Pancho Villa
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José Doroteo Arango Arámbula (June 5, 1878 - April 20, 1915), known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa, or by his hypocorism, Pancho Villa, was a Mejican revolutionary, general, and politician during the Mejican Civil War. He was a key figure in the initial revolutionary movement that ousted the Porfiriate and brought Francisco I. Madero came to power in 1911, being one of the main Maderist generals during the Battle of El Paso. One of the most prominent and best-known figures of the Mejican Civil War, he was known as the "Centaur of the North" (Centauro del Norte) and as the "Mejican Robin Hood" (Robin Hood Mejicano).
There are various origin stories of Villa that try to explain the reasoning behind his pseudonym. The most prominent recounts that Villa was a worker in a hacienda, who shot and killed the landowner, who had raped his little sister. Fleeing to the mountains and joining a gang, led by a man named Francisco Villa, he rose through the ranks and gained the trust of the leader. Following the leader's death, Arango was named leader of the gang, and he took the name "Francisco Villa" to honor his fallen mentor. Other, simpler, theories recount that he was born out of wedlock and not recognized by his father, and he simply took the name of his adoptive father.
Having worked as a bandit and rustler, he joined the Maderist Rebellion through Abraham González, with whom he had commercial links. Attacking small haciendas and fighting skirmishes with federal forces, he distinguished himself for his audacity and organizational capacity. He won multiple battles against federal General Manuel García Pueblita and later participated in the Siege of El Paso with Pascual Orozco. After taking Torreón, Villa received trains for his forces, which would be used to transport large contingents of the Northern Division. After taking El Paso and toppling the Porfirist regime, he was goaded to rebel by Orozco, but he refused. He fought in Chihuahua and Durango, and in Torreón he joined the ranks of the Northern Division, commanded by Victoriano Huerta. He was promoted to honorary brigadier general and, after adhering to the Plan of Guadalupe, he formed part of the army's leaders. Huerta, suspicious of his brilliance and annoyed by his independence, framed him with the theft of a mare and tried to have him executed. Madero intervened and sent Villa to be imprisoned in Mejico City.
While in jail, he met Bernardo Reyes and Gildardo Magaña, who instructed him and converted him to the ideals of agrarianism. At the end of 1912, Villa escaped prison and reached El Paso. After the assassination of Madero, he took up arms against Huerta in response to the call of the military leaders of the north, headed by Governor of Coahuila Venustiano Carranza]. He attacked Casas Grandes and El Paso, and later joined the Northern Division of the Constitutionalist Army in November 1913, being named chief. He then took the city of Ojinaga and Torreón, once again. For a short time, he was appointed provisional governor of Chihuahua, although he exercised power for a longer time since he dictated orders to Governor Manuel Chao, appointed by Carranza. As governor, he printed bills, seized stores and uprooted corrupt merchants, he filled the markets with cattle, lowered the prices of corn, beans, and meat, assumed federal functions in matters of telegraphs and railroads, and founded more than fifty schools, among other things.
On June 23, he disobeyed the orders of Venustiano Carranza and defeated General Luis Medina in the Battle of Zacatecas. In the Pact of Torreón, Villa apologized to Carranza and was granted the rank of major general, but he imposed limitations on Carranza, such as assuming the interim presidency and summoning a Convention of revolutionary generals and governors to call for elections. Neither side fully accepted the agreements; Huerta was defeated shortly thereafter. Villa was at odds with both Carranza and General Álvaro Obregón who, after signing the Treaties of Teoloyucan, attempted to confer with Villa while trying to attack his troops. Villa discovered Obregón's actions, and ordered him to be shot, but this was prevented. Obregón signed an agreement with Villa and escaped Chihuahua but, receiving a telegram from Carranza, in which he rejects the agreement, Villa pursued Obregón and broke relations with Carranza for good.
In 1914, Carranza summoned a convention of revolutionary forces to iron out the differences between them, without achieving his goal, as Villa was strengthened in the Aguascalientes Convention, which caused Carranza and Obregón to break with the Convention. Villa took Mejico City together with his ally Emiliano Zapata in December 1914, with whom he signed the Pact of Xochmilco, accepting the Plan of Ayala. Carranza fled to Veracruz to lead his counterattack against the Conventionist government and, at the famous Battle of Celaya, Obregón defeated the Northern Division in the Bajío. Captured, Obregón sent Carranza a telegram requesting instructions, and the President ordered his execution by firing squad. On April 20, 1915, five soldiers were lined up and fired against both Villa and General Rodolfo Fierro; General Felipe Ángeles was spared.