Introduction
In the early morning darkness of March 9, 1916, guerrillas
of the Mexican Revolution under General Francisco "Pancho" Villa
attacked Columbus, New Mexico a small border town and military camp on what is
now Pancho Villa State Park.
At sunrise on the morning of March 9, 1916, the
center of Columbus, New Mexico was a smoldering fire. Words of Pancho Villa's
attack on the town were known by
telegraph, making newspaper headlines throughout the nation. U.S.
reacted with troops that arrived by train as the Army prepared to follow Villa
into
Mexico.
THIS WAS COLUMBUS, N.M. PRIOR TO THE ATTACK.
S 
HERE
IS COLUMBUS AFTER THE ATTACK.
In order to understand the possible reasons that
Pancho Villa had to attack Columbus, New Mexico it is important to review what
happened in his life. In J. H. Tames, Asi Murieron Los Caudillos, the
author describes Villa’s fugitive life. When Villa was young he shot a
well-known Patron or Cacique, Don Agustin Lopez Negrete because
he wanted to take advantage of his sister. From that moment on, Villa’s life
changed dramatically. After Villa escaped he changed identity from Doroteo
Arango to Pancho Villa in honor to his father.
Trouble
between the United States and Pancho Villa began in the summer of 1915. Wilson
had been watching the situation in Mexico very closely. At the Battle of Celaya,
Villa was making an assault on the forces of Carranza. Led by General Alvaro
Obregon, the forces of Carranza defeated Villa badly. Villa suffered a loss of
some 14,000 men. Some say that Carranza's troops were using weapons that had
been left by the Americans while in Veracruz. Villa's loss was so horrific that
Wilson decided that the 'wait and see' time was no longer necessary. On October
21, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson extended official recognition to the faction
of Venustiano Carranza as being the legitimate government of Mexico.
“On
Villa’s part, the positive feelings he had toward the United States were
replaced by bitterness at being held responsible for the actions of a furious
officer only nominally under his command”. (O’Brien 86) Villa felt
betrayed by his friend U.S. consul George Carrothers because he assured him
that his government would support and come to the aid of his cause. When it did
not happened, Villa realizes that his hope for holding on to power was steadily
in decline. Ironically, Wilson chooses Venustiano Carranza as the lesser of two
evils. The decision closes the border for Villa and his men not only allowing
them to purchase weapons and ammunitions, as was the customer in years past.
Now given the circumstances they had to rely on contraband and corrupt gun
dealers like Ravel el Judio as he was called by Villa’s men or others
like him fro their supplies. These are some Villa’s reasons for the rage he
felt toward the U.S. and everything Carranza stood for.
In January of 1916 started what would ultimately lead to Pancho Villa’s invasion of Columbus, New Mexico. The two officers under his command, Pedro Lopez and Rafael Castro, decided to attack one of the trains that traveled through their area of operations knowing that most of the passengers were from the upper middle class, that included a group of 18 Americans fifteen of which worked for American Smelting and refining Company; without wasting a single minute they decided to shoot them as they sat, some killed as they tried to escape. All that could be heard was the shouting of Viva Villa! There was only one American survivor who gave scary details of the massacre to the local press. This incident happened 8 kilometers West of Santa Isabel, in the state of Chihuahua. Villa admitted to ordering attack, but always denied that he authorized the shedding of American blood.
Causes
of the raid
In
his book Pancho Villa Strong Man of the revolution, Larry Harris
mentions that some historians have argued that president Wilson had encouraged
Villa by supporting Mexican leader Carranza who had become Villa’s enemy.
Wilson had allowed Mexican federal troops to use American rail roads to gain
faster access to defend Agua Prieta on the Mexican border near Douglass,
Arizona against Villa attack. Federal Troops responded and defeated the
Villistas, Pancho Villa was furious at president Wilson. After that, Villistas
stopped a train at Santa Isabel, Mexico and killed seventeen American mining
engineers. Although villa was far away at the time and could not have
communicated with his supporters, he would have known of his hard attitude
toward Americans. However according to
Frederich Kats in his article American Historical Review, Villa believed
that a plan existed between Carranza and president Wilson to make Mexico depend
on the U.S governmentfor support.
Although a strong theory suggests that there was conspiracy among
Standard oil and other U.S interests to empower a new leader that would favor
U.S. policy.
In
contrast, Tames stays in his book Asi murieron los Caudillos that the
reason for the Columbus raid was that in October 19th President
Wilson recognized constitutionalism as threat to the government of Venustiano
Carranza. In order to assume this, one must understand that it was Carranza who
sent Villa to attack the American territory of Columbus.
Another theory behind the
Columbus raid focuses on German involvement in Mexico, in La Frontera
(History of the Mexican American frontier) authors claim that German interests
had hoped to create distraction along the border and had assigned a German
officer, Dr Lyman Rauschbaum, on the Villa staff as a secretary and bookkeeper.
Then he could have convinced Villa that the State Bank of Columbus had cheated
him of 10,000 dollars. German instigators may have urged Villa to attack United
States and start a border war. However, the complete Mexican-German connection
occurred after the Columbus raid when the Mexican government sent a memo that
proposed economic and military corporation to rid Mexico of Pershing’s
troops. Authors with different version
such as historians Charles H. Harris and Louis R Sadler have uncovered evidence
that the U.S army hired Japanese nationalists as spies to move among Villistas
to give Villa a slow acting poison.
In Insurgentes Mexico
Reed is sympathetic with the revolution, he describes Villa as a legend or
Mexican Robin Hood who was granted until he was captured and executed.
Reed explains that Pancho Villa frequently visited and lived
in El Paso “and it was from there that he set out in April, 1913, to conquer
Mexico with four companions, three horses, two pounds of sugar and coffee, and
a pound of salt”. (Insurgentes Mexico 1914). He also describes Villa as
a charismatic leader who recruited 10,000 men in five months and became a
devoted leader who would guide the forgotten man of Mexico the Peon to comfort
and plenty. The author also describes that seven months after leaving El Paso
on stolen horses, villa and his men had become such an important military force
that the federal Mexican army had evacuated the northern providence of
Chihuahua and he won strategic victory almost by default. In contrast, there
are evidences that show Villa as a bandit. A close friend of Villa, Jesus
Paez, was wounded in Columbus and wrote two years after the raid, this man
explained that Villa initiated the raid from a distance he stated the
following:
After
Villa got the started on their murderous
task he departed far enough
away to be out of
danger. He always rode a
fine horse, had good
clothes, and had a fine
saddle. His men were
ragged, hungry, and dirty,
and their horses and
mules were half starved and
had sores under
their saddles the full
length.
(Larry Harris, Strong man of
the revolution)
In addition to this
paragraph there are some testimonies from people that participated with Villa
stating during court that they had no choice but to join Villa’s band or watch
their own houses burning.
In my opinion the authors in question, incurred in
occasional discrepancies when describing the Columbus Raid, in Larry Harris’
Text, assumptions are based on legends from people or folklore, he writes the
history of a man who fought against the oppression of the Mexican system to
become a leader of who would hear his name and the voices of “Viva Villa”
families living in poor villages where there had not been hope and future.
Some authors describe the raid as a personal issue between
presidents Carranza and Wilson. Perhaps Villa attacked Columbus to treat
Carranza because Villa guessed that U.S. troops would invade Mexico and create
a diplomatic and military mess for his enemy Carranza. If those were Villa’s
intentions, his trick worked, the united states and Mexico almost came to a war
and Mexicans perceived Americans as a aggressors and Villa as a national hero.
In order to understand why, if any possibility did exist, President Woodrow Wilson did allow the attack on Columbus, New Mexico to happen, one must look into the situation of a President and the World War that was happening at the same time, it would become easier to see the possibilities of such an event occurring. This, if true, should not put blame on President Wilson. Rather, one should ask why it happened.
Prelude
to the attack
General
John J. “Black Jack” Pershings, commander of the U.S. forces at Fort Bliss, was
monitoring all information concerning Villa’s intentions, but refused to divide
his forces fearing that strengthening one position would weaken another. Soon,
all doubts were silenced when on the morning of march 9th under the
cover of darkness, Villa and his men crossed the international boundary at 4:20
A.M. and began the raid of Columbus. Surprising the American Garrison, under
the command of Col. H.J. Slocum and Major Frank Tomkings, when most of their
men were asleep in their barracks. The men under the command of Lt Candelario
Lopez burned and looted the city and the forces under Lt’s Pablo Lopez, Beltran
and Castro attacked the American forces. The men under Cervantes penetrated
unopposed into the heart of the city killing anyone who stood on their way.
“Within minutes, the undefeated town was ablaze, and eight U.S. civilians lay
dying, riddled with bullets”. (O’Brien 88) After kicking the door open
to the commercial Hotel they searched it desperately looking for Ravel who was
out of the town at the time. L. Burkhead the postal administrator left the
hotel with his wife and kids through a back door just before the hotel
collapsed in flames. Arthur Ravel who was 16 years old at the time, witnesses
this carnage only because the two men assigned to accompany him to his dad’s
store were shot by the town folk. “Villa’s men proceeded with such methodical
precision that it was clear they had scouted the city before the raid” (O’Brien
88) When the American forces returned fire they inflicted heavy casualties
on the bandits one of them being Lt. Pablo Lopez, the author of Santa Isabel
massacre; who was bounded on both legs.
These
man paid a high price for the audacity of their leader. Final casualties were:
167 dead, 13 captured and many more wounded. Although 60 men from the 13th
cavalry persuaded Villa into Mexican territory, the lack of water and
ammunition prompted their return. As the fire smoldered, many citizens of
Mexican descent left fearing reprisal by the local community. After the raid
Villa retreated into the fastness of Sierra Madre in western Chihuahua, having
accomplished his objective.
American
troops pursue Villa’s forces into Mexican territory. “The Pershing Expedition”
According
to O’Brien’s in Pancho Villa, On Thursday February Villa began mission
“Peliaguda” when he orderer Mayor Juan Muñoz to gather 400 of his most trusted
menon the hacienda of San Jeronimo. Later he met in private with Lieutenant’s
Martin Lopez, Pablo Lopez, Francisco Beltran, Candelario Cervantes and
commissioned an additional 100 men to the command of Joaquin Alvarez, Bernabe
Cifuentes and Ernesto Rios.
The
commander of the 13th cavalry in Columbus received several reports
that Villa was in the area and planed to cross the border and attack. Although
officers knew it, they did not give importance to the fact because they though
that if he would cross, he would probably go to Washington to plead with the
U.S. government to stop the aid to Carranza.
On
March the 8th several newspapers from El Paso, Texas reported that
Villa was encamped near Las Palomas, Chihuahua and received confirmation that
he had ordered the execution of two Americans captured a few days earlier.
THIS VILLA PICTURED WITH HIS
FELLOW FIGHTERS IN THE CITY OF
JUAREZ IN 1911.
Importance of the raid in
the U.S. and Mexican relations
The importance of the raid
is defined in two mainstream theories. The first one deals with the raid as a
political tool for Villa’s future legacy in Mexico. After the raid Pancho Villa
became a leader that could enter into any city and recruit men to fight for his
cause. In other words he used the raid to become a true caudillo of the
revolution. Now from a military perspective he drove a wedge between the U.S
government and the Mexican government, which led the later to halt all economic
aid. From the people’s perspective the
raid was an opportunity for Mexican pride that had not been felt since Santa
Ana defeated the Texans at the Alamo. The raid and pseudo-victory, continued to
open doors for Villa in years to come. Ironically this arrogant pride led to
his eventual downfall. Tales of Villa’s life and assassination continue to
interests different historians. His armed men rode through Chihuahua, Coahuila,
Durango and Sonora without being stopped and his name became a synonymous with
Mexican revolution.
Villa acted out of hate for Carranza when he attacked
Columbus, New Mexico. This eventually lead to the occupation of Mexico by
American Invasores that reopened old wounds dating back to the Mexican
American War.
Although the assault is not the only reason for American
resentment towards Mexican Americans it did contribute to an increase
hostilities. Mexican in general have been sort of rejected by Americans, on the
other hand, Mexicans perceive north American neighbors as a country that used
military force and tenancy of their leaders to confiscate what used to be
Mexican territories. Sadly today, Mexicans are still referred as a “Illegals”
or “Wet backs” and mostly not accepted in American society.
Conclusion