MEXICAN REVOLUCION

Emiliano Zapata

Francisco I. Madero

Venustiano Carranza

Doroteo Arango«Pancho Villa»

The Mexican Revolution was brought on by, among other factors, tremendous disagreement among the Mexican people over the dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz, who, all told, stayed in office for thirty one years.

During that span, power was concentrated in the hands of a select few; the people had no power to express their opinions or select their public officials. Wealth was likewise concentrated in the hands of the few, and injustice was everywhere, in the cities and the countryside alike.

Early in the 20th Century, a new generation of young leaders arose who wanted to participate in the political life of their country, but they were denied the opportunity by the officials who were already entrenched in power and who were not about to give it up. This group of young leaders believed that they could assume their proper role in Mexican politics once President Díaz announced publicly that Mexico was ready for democracy.

Although the Mexican Constitution called for public election and other institutions of democracy, Díaz and his supporters used their political and economic resources to stay in power indefinitely.

Francisco I. Madero was one of the strongest believers that President Díaz should renounce his power and not seek re-election. Together with other young reformers, Madero created the ''Anti-reeleccionista'' Party, which he represented in subsequent presidential elections. Between elections, Madero travelled throughout the country, campaigning for his ideas.

Francisco I. Madero was a firm supporter of democracy and of making government subject to the strict limits of the law, and the success of Madero's movement made him a threat in the eyes of President Díaz. Shortly before the elections of 1910, Madero was apprehended in Monterrey and imprisoned in San Luis Potosí. Learning of Díaz's re-election, Madero fled to the United States in October of 1910. In exile, he issued the ''Plan of San Luis,'' a manifesto which declared that the elections had been a fraud and that he would not recognize Porfirio Díaz as the legitimate President of the Republic.

Instead, Madero make the daring move of declaring himself President Pro-Temp until new elections could be held. Madero promised to return all land which had been confiscated from the peasants, and he called for universal voting rights and for a limit of one term for the president. Madero's call for an uprising on November 20th, 1910, marked the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.

On November 14th, in Cuchillo Parado in the state of Chihuahua, Toribio Ortega and a small group of followers took up arms. On the 18th in Puebla, Diaz's authorities uncovered preparations for an uprising in the home of the brothers Maximo and Aquiles Serdán, who where made to pay with their lives.

Back in Chihuahua, Madero was able to persuade Pascual Orozco and Francisco ("Pancho") Villa to join the revolution. Though they had no military experience, Orozco and Villa proved to be excellent strategists, and they earned the allegiance of the people of northern Mexico, who were particularly unhappy about the abusive ranchers and landlords who ran the North.

In March of 1911, Emiliano Zapata led the uprising of the peasants of Morelos to claim their rights over local land and water. At the same time, armed revolt began in many other parts of the country. The "Maderista" troops, and the national anger which inspired them, defeated the army of Diaz within six months. The decisive victory of the Mexican Revolution was the capture of Ciudad Juarez, just across the river from El Paso, by Orozco and Villa. Porfirio Diaz then resigned as President and fled to exile in France, where he died in 1915.

With the collapse of the Díaz regime, the Mexican Congress elected Francisco León de la Barra as President Pro-Temp and called for national popular elections, which resulted in the victory of Francisco I. Madero as President and José María Pino Suárez as Vice-President.

Born in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, to Colonel Jesús Carranza and María de Jesús Garza and educated at the Fuente Athenaeum in Saltillo and the Mexico City Preparatory School, Venustiano Carranza becomes the president of Mexico in 1917.He starts his political career as mayor of Cuatro Ciénegas in 1887, and serves again from 1894 to 1898. He is local deputy, substitute federal deputy, senator for his state, and interim governor of Coahuila in 1908.

Carranza is one of the first to join the anti-reelectionists. Madero makes him the Minister of War and the Navy of his provisional cabinet in Ciudad Juárez. He takes charge of the government of Coahuila and, after Madero’s assassination, he issues the Plan of Guadalupe on March 26, 1913, in which Victoriano Huerta and the legislative and judicial powers are repudiated. Proclaimed the first chief of the constitutionalist army (because of the 1857 Constitution), Carranza begins his march to Sonora.

After Huerta falls, Venustiano Carranza enters Mexico City on August 20, 1914. The disagreements between the first chief and General Francisco Villa become evident, and Villa rebels when Carranza asks him to attend the October 1, 1914 convention, convoked to settle some of the most serious problems of the revolutionary movement.

At the convention, which is held in Aguascalientes, Francisco Villa is removed from his leadership of the Division of the North, and Carranza is removed from his position as first chief. However, Carranza ignores the results of the Aguascalientes Convention and abandons the capital, establishing his government in Veracruz.

Born on June 5, 1878, as Doroteo Arango Arámbula, the future Francisco "Pancho" Villa was the son of peasants living in San Juan del Río. As a child, he received some education from a local church-run school, but became a sharecropper when his father died. At the age of 16, he moved to Chihuahua, but swiftly returned after his sister was raped by a local hacienda owner.

After tracking down the owner, Agustín Negrete, Villa shot him and stole a horse before fleeing to the Sierra Madre mountains. Roaming the hills as a bandit, Villa's outlook changed following a meeting with Abraham González.

Pancho Villa - Fighting for Madero:

The local representative for Francisco Madero, a politician who was opposed to the rule of dictator Porfirio Díaz, González convinced Villa that through his banditry he could fight for the people and hurt the hacienda owners. In 1910, the Mexican Revolution began, with Madero's pro-democracy, antirreeleccionista volunteers confronting Díaz's federal troops. As the revolution spread, Villa joined with Madero's forces and aided in winning the first Battle of Ciudad Juárez in 1911. Later that year, he married María Luz Corral. All across Mexico, Madero's volunteers won victories, driving Díaz into exile.

Pancho Villa - Defeating Huerta:

Operating in conjunction with Carranza's Constitutionalist Army of Mexico, Villa operated in the northern provinces. In March 1913, the fight became personal for Villa when Huerta ordered the murder of his friend Abraham González. Building a force of volunteers and mercenaries, Villa quickly won a string of victories at Ciudad Juárez, Tierra Blanca, Chihuahua, and Ojinaga. These earned him the governorship of Chihuahua. During this time, his stature had grown to the point that US Army invited him to meet with its senior leaders, including Gen. John J. Pershing, at Fort Bliss, TX.

Returning to Mexico, Villa gathered supplies for a drive south. Utilizing the railroads, Villa's men attacked quickly and won battles against Huerta's forces at Gómez Palacio and Torreón. Following this last victory, Carranza, who was concerned that Villa might beat him to Mexico City, ordered him to divert his attack towards Saltillo or risk losing his coal supply.

Needing coal to fuel his trains, Villa complied, but offered his resignation after the battle. Before it was accepted, he was convinced by his staff officers to retract it and defy Carranza by attacking the silver producing city of Zacatecas.

Pancho Villa - Battling Carranza:

Following Carranza's departure, Villa and Zapata occupied the capital. In 1915, Villa was forced to abandon Mexico City after number of incidents involving his troops. This helped pave the way for the return of Carranza and his followers.

With Carranza reasserting power, Villa and Zapata revolted against the regime. To combat Villa, Carranza sent his ablest general, Álvaro Obregón north. Meeting at the Battle of Celaya on April 13, 1915, Villa was badly defeated suffering 4,000 killed and 6,000 captured. Villa's position was further weakened by the United States' refusal to sell him weapons.

Pancho Villa - Retirement & Death:

Following Celaya and the American incursion, Villa's influence began to wane. While he remained active, Carranza had shifted his military focus to dealing with the more dangerous threat posed by Zapata in the south. Villa's last major military action was a raid against Ciudad Juárez in 1919.

The following year he negotiated his peaceful retirement with new president Adolfo de la Huerta. Retiring to the hacienda of El Canutillo, he was assassinated while traveling through Parral, Chihuahua in his car on July 20, 1923.