.659 --> 00:00:05.059 revolutionaries, the mental image is pretty consistent. 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.199 Right. We picture guys hiding in, I don't know, 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:12.500 damp caves, writing these furious manifestos 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:14.900 by candlelight. Starving in the mountains, dreaming 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.120 of a better world, that kind of thing. Exactly. 00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:19.399 We don't typically picture them signing contracts 00:00:19.399 --> 00:00:22.079 with Hollywood studios. No, that is definitely 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:24.620 not the standard revolutionary archetype. Usually 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:28.460 the revolution comes before the movie deal. But 00:00:28.460 --> 00:00:33.039 today's subject, he literally signed a deal with 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:37.140 the Mutual Film Corporation in 1914. That's right. 00:00:37.259 --> 00:00:40.240 They paid him $25 ,000, which was just a staggering 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.460 fortune back then, to film his battles. And the 00:00:43.460 --> 00:00:45.299 contract, this is the part that honestly just 00:00:45.299 --> 00:00:47.020 breaks my brain every time I think about it. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:48.920 The lighting clause? The lighting clause. It 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:50.939 actually stipulated that he had to fight his 00:00:50.939 --> 00:00:52.500 battles during the day so the lighting would 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:54.579 be good for the cameras. It is one of the most 00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:56.560 surreal moments in modern history. It really 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:00.659 is. You have this. real, gritty, incredibly bloody 00:01:00.659 --> 00:01:02.880 revolution happening. People are dying in the 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:05.620 thousands. And right in the middle of it, you 00:01:05.620 --> 00:01:07.739 have a director essentially telling a general, 00:01:08.019 --> 00:01:11.459 hey, Poncho, can you retake that cavalry charge? 00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:13.579 The sun wasn't quite hitting your good side. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:15.719 It sounds like fiction, but it's just the tip 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:19.060 of the iceberg. Welcome back to The Deep Dive. 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:24.400 Today we are looking at the man, the myth, the 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:28.639 movie star, and, you know, the murderer. Francisco 00:01:28.639 --> 00:01:31.359 Pancho Villa. A man who was effectively two completely 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:33.620 different people, depending on which side of 00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:35.599 the Rio Grande or even which side of the Mexican 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:37.400 political spectrum you were standing on. Exactly. 00:01:37.459 --> 00:01:40.280 To some, especially in northern Mexico, he is 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:42.879 the centaur of the north, this absolute Robin 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:45.420 Hood figure who stood up to the superpowers of 00:01:45.420 --> 00:01:48.159 the world. But to others? To others, he's a sociopath, 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:51.459 a bandit, a villain who dragged Mexico into chaos. 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:53.500 And our mission today is to try and figure out 00:01:53.500 --> 00:01:55.920 how both of those things can be true at the same 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:58.939 time. Yeah. We've combed through the biographies, 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.379 the military archives of his famous Division 00:02:01.379 --> 00:02:03.879 del Norte, and even the accounts of the American 00:02:03.879 --> 00:02:06.019 soldiers who spent a year chasing him through 00:02:06.019 --> 00:02:09.000 the desert. We want to figure out how an illiterate 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.120 sharecropper managed to build a modern army, 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:13.159 run a state government, invade the United States, 00:02:13.300 --> 00:02:16.680 and become, for a time, the biggest global celebrity 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:20.240 of 1914. And to do that... We have to strip away 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:22.259 the caricature. You have to. You know the image, 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:25.159 the big sombrero, the heavy mustache, the bandoliers 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:27.419 crossed over the chest. Right. We need to look 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:30.159 at the mind of Dorteo Arango, that was his real 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.319 name, and understand the rage that really fueled 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:35.780 him. So let's go back to the beginning. Durango, 00:02:35.939 --> 00:02:40.319 1878. He is born Jose Dorteo Arango Arambula. 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:43.439 And the sources all emphasize this sharecropper 00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:45.740 background. But I think for a modern audience, 00:02:45.860 --> 00:02:48.759 we hear sharecropper and we just think. Poor 00:02:48.759 --> 00:02:51.699 farmer. We might miss the severity of what that 00:02:51.699 --> 00:02:54.400 actually meant in Porfirio Diaz's Mexico. Yeah, 00:02:54.419 --> 00:02:55.740 we absolutely need to correct that immediately. 00:02:56.300 --> 00:02:59.500 In late 19th century Mexico, sharecropper was 00:02:59.500 --> 00:03:02.180 essentially a euphemism for feudal serf. So you're 00:03:02.180 --> 00:03:04.080 not just poor. You're not just poor. You were, 00:03:04.219 --> 00:03:06.699 for all intents and purposes, property. Walk 00:03:06.699 --> 00:03:08.479 us through the mechanics of that life. What did 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.180 a day look like? Well, you lived on a hacienda, 00:03:11.259 --> 00:03:13.680 which is this massive estate owned by a single 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:16.539 family, the hacendado. You didn't own the land 00:03:16.539 --> 00:03:19.199 you worked. You didn't own your tools. You bought 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:21.639 your food and clothes from the tienda de raya, 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:24.500 the company store, at wildly inflated prices. 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:27.319 Ah, the company store. And you were paid in scrip, 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.060 not real money. So you were always in debt to 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:33.840 the owner. And here's the kicker. In Mexico at 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:37.360 that time, debt was hereditary. Wait, what? Yeah. 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:40.050 So if your father died, Owing the Hassan the 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:43.129 doll money, you, as the son, inherited that debt. 00:03:43.310 --> 00:03:45.409 Correct. You were legally bound to that land 00:03:45.409 --> 00:03:47.349 until the debt was paid, which, of course, it 00:03:47.349 --> 00:03:49.069 never was. The numbers were designed so it was 00:03:49.069 --> 00:03:51.090 impossible. It was a trap. That is terrifying. 00:03:51.310 --> 00:03:54.110 It's slavery with extra steps. Precisely. And 00:03:54.110 --> 00:03:55.990 in that environment, the Hassan Dado, the owner, 00:03:56.150 --> 00:03:59.050 had absolute power. He was the judge, the jury, 00:03:59.169 --> 00:04:01.650 and the police. And he often felt he had, what, 00:04:01.810 --> 00:04:04.400 the droidus senior. The right of the Lord. Exactly. 00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:06.819 The right to do whatever he wanted with the people 00:04:06.819 --> 00:04:09.099 and especially the women on his land. And that 00:04:09.099 --> 00:04:12.360 brings us to the inciting incident. This is the 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:15.860 moment Doroteo Arango dies and the outlaw begins. 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:18.980 This is the pivot point for his entire life. 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:23.660 The date is September 22, 1894. Doroteo is just 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:26.720 16 years old. 16. He comes home to his family's 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:29.939 little hut and finds the hacienda owner, a man 00:04:29.939 --> 00:04:32.920 named Agustin Lopez Negrete, harassing his younger 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:36.180 sister. Harassing how? I mean, do the sources 00:04:36.180 --> 00:04:38.720 get specific? They vary on the details. Some 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:41.040 imply an assault was in progress. Others say 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:44.000 Doroteo got there just in time to stop it. But 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.540 what's consistent across all accounts is Doroteo's 00:04:46.540 --> 00:04:49.009 reaction. It was immediate. He didn't try to 00:04:49.009 --> 00:04:51.230 talk him down or plead with him? No. There was 00:04:51.230 --> 00:04:53.829 no hesitation. He grabbed a pistol and he shot 00:04:53.829 --> 00:04:56.810 the owner. He shot the Hacendado? He did. Historically, 00:04:56.829 --> 00:04:58.629 it seems he only shot him in the foot, but the 00:04:58.629 --> 00:05:00.930 physical damage wasn't the point. No. The symbolism 00:05:00.930 --> 00:05:03.569 was nuclear. Absolutely. A peon shedding the 00:05:03.569 --> 00:05:05.870 blood of a Hacendado. That was an automatic death 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:07.930 sentence. There was no trial. There was no calling 00:05:07.930 --> 00:05:10.790 the police. Negrita was the police. So at 16 00:05:10.790 --> 00:05:13.120 years old, he has one option. He has to run. 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:16.060 He flees into the Sierra Madre Occidental. And 00:05:16.060 --> 00:05:19.019 these are rugged, unforgiving mountains. And 00:05:19.019 --> 00:05:21.920 that is where his real education begins. He joins 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:24.579 a bandit gang and spends the next several years 00:05:24.579 --> 00:05:27.399 living as a fugitive. And this is where he gets 00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:29.339 that famous nickname, but one I don't think people 00:05:29.339 --> 00:05:33.279 really think about. La Cucaracha. The cockroach. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:35.519 Which, to our modern ears, sounds like an insult. 00:05:35.660 --> 00:05:37.459 Why would your friends call you a cockroach? 00:05:37.709 --> 00:05:40.250 Because in the context of the Sierra Madre bandit 00:05:40.250 --> 00:05:42.910 world, being a cockroach was the highest compliment. 00:05:43.149 --> 00:05:45.829 How so? It meant you were unkillable. You could 00:05:45.829 --> 00:05:49.069 scurry into the cracks and canyons where the 00:05:49.069 --> 00:05:51.569 federal police couldn't find you. You could survive 00:05:51.569 --> 00:05:53.410 on almost nothing. It implies this incredible 00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:55.689 resilience. And during this time, he's not just 00:05:55.689 --> 00:05:58.649 sitting around a campfire. He's learning a specific 00:05:58.649 --> 00:06:01.370 set of skills that are going to be absolutely 00:06:01.370 --> 00:06:04.430 crucial later on. Crucial. He is learning the 00:06:04.430 --> 00:06:07.720 terrain. of Chihuahua and Durango like the back 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:10.300 of his hand. Every cave, every water source, 00:06:10.420 --> 00:06:12.540 every hidden trail. The ultimate home field advantage. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:15.500 Right. He's learning how to stage an ambush, 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:18.620 how to ride for days without sleep, and maybe 00:06:18.620 --> 00:06:21.860 most importantly, how to inspire loyalty in very 00:06:21.860 --> 00:06:24.139 rough men. And he's also living this kind of 00:06:24.139 --> 00:06:26.379 double life, right? He's not a full -time bandit. 00:06:26.569 --> 00:06:28.550 Not always. He would alternate. He'd work as 00:06:28.550 --> 00:06:31.329 a butcher or a miner or a bricklayer when the 00:06:31.329 --> 00:06:33.769 heat died down, then go back on the run when 00:06:33.769 --> 00:06:36.449 the law got too close. He even got forcibly inducted 00:06:36.449 --> 00:06:38.189 into the federal army at one point, didn't he? 00:06:38.350 --> 00:06:41.170 Yes, which was a standard punishment for troublemakers 00:06:41.170 --> 00:06:43.970 back then. The army was basically a penal colony. 00:06:44.449 --> 00:06:46.759 How did that work out for them? About as well 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:49.040 as you'd expect. He deserted, of course, killed 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:51.240 an officer, stole his horse, and went right back 00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:54.180 to the mountains. Wow. And it's after this, around 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:56.779 1903, that he officially changes his name to 00:06:56.779 --> 00:06:59.660 Francisco Villa. Some say he took the name of 00:06:59.660 --> 00:07:02.540 his paternal grandfather. Others say a famous 00:07:02.540 --> 00:07:05.540 bandit from Coahuila. But the transformation 00:07:05.540 --> 00:07:08.360 is complete. He is a career outlaw. But, you 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:10.720 know, bandits don't usually overthrow governments. 00:07:10.899 --> 00:07:13.800 They usually just steal cows. So how do we get 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:16.519 from cattle rustler to revolutionary general? 00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:20.259 That's a huge leap. That leap happens in 1910. 00:07:20.660 --> 00:07:23.079 Villa has a fateful meeting with a man named 00:07:23.079 --> 00:07:26.290 Abraham Gonzalez. And who is he? Gonzalez was 00:07:26.290 --> 00:07:28.850 the local representative for Francisco Madero, 00:07:28.930 --> 00:07:32.449 who was the wealthy, idealistic politician trying 00:07:32.449 --> 00:07:35.769 to oust the longtime dictator Porfirio Diaz. 00:07:35.790 --> 00:07:39.170 And Gonzalez looks at Vila and he sees something. 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:43.329 He realizes this guy isn't just a criminal. He's 00:07:43.329 --> 00:07:46.850 a resource. He has skills. He has followers. 00:07:47.209 --> 00:07:49.269 He has a legitimate grievance. So it's basically 00:07:49.269 --> 00:07:52.430 a rebranding exercise. It is. Gonzalez sits Villa 00:07:52.430 --> 00:07:54.769 down and he essentially gives him a new narrative. 00:07:54.930 --> 00:07:56.910 He tells him, look, you aren't a bandit because 00:07:56.910 --> 00:07:59.470 you're a bad person. You're a bandit because 00:07:59.470 --> 00:08:01.470 the system is broken. You're a victim of class 00:08:01.470 --> 00:08:04.069 warfare. Why steal for yourself when you can 00:08:04.069 --> 00:08:06.310 steal for the people? That is a very powerful 00:08:06.310 --> 00:08:08.389 sales pitch to a guy who's been on the run for 00:08:08.389 --> 00:08:11.110 15 years. It gave him legitimacy. It gave him 00:08:11.110 --> 00:08:13.810 a cause. For Villa, the revolution was famously 00:08:13.810 --> 00:08:16.100 described as a change of time. title, not of 00:08:16.100 --> 00:08:19.079 occupation. So he could keep raiding and fighting, 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:21.120 but now he was a colonel in the revolutionary 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:24.279 army, not a fugitive. Exactly. The game was the 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:26.480 same, but the stakes were suddenly much, much 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:29.180 higher. And this brings us to the rise of the 00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:31.560 Division del Norte, because Villa isn't just 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:34.179 leading a gang anymore. He builds this massive 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:37.259 modern military force. And here's the part I 00:08:37.259 --> 00:08:39.820 really struggle with. You have a guy who is, 00:08:39.899 --> 00:08:43.370 no offense, Great at stealing cows and hiding 00:08:43.370 --> 00:08:46.049 in mountains, suddenly, just three years later, 00:08:46.190 --> 00:08:49.070 he is commanding the División del Norte, which 00:08:49.070 --> 00:08:51.850 becomes the most powerful and feared army in 00:08:51.850 --> 00:08:54.110 the history of Latin America up to that point. 00:08:54.490 --> 00:08:57.370 How does a bandit learn to run in modern war? 00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:00.279 That is the genius of Villa. And it's something 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:02.460 historians often overlook because they get so 00:09:02.460 --> 00:09:05.639 focused on the wild man image. Villa was an intuitive 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:08.460 logistician. He was a natural organizer. So he 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:10.779 realized before anyone else in Mexico that the 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:12.919 revolution would be won or lost on the rails. 00:09:13.100 --> 00:09:15.320 He understood that the horse was for fighting, 00:09:15.379 --> 00:09:17.500 but the train was for winning. The railroads. 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:19.519 The railroads were everything. The Dibijon del 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:21.899 Norte wasn't just an army. It was a rolling city. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:24.879 Villa seized and controlled the main rail lines 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:27.429 running from the U .S. border down in... to central 00:09:27.429 --> 00:09:29.990 Mexico. And he wasn't just using them to move 00:09:29.990 --> 00:09:32.330 guys from point A to point B. No, no, no. He 00:09:32.330 --> 00:09:34.909 used them to industrialize his warfare. He'd 00:09:34.909 --> 00:09:37.409 capture a town, his men would strip the armory, 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:39.549 and the guns would be on a train heading south 00:09:39.549 --> 00:09:43.090 that afternoon. He moved troops, cattle, artillery, 00:09:43.309 --> 00:09:46.909 supplies, everything. I was reading about the 00:09:46.909 --> 00:09:49.120 hospital cars. This just blew my mind. Isn't 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:51.620 it incredible? This is 1913 in rural Mexico. 00:09:51.799 --> 00:09:55.080 He gets his hands on 40 boxcars and has them 00:09:55.080 --> 00:09:57.200 completely refitted as a state -of -the -art 00:09:57.200 --> 00:09:59.580 mobile hospital. State -of -the -art how? He 00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:02.720 hired a brilliant doctor, Andres Villarreal, 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:06.039 to run it. They had dedicated operating theaters, 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:09.659 sterilization equipment, x -ray machines, all 00:10:09.659 --> 00:10:12.500 on wheels. So Ulster gets shot in the leg on 00:10:12.500 --> 00:10:14.590 the front line. Right. They throw him on a train 00:10:14.590 --> 00:10:17.210 and he's getting surgery from a top doctor 10 00:10:17.210 --> 00:10:19.470 miles back while the train is moving north to 00:10:19.470 --> 00:10:21.450 safety. Exactly. And you have to think about 00:10:21.450 --> 00:10:22.990 the morale impact of that. It must have been 00:10:22.990 --> 00:10:25.789 massive. In the federal army, if you got seriously 00:10:25.789 --> 00:10:28.149 wounded, you were often just left to rot in the 00:10:28.149 --> 00:10:31.049 sun. In Villa's army, you knew me general had 00:10:31.049 --> 00:10:33.149 a white train waiting to take care of you. It 00:10:33.149 --> 00:10:36.009 created this fanatical, unbreakable loyalty. 00:10:36.409 --> 00:10:38.210 And he fueled this whole machine with American 00:10:38.210 --> 00:10:41.049 coal and American guns. Yep. But to pay for it. 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:43.879 Well, let's talk about his economic policies, 00:10:44.019 --> 00:10:46.240 because when he takes over the state of Chihuahua 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:49.500 and becomes governor in late 1913, he basically 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:52.399 creates his own central bank out of thin air. 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:55.419 The Villa Bills. This is another one of those 00:10:55.419 --> 00:10:58.580 moments where. His lack of formal education actually 00:10:58.580 --> 00:11:01.279 helped him because he didn't know what he supposedly 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:03.700 couldn't do. So what's the situation when he 00:11:03.700 --> 00:11:06.580 takes power? He takes power in Chihuahua and 00:11:06.580 --> 00:11:08.860 the state is completely bankrupt. The wealthy 00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:11.779 elites, the powerful Terrazas and Creole families 00:11:11.779 --> 00:11:14.080 have fled to the U .S. and taken all the silver 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:16.259 and gold with them. So there's no hard currency, 00:11:16.460 --> 00:11:18.879 nothing to pay the soldiers with. Nothing. The 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:21.340 economy has seized up. So Villa just says, OK, 00:11:21.460 --> 00:11:23.100 fine, I'm printing my own paper money. And he 00:11:23.100 --> 00:11:26.159 prints millions and millions of pesos. Which 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:28.779 historically is a great way to cause hyperinflation 00:11:28.779 --> 00:11:31.399 and destroy an economy in about a week. If people 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:34.059 don't trust the paper, it's just worthless. Usually, 00:11:34.059 --> 00:11:37.580 yes. It's a recipe for disaster. But Villa backed 00:11:37.580 --> 00:11:40.659 his currency with two things. First, he had just 00:11:40.659 --> 00:11:43.559 confiscated the massive estates of the oligarchs 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:47.080 who fled. Millions of acres of land, thousands 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:50.179 of cattle. He announced... This paper money is 00:11:50.179 --> 00:11:54.480 officially backed by these assets. So it was 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:57.100 technically asset backed currency. And the second 00:11:57.100 --> 00:11:59.580 thing. The second thing was a firing squad. Lafus, 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:02.440 the lead standard. Basically, he issued a decree. 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:06.460 Any merchant, any banker, any foreigner who refused 00:12:06.460 --> 00:12:09.259 to accept villa currency at par with gold would 00:12:09.259 --> 00:12:11.840 be immediately jailed or executed. And it worked. 00:12:11.980 --> 00:12:14.799 And guess what? It worked. Suddenly, everyone 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:17.720 trusted the Villa Peso. The economy of Chihuahua 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:20.240 boomed because money was moving again. He understood 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:22.899 the velocity of money intuitively better than 00:12:22.899 --> 00:12:25.120 the formerly trained bankers did. And he wasn't 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:27.299 just hoarding this new wealth. This is where 00:12:27.299 --> 00:12:29.850 that first welfare state concept comes in. Yes, 00:12:30.029 --> 00:12:32.629 that's a term from the historian Friedrich Katz. 00:12:33.210 --> 00:12:35.950 Villa used the proceeds from these confiscated 00:12:35.950 --> 00:12:39.330 estates to fund pensions for the widows and orphans 00:12:39.330 --> 00:12:41.529 of his soldiers. That's amazing. He slashed the 00:12:41.529 --> 00:12:44.350 price of meat so the poor could eat. He literally 00:12:44.350 --> 00:12:47.149 had his soldiers butchering the confiscated cattle 00:12:47.149 --> 00:12:49.230 and just handing out steaks in the plaza. It 00:12:49.230 --> 00:12:51.990 completely validates that Robin Hood image. He 00:12:51.990 --> 00:12:54.250 wasn't just a destroyer. He was a redistributor. 00:12:54.450 --> 00:12:57.269 He absolutely was. He had a vision. He was obsessed 00:12:57.269 --> 00:13:00.980 with building schools. For a man who only learned 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:03.679 to read properly while he was in prison, he had 00:13:03.679 --> 00:13:06.559 this deep, profound belief that education was 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:08.879 the only way to permanently break the cycle of 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:11.230 peonage. But of course, he couldn't stay a governor 00:13:11.230 --> 00:13:13.590 forever. The war against the usurper president, 00:13:13.730 --> 00:13:16.470 Victoriano Huerta, was still raging. It was. 00:13:16.590 --> 00:13:19.070 And that leads us to the Battle of Zacatecas 00:13:19.070 --> 00:13:23.570 in June of 1914. The big one. The bloodiest and 00:13:23.570 --> 00:13:26.029 most decisive battle of the entire revolution. 00:13:26.470 --> 00:13:29.509 But to understand Zacatecas, you have to understand 00:13:29.509 --> 00:13:31.669 the friction that was building within the revolutionary 00:13:31.669 --> 00:13:35.179 camp itself. Right. Villa was nominally fighting 00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:37.740 under the command of Venustiano Carranza, the 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:39.720 first chief of the revolution. But they were 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:42.960 oil and water. Complete opposites. Describe Carranza 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:46.179 for us. Carranza was a wealthy landowner, a civilian, 00:13:46.419 --> 00:13:49.100 a stiff, formal politician with a big beard. 00:13:49.419 --> 00:13:52.299 He looked down on Villa as an uncouth bandit, 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:55.120 a savage. And frankly, he was terrified of him. 00:13:55.450 --> 00:13:57.549 Terrified why? Because he was so popular. Because 00:13:57.549 --> 00:14:00.190 he was popular and he was winning. Carranza knew 00:14:00.190 --> 00:14:02.230 that if Villa's army took the strategic city 00:14:02.230 --> 00:14:05.070 of Zacatecas, the path to Mexico City would be 00:14:05.070 --> 00:14:08.049 wide open and Villanot Carranza would likely 00:14:08.049 --> 00:14:10.850 take the presidency. So Carranza tries to sabotage 00:14:10.850 --> 00:14:13.789 his own top general. He does. It's a classic 00:14:13.789 --> 00:14:16.669 power play. He orders Villa to divert his troops 00:14:16.669 --> 00:14:18.970 to attack a strategically meaningless target, 00:14:19.210 --> 00:14:22.519 Saltillo. Then he cuts off Villa's coal supply 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:24.980 to immobilize those famous trains. What does 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:28.299 Villa do? He's furious. He actually sends a telegram 00:14:28.299 --> 00:14:30.559 resigning his command in protest. He quits the 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:34.039 revolution. He tries to, for about a day. But 00:14:34.039 --> 00:14:36.279 his generals, the other senior leaders of the 00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:38.960 division in El Norte, refuse to accept it. They 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:41.220 send a telegram back saying essentially, we don't 00:14:41.220 --> 00:14:44.220 work for Carranza, we work for you. They rallied 00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:48.080 around him. So Vila unresigns, tells Carranza 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:50.399 where he can stick his orders, fires up the trains 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:52.519 with firewood or whatever they could find, and 00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:55.700 marches on Zacatecas. And the battle itself, 00:14:55.940 --> 00:14:58.559 from what I've read, it sounds just... Horrifying. 00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:01.080 It was brutal. Zacatecas is a city built in a 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:03.480 bowl, surrounded by these very steep mountains. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:06.679 The federal army had 12 ,000 men with machine 00:15:06.679 --> 00:15:09.539 guns and artillery dug in on all the peaks. It 00:15:09.539 --> 00:15:11.960 was a fortress. So Ville had to send his men 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:14.299 charging up those slopes. Uphill into machine 00:15:14.299 --> 00:15:16.740 gun fire. But they did it. Wave after wave. They 00:15:16.740 --> 00:15:19.360 overran the positions in a single day of ferocious 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:22.100 fighting. The numbers are staggering. We're talking 00:15:22.100 --> 00:15:25.379 7 ,000 dead on the federal side, 5 ,000 wounded. 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:27.480 They completely broke the back of the word. regime. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.100 It did. Huerta fled the country a few weeks later. 00:15:30.259 --> 00:15:32.500 But instead of a huge victory party, this victory 00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:34.940 cemented the split between Villa and Carranza. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:38.320 The common enemy was gone. So the allies immediately 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:41.240 turned on each other. Immediately. And this is 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:44.320 where the revolution turns into a civil war between 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:46.879 the winners. And you have these two clear factions, 00:15:47.059 --> 00:15:50.220 right? You do. You have Carranza and his brilliant, 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:53.460 pragmatic general, Alvaro Obregón, representing 00:15:53.460 --> 00:15:55.539 the interests of the middle class and the landowners. 00:15:55.700 --> 00:15:57.879 And on the other side you have Villa in the north 00:15:57.879 --> 00:16:01.340 and the great Emiliano Zapata in the south representing 00:16:01.340 --> 00:16:04.159 the peasants and the cry for land reform. And 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:07.500 for a brief shining moment Villas and Zapata 00:16:07.500 --> 00:16:10.149 actually meet. They take Mexico City. They do. 00:16:10.289 --> 00:16:13.149 And there's that famous, famous photograph of 00:16:13.149 --> 00:16:15.129 them at the National Palace. Paint that picture 00:16:15.129 --> 00:16:17.269 for us. It's so iconic. It really is. You have 00:16:17.269 --> 00:16:19.730 Villa, this big, barrel -chested man, and he's 00:16:19.730 --> 00:16:22.370 sitting in the ornate, gilded presidential chair. 00:16:22.629 --> 00:16:24.909 Slumped down in it, really. He's leaning back, 00:16:25.049 --> 00:16:27.870 legs crossed, looking huge and jovial, like he 00:16:27.870 --> 00:16:30.450 completely owns the place. And Zapata. And next 00:16:30.450 --> 00:16:33.990 to him is Zapata. He's smaller, darker, holding 00:16:33.990 --> 00:16:36.850 this giant sombrero in his lap. And he looks 00:16:36.850 --> 00:16:39.289 so uncomfortable, so out of place. He's staring 00:16:39.289 --> 00:16:42.029 at the camera with these suspicious eyes like 00:16:42.029 --> 00:16:44.090 he doesn't trust it. Like he wants to be back 00:16:44.090 --> 00:16:46.450 in his home state of Morelos. It captures their 00:16:46.450 --> 00:16:48.970 personalities perfectly. Villa, the expansive 00:16:48.970 --> 00:16:52.909 showman. Zapata, the suspicious, guarded localist. 00:16:52.950 --> 00:16:56.080 Absolutely. But here's the thing. While they 00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:57.840 controlled the presidential chair, they didn't 00:16:57.840 --> 00:16:59.299 really control the government. They didn't have 00:16:59.299 --> 00:17:01.460 the bureaucrats, the administrators. Right. They 00:17:01.460 --> 00:17:03.840 were warriors, not politicians. And meanwhile, 00:17:04.140 --> 00:17:06.619 Carranza and Obregón had retreated to the port 00:17:06.619 --> 00:17:09.019 of Veracruz. They controlled the ports, they 00:17:09.019 --> 00:17:12.000 collected all the customs revenue, and they methodically 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:14.420 rebuilt their army with new European weapons. 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:18.789 And then came 1915, the turning point. The Battle 00:17:18.789 --> 00:17:21.430 of Salaya. If you are a fan of military history, 00:17:21.609 --> 00:17:24.569 this is just a fascinating, tragic moment. This 00:17:24.569 --> 00:17:27.009 is where the 19th century crashes headfirst into 00:17:27.009 --> 00:17:29.609 the 20th century, and the 19th century loses 00:17:29.609 --> 00:17:32.269 badly. That is a fascinating way to frame it. 00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:34.660 Because Ville is still fighting the Romantic 00:17:34.660 --> 00:17:37.819 War, isn't he? He is. He believes in the power 00:17:37.819 --> 00:17:42.400 of the heroic calorie charge, speed, shock, momentum. 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:45.039 He thinks if he just hits the enemy hard enough 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:47.180 and fast enough, they'll break and run like they 00:17:47.180 --> 00:17:50.099 always have. But his opponent, Alvaro Obregón, 00:17:50.220 --> 00:17:52.119 has been doing his homework. He's been doing 00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:54.559 his reading. He's been getting reports from Europe 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:57.019 where World War I has just started. And he's 00:17:57.019 --> 00:17:58.980 paying attention. So Obregón is looking at the 00:17:58.980 --> 00:18:01.980 Western Front. Yeah, trench warfare. He is. He 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:04.299 sees barbed wire. He sees interlocking fields 00:18:04.299 --> 00:18:07.059 of machine gun fire. He sees trenches and artillery. 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:10.039 And he realizes that for the first time in modern 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:13.319 history, defense is now much, much stronger than 00:18:13.319 --> 00:18:16.259 offense. So Obregón finds a flat, open field 00:18:16.259 --> 00:18:19.279 at Celaya, tells his men to dig in, and just... 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:22.650 He lays a trap. And Valai, he just couldn't adapt. 00:18:22.849 --> 00:18:25.650 His ego or perhaps his lack of formal training 00:18:25.650 --> 00:18:28.009 just wouldn't let him see the new reality. He 00:18:28.009 --> 00:18:30.650 ordered his Dorados, his elite cavalry, the Golden 00:18:30.650 --> 00:18:33.490 Ones, to charge those machine gun nests. I know. 00:18:33.609 --> 00:18:36.289 Not once, but dozens of times over several days. 00:18:36.549 --> 00:18:38.650 It must have been an absolute meat grinder. It 00:18:38.650 --> 00:18:41.269 was suicide. It was brave. It was glorious. And 00:18:41.269 --> 00:18:43.970 it was pointless. Horses against Maxim guns. 00:18:44.430 --> 00:18:47.890 Villa lost thousands of his best men. The Division 00:18:47.890 --> 00:18:50.509 del Norte effectively ceased to exist as a conventional 00:18:50.509 --> 00:18:54.190 army, and that defeat, it broke something in 00:18:54.190 --> 00:18:56.430 Villa's psyche. This is where the narrative really 00:18:56.430 --> 00:18:59.069 shifts, isn't it? He stops being the centaur 00:18:59.069 --> 00:19:01.410 of the north, this great general, and he goes 00:19:01.410 --> 00:19:03.490 back to being the wolf in the mountains. Exactly. 00:19:03.589 --> 00:19:06.349 He's angry, he's humiliated, he feels betrayed, 00:19:06.650 --> 00:19:09.109 and he starts looking for someone to blame. And 00:19:09.109 --> 00:19:11.849 the person he decides to blame is the United 00:19:11.849 --> 00:19:14.369 States. He does. Which seems like a big jump. 00:19:14.650 --> 00:19:16.710 Why the U .S.? Well, there were a few reasons. 00:19:16.930 --> 00:19:19.430 First, the U .S. government, under Woodrow Wilson, 00:19:19.670 --> 00:19:22.250 had just officially recognized Carranza's government. 00:19:22.549 --> 00:19:24.730 They had picked a side in the Civil War, and 00:19:24.730 --> 00:19:26.589 they picked against him. Okay, that's a diplomatic 00:19:26.589 --> 00:19:28.750 slap in the face. It's more than that. The U 00:19:28.750 --> 00:19:31.150 .S. then allowed Carranza's army to use American 00:19:31.150 --> 00:19:33.809 railroads in Texas to move his troops from one 00:19:33.809 --> 00:19:36.670 part of Mexico to another to outflank Villa's 00:19:36.670 --> 00:19:40.539 forces. Oh, that's a direct betrayal. Villa had 00:19:40.539 --> 00:19:43.440 spent years courting the Americans, giving interviews, 00:19:43.700 --> 00:19:46.119 protecting American property in Chihuahua. Exactly. 00:19:46.140 --> 00:19:48.920 He felt stabbed in the back. And as his army 00:19:48.920 --> 00:19:51.579 shrank from thousands to just a few hundred men, 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.339 his methods got darker. We have to acknowledge 00:19:54.339 --> 00:19:56.180 this part of this story. The Robin Hood image 00:19:56.180 --> 00:19:58.599 cracks here. It shatters. We start seeing credible 00:19:58.599 --> 00:20:01.160 stories of atrocities, the mass rape of women 00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:03.960 in the town of Namakipa, the execution of civilians 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:06.119 he suspected of collaborating with Carranza. 00:20:06.299 --> 00:20:09.309 He was lashing out like a wounded animal. And 00:20:09.309 --> 00:20:12.890 then he decides to do the unthinkable. He decides 00:20:12.890 --> 00:20:16.250 to attack the United States directly. The raid 00:20:16.250 --> 00:20:19.609 on Columbus, New Mexico. March 9th, 1916. Now, 00:20:19.609 --> 00:20:22.490 was this just a rage -fueled tantrum? Or was 00:20:22.490 --> 00:20:24.990 there a strategy behind it? It looks like a tantrum, 00:20:24.990 --> 00:20:27.809 but it was actually 4D chess. Villa wasn't stupid. 00:20:27.990 --> 00:20:29.950 He knew he couldn't conquer the U .S. with 500 00:20:29.950 --> 00:20:32.069 guys. Right. But he knew that if he attacked 00:20:32.069 --> 00:20:34.410 a U .S. town and killed American citizens on 00:20:34.410 --> 00:20:36.630 American soil, the U .S. government would have 00:20:36.630 --> 00:20:38.730 to retaliate. They would have to invade Mexico 00:20:38.730 --> 00:20:41.490 to hunt him down. And if the gringos invade Mexico... 00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:44.750 Then Carranza looks weak. Carranza becomes the 00:20:44.750 --> 00:20:47.069 president who let the foreigners violate Mexican 00:20:47.069 --> 00:20:50.250 national sovereignty. Villa hoped that a massive 00:20:50.250 --> 00:20:52.650 American invasion would rally the Mexican people 00:20:52.650 --> 00:20:55.269 away from Carranza and back to his side to fight 00:20:55.269 --> 00:20:58.210 the common enemy. That is an incredibly risky 00:20:58.210 --> 00:21:01.349 but also a weirdly brilliant strategy. It's a 00:21:01.349 --> 00:21:04.839 Hail Mary pass. So he attacks. what actually 00:21:04.839 --> 00:21:07.279 happens in Columbus. He sends his men into the 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:10.359 small border town before dawn. They burn part 00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:12.680 of the town. They seize about 100 horses and 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:14.819 mules, which they desperately needed, and they 00:21:14.819 --> 00:21:18.200 kill 18 Americans, mostly civilians. And his 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:20.339 own losses. He actually lost about 80 of his 00:21:20.339 --> 00:21:22.480 own men in the fighting. The American garrison 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:24.880 fought back harder than he expected, so militarily 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:27.559 it wasn't a huge success, but politically the 00:21:27.559 --> 00:21:29.680 impact was exactly what he wanted. President 00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:31.720 Woodrow Wilson must have been absolutely furious. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:33.960 Furious is an understatement. The American public 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:36.140 was screaming for blood, so he ordered the punitive 00:21:36.140 --> 00:21:38.599 expedition. He sent one of his best generals, 00:21:38.740 --> 00:21:41.619 John J. Blackjack Pershing, with an initial force 00:21:41.619 --> 00:21:44.619 of 5 ,000 U .S. troops into Mexico with one mission, 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:48.839 capture Villa dead or alive. And this is a massive 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:51.859 operation. This is where we see the debut of 00:21:51.859 --> 00:21:54.460 a lot of modern American military tech. We really 00:21:54.460 --> 00:21:57.480 do. A young lieutenant named George S. Patton 00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:00.460 is there. making a name for himself. It's the 00:22:00.460 --> 00:22:03.440 first time the U .S. Army used trucks for logistics 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:06.220 on a large scale. And airplanes, right? It's 00:22:06.220 --> 00:22:08.640 the first time they used airplanes for reconnaissance, 00:22:08.660 --> 00:22:12.460 these flimsy little Curtis JN -3 Jennys. So you 00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:15.200 literally have American airplanes flying over 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:17.500 the desert, hunting for a guy on a horse. And 00:22:17.500 --> 00:22:20.200 they still couldn't catch him. For 11 months, 00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:23.160 the U .S. Army, the most modern military force 00:22:23.160 --> 00:22:25.900 in the hemisphere, wandered around the deserts 00:22:25.900 --> 00:22:28.440 and mountains of Chihuahua. I just played them. 00:22:28.519 --> 00:22:30.720 He played them like a fiddle. He led them on 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:33.279 wild goose chases into canyons. He doubled back. 00:22:33.380 --> 00:22:36.420 He used his deep knowledge of the terrain. And 00:22:36.420 --> 00:22:39.059 the local population who saw him as a hero fighting 00:22:39.059 --> 00:22:41.619 the invaders, they covered for him constantly. 00:22:42.019 --> 00:22:44.299 It must have been deeply humiliating for Pershing 00:22:44.299 --> 00:22:46.359 and the U .S. Army. It was a complete disaster. 00:22:46.759 --> 00:22:49.220 The trucks break down in the desert. The airplanes 00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:51.980 crashed in the mountains. And Villa's legend 00:22:51.980 --> 00:22:54.829 grew even bigger. He was the one man who had 00:22:54.829 --> 00:22:56.970 tweaked the eagle's beak and gotten away with 00:22:56.970 --> 00:23:00.450 it. Eventually, with World War I heating up in 00:23:00.450 --> 00:23:03.190 Europe, the U .S. just quietly declared victory 00:23:03.190 --> 00:23:06.029 and went home empty -handed. Speaking of World 00:23:06.029 --> 00:23:08.109 War I, there's that weird little subplot here 00:23:08.109 --> 00:23:10.049 involving Germany, right? There is. You have 00:23:10.049 --> 00:23:13.690 to remember the timing. This is 1916, 1917. German 00:23:13.690 --> 00:23:15.950 agents were actively trying to stir up trouble 00:23:15.950 --> 00:23:18.410 for the U .S. to keep them distracted. They wanted 00:23:18.410 --> 00:23:20.390 to keep the U .S. tied down in Mexico so they 00:23:20.390 --> 00:23:22.869 wouldn't send troops to France. Precisely. So 00:23:22.869 --> 00:23:25.910 German agents did make contact with Villa. They 00:23:25.910 --> 00:23:28.180 wanted to use him as a proxy. So was Villa actually 00:23:28.180 --> 00:23:31.019 working for the Kaiser? It was purely transactional. 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:33.960 Villa wasn't an ideological ally of Imperial 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:37.400 Germany. He just needed guns and money. The U 00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:40.000 .S. had embargoed him. So when German agents 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.220 offered to funnel him cash and ammo, he took 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:44.390 it. But he didn't become their puppet. Not at 00:23:44.390 --> 00:23:47.109 all. When they suggested he start sabotaging 00:23:47.109 --> 00:23:50.490 American -owned oil fields in Mexico, he ignored 00:23:50.490 --> 00:23:52.829 them. He was using them just as much as they 00:23:52.829 --> 00:23:54.670 were using him. Okay, so let's fast forward to 00:23:54.670 --> 00:23:57.789 1920. The revolution has been grinding on for 00:23:57.789 --> 00:24:01.230 a full decade. The country is exhausted. And 00:24:01.230 --> 00:24:03.509 then? The political landscape changes again. 00:24:03.690 --> 00:24:07.230 It does. Carranza Villa's arch nemesis is assassinated. 00:24:07.289 --> 00:24:10.250 Not by Villa. No, ironically, he was killed by 00:24:10.250 --> 00:24:12.710 his own former allies, the Sonoran generals, 00:24:12.910 --> 00:24:16.349 led by Alvaro Obregón. With Carranza dead, the 00:24:16.349 --> 00:24:18.710 new interim government realized that the country 00:24:18.710 --> 00:24:21.190 desperately needed peace. And you couldn't have 00:24:21.190 --> 00:24:23.430 lasting peace with Pancho Villa still roaming 00:24:23.430 --> 00:24:25.710 the hills with an armed following. So they decide 00:24:25.710 --> 00:24:27.910 to make a deal with him. They do. The new president, 00:24:28.069 --> 00:24:30.890 Adolfo de la Huerta, reaches out, and it's an 00:24:30.890 --> 00:24:33.069 incredible deal that Villa negotiates. What are 00:24:33.069 --> 00:24:35.190 the terms? Villa agrees to lay down his arms 00:24:35.190 --> 00:24:37.609 and retire from public life. In exchange, the 00:24:37.609 --> 00:24:39.509 government gives him the Canotillo Hacienda, 00:24:39.589 --> 00:24:43.829 a massive 25 ,000 -acre estate in Durango. They 00:24:43.829 --> 00:24:46.509 give a full pension to him and his men, and crucially, 00:24:46.569 --> 00:24:48.589 they allow him to keep a personal bodyguard of 00:24:48.589 --> 00:24:51.809 50 armed men. Wait, hold on. The government gave 00:24:51.809 --> 00:24:55.400 a 25 ,000 -acre estate. to the guy who started 00:24:55.400 --> 00:24:58.420 his entire career by shooting a hacienda owner 00:24:58.420 --> 00:25:01.559 for abusing his family. The irony is rich, isn't 00:25:01.559 --> 00:25:04.559 it? The great agrarian revolutionary, the man 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:06.859 who hated the haciendados, becomes one himself. 00:25:07.450 --> 00:25:10.829 The ultimate poacher turned gamekeeper. What 00:25:10.829 --> 00:25:13.309 was his life like at Canutillo? Was he just sitting 00:25:13.309 --> 00:25:15.369 on the porch drinking tequila and getting fat? 00:25:15.650 --> 00:25:18.190 Not at all. He couldn't sit still. He ran the 00:25:18.190 --> 00:25:21.150 hacienda like a military unit, but also like 00:25:21.150 --> 00:25:23.690 a kind of utopian community. He finally built 00:25:23.690 --> 00:25:25.710 that school he always talked about for the children 00:25:25.710 --> 00:25:28.690 of his veterans. He experimented with new crops. 00:25:28.869 --> 00:25:32.420 But his personal life was... let's say, complicated. 00:25:32.779 --> 00:25:34.880 The source material says he never bothered with 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:36.940 conventional arrangements, which is a very polite 00:25:36.940 --> 00:25:38.720 way of putting it. What does that mean? It means 00:25:38.720 --> 00:25:41.380 Villa married many, many women. He often didn't 00:25:41.380 --> 00:25:43.359 bother divorcing the previous one before marrying 00:25:43.359 --> 00:25:46.480 the next. At Canotillo, he had Ostroberto Renteria 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:48.480 living with him as his wife, even though his 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:51.099 legal wife, Luz Corral, was still alive and well 00:25:51.099 --> 00:25:53.319 in Chihuahua City. Sounds like a soap opera. 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:55.660 It was. But despite this comfortable retirement, 00:25:56.140 --> 00:25:58.920 Villa was restless. And more importantly, he 00:25:58.920 --> 00:26:01.150 was loose -lipped. He started giving interviews 00:26:01.150 --> 00:26:03.329 to journalists. What was he saying? He started 00:26:03.329 --> 00:26:05.529 talking about how he might re -enter politics 00:26:05.529 --> 00:26:08.910 for the 1924 election. He even told one journalist, 00:26:09.109 --> 00:26:14.730 Oh, that is not what the new government in Mexico 00:26:14.730 --> 00:26:17.859 City wanted to hear. No. By this point, Obregón 00:26:17.859 --> 00:26:19.900 was president, and his hand -picked successor, 00:26:20.339 --> 00:26:24.079 Putarco Elias Calles, was set to take over. They 00:26:24.079 --> 00:26:26.119 were trying to consolidate power and stabilize 00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:28.940 the country. A resurrected Pancho Villa with 00:26:28.940 --> 00:26:31.960 an army of 40 ,000 men was their absolute worst 00:26:31.960 --> 00:26:34.759 nightmare. So we move to the final act, the assassination. 00:26:35.180 --> 00:26:39.000 July 20, 1923. The town of Corral in Chihuahua. 00:26:39.500 --> 00:26:41.559 Villa felt very safe in Perel. He had a mistress 00:26:41.559 --> 00:26:43.960 there. He owned property. On this particular 00:26:43.960 --> 00:26:47.359 day, he was driving his car, a big black 1919 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:50.500 Dodge Touring Carback from town to his ranch. 00:26:50.660 --> 00:26:52.539 And he didn't have his full security detail with 00:26:52.539 --> 00:26:54.940 him. No, and that was the fatal mistake. He had 00:26:54.940 --> 00:26:57.200 become complacent. He had only a few bodyguards 00:26:57.200 --> 00:26:58.920 in the car with him and his personal secretary. 00:26:59.220 --> 00:27:01.500 And what happened? As he drove past a schoolhouse, 00:27:01.700 --> 00:27:05.079 a man standing on the corner, a pumpkin seed 00:27:05.079 --> 00:27:09.289 vendor, shouted, Viva Villa! A salute from a 00:27:09.289 --> 00:27:12.490 supporter. It was a signal. He shouted it, and 00:27:12.490 --> 00:27:15.269 as Villa's car slowed to turn the corner, seven 00:27:15.269 --> 00:27:17.690 riflemen stepped out of a house into the street. 00:27:17.930 --> 00:27:21.940 In ambush. A perfectly planned ambush. They unleashed 00:27:21.940 --> 00:27:25.059 a fusillade. They pumped over 40 rounds into 00:27:25.059 --> 00:27:27.660 the car in a matter of seconds. And these weren't 00:27:27.660 --> 00:27:30.779 standard bullets, were they? No. The autopsy 00:27:30.779 --> 00:27:32.819 showed they were using dum -dum bullets, expanding 00:27:32.819 --> 00:27:34.819 bullets, the kind you use for big game hunting. 00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:36.940 Brutal. They wanted to make absolutely sure. 00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:40.059 They did. Villa was hit nine times in the head 00:27:40.059 --> 00:27:43.279 and chest. He died instantly. His hand was reportedly 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:45.819 reaching for his pistol on the seat next to him, 00:27:45.859 --> 00:27:48.829 but he never even got a shot off. about his last 00:27:48.829 --> 00:27:51.430 words isn't there something like don't let it 00:27:51.430 --> 00:27:53.730 end like this tell them i said something yes 00:27:53.730 --> 00:27:56.049 that's a famous story but it's almost certainly 00:27:56.049 --> 00:27:59.390 fiction given the massive trauma from those expanding 00:27:59.390 --> 00:28:01.809 bullets to his head and heart he wouldn't have 00:28:01.809 --> 00:28:03.869 been able to speak a word he was dead before 00:28:03.869 --> 00:28:06.109 the car even rolled to a stop against a tree 00:28:06.109 --> 00:28:08.869 so who did it i mean we know who pulled the triggers 00:28:08.869 --> 00:28:12.039 but who paid for the bullets Well, the man who 00:28:12.039 --> 00:28:14.920 publicly claimed responsibility was a local politician 00:28:14.920 --> 00:28:18.500 named Jesus Salas Barraza, who apparently had 00:28:18.500 --> 00:28:21.279 a personal grudge against Villa. He claimed he 00:28:21.279 --> 00:28:24.740 did it to rid humanity of a monster. But nobody 00:28:24.740 --> 00:28:27.180 believes that. No serious historian believes 00:28:27.180 --> 00:28:29.640 he acted alone. The conspiracy points directly 00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:32.759 to the top. To President Obregón and President 00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:35.839 -elect Callas. Almost certainly. Villa was a 00:28:35.839 --> 00:28:38.079 political threat they could not afford. They 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:40.900 needed him gone before the election. The assassins 00:28:40.900 --> 00:28:43.000 were very likely paid and protected by the federal 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:45.819 government. Barraza, the supposed mastermind, 00:28:45.980 --> 00:28:48.079 spent a few months in a comfortable jail and 00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:50.700 was then quietly pardoned and released. Incredible. 00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:53.740 And even in death. Villa couldn't seem to catch 00:28:53.740 --> 00:28:56.539 a break. His body was buried in Peral, but then 00:28:56.539 --> 00:28:58.680 something very weird happened to his head. Yes, 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:01.440 this is the final ghoulish chapter. Three years 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:05.259 later, in 1926, his grave was violated. Someone 00:29:05.259 --> 00:29:07.779 dug up his coffin, opened it, and sawed off his 00:29:07.779 --> 00:29:10.619 head. Who steals a head? Why? That is one of 00:29:10.619 --> 00:29:13.059 the great unsolved mysteries of Mexican history. 00:29:13.400 --> 00:29:16.440 The theories are wild. There are rumors that 00:29:16.440 --> 00:29:18.759 an American treasure hunter stole it to sell 00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:21.599 to an eccentric millionaire. I've heard the Yale 00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:24.019 University story. The persistent legend is that 00:29:24.019 --> 00:29:25.779 it ended up in the possession of the Skull and 00:29:25.779 --> 00:29:28.519 Bone Society at Yale. They, of course, deny it. 00:29:28.579 --> 00:29:31.400 But to this day, Pancho Villa's skull has never 00:29:31.400 --> 00:29:34.640 been found. That is just gruesome. But eventually, 00:29:34.819 --> 00:29:37.480 his body, or what was left of it, was moved to 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:40.119 a place of honor, right? Yes, decades later. 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:43.759 In 1976, the Mexican government exhumed his remains 00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:45.859 and moved them to the monument to the revolution 00:29:45.859 --> 00:29:48.299 in Mexico City. And this really brings us to 00:29:48.299 --> 00:29:50.799 the legacy part of our deep dive. Because for 00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:53.380 a long, long time, he wasn't officially considered 00:29:53.380 --> 00:29:56.240 a national hero. No, not at all. For decades, 00:29:56.440 --> 00:29:58.660 while the Sonoran dynasty, the political lineage 00:29:58.660 --> 00:30:02.160 of Obregón and Calles ruled Mexico, Villo was 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:04.799 officially a villain. He was the bandit, the 00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:07.460 traitor, the problem. It wasn't until those generations 00:30:07.460 --> 00:30:10.319 of politicians had passed from the scene. that 00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:12.680 the government started to slowly reincorporate 00:30:12.680 --> 00:30:15.599 him into the national story. And now, he's everywhere. 00:30:16.650 --> 00:30:19.930 Statues, street names on banknotes. He is a full 00:30:19.930 --> 00:30:23.250 -blown folk hero. He represents the uncrushable, 00:30:23.329 --> 00:30:26.130 rebellious spirit of the North. He's the man 00:30:26.130 --> 00:30:28.529 who stood up to the Hacendados, and more importantly, 00:30:28.670 --> 00:30:30.529 the man who stood up to the gringos and got away 00:30:30.529 --> 00:30:33.369 with it. The brutality, the atrocities, that's 00:30:33.369 --> 00:30:35.869 often forgotten, or at least minimized, in favor 00:30:35.869 --> 00:30:38.410 of the more romantic legend. It's a power of 00:30:38.410 --> 00:30:41.269 myth. The man of two faces ultimately became 00:30:41.269 --> 00:30:43.960 one face in the public memory. The hero. And 00:30:43.960 --> 00:30:46.880 that leads to a final and I think very provocative 00:30:46.880 --> 00:30:48.740 thought for you to consider. What's that? Think 00:30:48.740 --> 00:30:50.859 about that monument to the revolution in Mexico 00:30:50.859 --> 00:30:54.700 City. It's this massive, solemn mausoleum. Inside, 00:30:55.079 --> 00:30:57.039 Pancho Villa's remains are interred in a place 00:30:57.039 --> 00:30:59.900 of high honor. But do you know who is right there 00:30:59.900 --> 00:31:02.720 in the tomb with him? Who? The Nustiano Carranza, 00:31:02.900 --> 00:31:05.440 the man who tried to sabotage him, who cut off 00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:08.220 his coal, who betrayed him, and Plutarco Elias 00:31:08.220 --> 00:31:10.640 Caius, the man who almost certainly ordered his 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:13.200 murder. They are all buried together as equals 00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:15.759 in the same monument. Wait, really? They're roommates 00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:18.799 for eternity. It's the ultimate historical irony. 00:31:19.339 --> 00:31:21.720 The state took these mortal enemies, men who 00:31:21.720 --> 00:31:24.160 killed each other's families, who hated everything 00:31:24.160 --> 00:31:26.480 the other stood for, and it lumped them all together 00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:30.200 into one unified revolutionary family. It erases 00:31:30.200 --> 00:31:32.799 the real, bloody personal conflicts in favor 00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:35.799 of a nice, tidy national myth. So the question 00:31:35.799 --> 00:31:38.559 is? The question is, does remembering them together 00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:41.180 like that actually honor history, or does it 00:31:41.180 --> 00:31:43.700 sanitize it? Does it erase the very things that 00:31:43.700 --> 00:31:47.140 made the revolution what it was? Wow. That is 00:31:47.140 --> 00:31:49.640 something to chew on. In the end, the revolution 00:31:49.640 --> 00:31:52.259 swallowed them all whole. Indeed. We'll leave 00:31:52.259 --> 00:31:55.039 you with that image. The bandit and the bureaucrats 00:31:55.039 --> 00:31:58.140 resting together for all time. Thanks for listening 00:31:58.140 --> 00:32:00.039 to the deep dive into the life of Pancho Villa. 00:32:00.200 --> 00:32:01.180 We'll catch you on the next one.