Quite the resume. I hadn't seen this picture before - it's a good one.
Known to his friends as La Cucaracha (the Cockroach), his depredations of the US border during the Mexican Revolution provoked the American Punitive Expedition to catch him. Villa eluded his pursuers, but gave up his war in 1920 when he joined the Mexican government. Mexican President Obrégon, however, soon had his old enemy assassinated. When VIlla drove home from a mistress’s house one night, assassins with automatic weapons riddled him with bullets.
Only in Mexico...
Mexico...hasn't changed. (note my blog tomorrow)
ReplyDeleteOoh, will do!
DeleteHonestly, Mexico is just fascinating. What a country, what a people.
A lot of folks don't realize that he was bankrolled by Germany to keep part of our military busy.
ReplyDeleteOne of the Army officers in the Punitive Expedition was a young Calvary Lieutenant by the name of George S. Patton.
ReplyDeleteI read a short story of alternative history where Pancho Villa became friends with Teddy Roosevelt instead of Álvaro Obregón, rode with the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, and then became Teddy's Vice President. It was just plausible.
ReplyDelete"bandit chief, and politician"
ReplyDeleteA distinction without a difference, I think...
Back in 1962 or '63, travelling in Mexico with my Dad, I met Villa's wife. She was making a living by showing the bullet-riddled car where he met his end, which was up on blocks in a barn. She wore black lace over her head & shoulders, and was a very old woman. Once upon a time I had photos; lost them over the years.
ReplyDeleteHis car resembled that of Bonnie & Clyde; so many holes in it, no one could have lived. He'd escaped a lot of bullets, and a lot of ambushes, but these ended him.