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The Life and Times of Pancho Villa
Alongside Moctezuma and Benito Juárez, Pancho Villa is probably the best-known figure in Mexican history. Villa legends pervade not only Mexico but the United States and beyond, existing not only in the popular mind and tradition but in ballads and movies. There are legends of Villa the Robin Hood, Villa the womanizer, and Villa as the only foreigner who has attacked the mainland of the United States since the War of 1812 and gotten away with it. Whether exaggerated or true to life, these legends have resulted in Pancho Villa the leader obscuring his revolutionary movement, and the myth in turn obscuring the leader. Based on decades of research in the archives of seven countries, this definitive study of Villa aims to separate myth from history. So much attention has focused on Villa himself that the characteristics of his movement, which is unique in Latin American history and in some ways unique among twentieth-century revolutions, have been forgotten or neglected. Villa’s División del Norte was probably the largest revolutionary army that Latin America ever produced. Moreover, this was one of the few revolutionary movements with which a U.S. administration attempted, not only to come to terms, but even to forge an alliance. In contrast to Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and Fidel Castro, Villa came from the lower classes of society, had little education, and organized no political party. The first part of the book deals with Villa’s early life as an outlaw and his emergence as a secondary leader of the Mexican Revolution, and also discusses the special conditions that transformed the state of Chihuahua into a leading center of revolution. In the second part, beginning in 1913, Villa emerges as a national leader. The author analyzes the nature of his revolutionary movement and the impact of Villismo as an ideology and as a social movement. The third part of the book deals with the years 1915 to 1920: Villa’s guerrilla warfare, his attack on Columbus, New Mexico, and his subsequent decline. The last part describes Villa’s surrender, his brief life as a hacendado, his assassination and its aftermath, and the evolution of the Villa legend. The book concludes with an assessment of Villa’s personality and the character and impact of his movement.
985 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
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About the author
Friedrich Katz
32 books13 followersC. Friedrich Katz was an Austrian-born anthropologist and historian specialized in 19th and 20th century history of Latin America; particularly, in the Mexican Revolution.
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April 13, 2019
The Life and Times of Pancho Villa was written by Friedrich Katz and published in 1998.
My interest in Pancho Villa peaked when I went to Mexico City many years ago and visited the Monumento a la Revolucion. There is a mausoleum under the arch where many of the revolutionaries from the Mexican Revolution, including Villa, are buried. You can safely call it a place of reverence. Then over at the Chapultepec museum I saw in a random display the Bolo knife that Villa used. He was also interesting from an American point of view as the last Mexican figure to effectively poke the American bear when his troops invaded the border town of Columbus, New Mexico killing several American troops stationed there in 1916. This action and the earlier execution of American mining officials in Chihuahua spawned the invasion of ten thousand American troops into Chihuahua just weeks later. John “Black Jack” Pershing’s troops ran around for nearly a year and never managed to capture Pancho Villa but did prevent any further border incursions. So with that background, I decided to get to know the deeper story by reading the authoritative bio.
This book is an especially good one for anyone who is looking for a well balanced history of not just Pancho Villa but of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, a terrible period in Mexico that resulted in millions of deaths — many by execution. The revolution turned into a civil war because once a revolutionary took control he would become a counter-revolutionary to maintain power and this cycle continued for many years. Villa, Madero (Villa’s mentor) and Carranza in the north and Oberon and Zapata in the south. There are so many seminal moments and deaths of revolutionaries discussed in the book that the demise of Pancho Villa, a legendary event in Mexico, garnered less than a chapter in an otherwise lengthy book. Be warned that Villa’s early life details are thin — so this is largely a book about the last dozen years of his life.
Doroteo Arango, aka Pancho Villa, was born on the Rancho de la Coyotada in the state of Durango in 1878. He shot a man in the foot when he was sixteen, went on the run and soon entered into a life of minor banditry. After many years of banditry, Villa was arrested in 1902 by President Porfio Diaz’s army. He was drafted into the army, then he deserted a year later and moved from Durango to Chihuahua to avoid capture. He also chose a new name for himself, Francisco Villa. It was here that he ingratiated himself with the local population. The vast state of Chihuahua consists mostly of deserts and inhospitable mountain ranges and lacked railroads and was hard for government forces to penetrate. Until the late 19th century, the colonists who fought the Apaches raiders were the heroes of Chihuahua. Once the Apaches were gone, the businessmen and government wanted the people’s land because it was now more valuable absent the constant threat of the Apaches. So the power structure just took the land from the people. This is the world of oppression and revenge, some of it justifiable, in which Villa came into manhood.
In 1910, the state of Chihuahua broke out in insurrection led by revolutionary Francisco Madero who was also an experienced politician, Villa became one his trusted military leaders. There were only 5,000 federal troops there and Diaz could not send more because there were only 30,000 troops in the entire country. Madero was able to ascend to the presidency once Diaz presidency was brought down. Madero was assassinated two years later, in 1913 during a coup d’etat . In fact no less than a dozen figures assumed the presidency during the revolutionary period of 1911 - 1928 but Pancho Villa never assumed the presidency. He held power, on and off, but it was largely confined to Chihuahua and surrounding states. He was not immune to brutal acts of violence and retribution. For a time when Villa emerged as a national leader around 1913, and even won the support of the Wilson administration and also the admiration the American left. Villa needed money for weapons and to pay his forces, so once in power he made some reconciliation with foreign mine owners so that they would continue to invest. In Chihuahua after he took power there were no elections and “the army was the supreme arbiter of power”.
In 1915 Wilson wanted no single faction to be strong in Mexico so the American government at times provided arms and money to one side or the other including life preservers to Villa . Eventually Villa figured out that he was being played and this realization explains some of the rage that he harbored against Americans. Villa’s top lieutenant, Pablo Lopez, was captured a few months after Villa’s raid on Columbus New Mexico and he provided some explanations for Villa’s mindset “Don Pancho was convinced that the gringos were too cowardly to fight us, or to try and win our country by force of arms. He said they would keep pitting one faction against another until we were all killed off, and our exhausted country would fall like a ripe pear into their eager hands. Don Pancho also told us that Carranza was selling our northern states to the gringos to get money to keep himself in power. He said he wanted to make some attempt to get intervention from the gringos before they were ready and while we still had time to become a united nation.” The experience of the U.S. Landing in Vera Cruz was very much on his mind.
On Sep 15, 1916 Villa attacked Chihuahua City to rescue prisoners, gain supplies and embarrass the Carranza govt who had nearly 10,000 troops in the city. He attacked surrounding towns and gained more recruits, but the resentment amongst the people against Villa was increasing. Villa never attacked Pershing or the U.S. while the troops were in Mexico. This began the long slide for Pancho Villa over the next three years. His sources of money and ammunition dried up. Villa’s last defeat was at Ciudad Juarez on June 15, 1919. His military advisor Felipe Angeles gave himself up, was court martialed and executed by the Carranza administration. Pancho Villa did not make this mistake but eventually his luck ran out.
Four years later, on July 20, 1923 while living in “relative” obscurity but still with dozens of bodyguards, Pancho Villa’s car was ambushed by his enemies who riddled his car with 40 dum-dum bullets. After making sure that Villa was dead, his killers leisurely rode away on horseback as the government officials turned their heads the other way. The next day Villa’s coffin was carried to the local cemetery in a carriage drawn by two black horses. His men did not attend the funeral since they were holed up at the hacienda expecting to be attacked by government troops. It is not clear from the book what happened to the men in the ensuing years but one can wonder since politically motivated revenge killings were common in Mexico throughout the 1920s.
What happened to Pancho Villa’s head? “On February 6, 1926, the administrator of the cemetery found that Villa’s grave had been opened, and that his head had disappeared. The perpetrators were never caught.” Years later his headless body was moved to the new mausoleum near the Monumento a la Revolucion. Sam Peckinpah made a famous film called ‘Bring me the Head of Diego Garcia’. It is hard for me to believe that Pancho Villa’s tale was not some sort of inspiration for Peckinpah’s film but I have no proof of this.
Five stars. Lots of violence but never overdramatized. Very thorough. Minor caveat for being a little too lengthy and there was an absence of maps and lack of context in some spots.
My interest in Pancho Villa peaked when I went to Mexico City many years ago and visited the Monumento a la Revolucion. There is a mausoleum under the arch where many of the revolutionaries from the Mexican Revolution, including Villa, are buried. You can safely call it a place of reverence. Then over at the Chapultepec museum I saw in a random display the Bolo knife that Villa used. He was also interesting from an American point of view as the last Mexican figure to effectively poke the American bear when his troops invaded the border town of Columbus, New Mexico killing several American troops stationed there in 1916. This action and the earlier execution of American mining officials in Chihuahua spawned the invasion of ten thousand American troops into Chihuahua just weeks later. John “Black Jack” Pershing’s troops ran around for nearly a year and never managed to capture Pancho Villa but did prevent any further border incursions. So with that background, I decided to get to know the deeper story by reading the authoritative bio.
This book is an especially good one for anyone who is looking for a well balanced history of not just Pancho Villa but of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, a terrible period in Mexico that resulted in millions of deaths — many by execution. The revolution turned into a civil war because once a revolutionary took control he would become a counter-revolutionary to maintain power and this cycle continued for many years. Villa, Madero (Villa’s mentor) and Carranza in the north and Oberon and Zapata in the south. There are so many seminal moments and deaths of revolutionaries discussed in the book that the demise of Pancho Villa, a legendary event in Mexico, garnered less than a chapter in an otherwise lengthy book. Be warned that Villa’s early life details are thin — so this is largely a book about the last dozen years of his life.
Doroteo Arango, aka Pancho Villa, was born on the Rancho de la Coyotada in the state of Durango in 1878. He shot a man in the foot when he was sixteen, went on the run and soon entered into a life of minor banditry. After many years of banditry, Villa was arrested in 1902 by President Porfio Diaz’s army. He was drafted into the army, then he deserted a year later and moved from Durango to Chihuahua to avoid capture. He also chose a new name for himself, Francisco Villa. It was here that he ingratiated himself with the local population. The vast state of Chihuahua consists mostly of deserts and inhospitable mountain ranges and lacked railroads and was hard for government forces to penetrate. Until the late 19th century, the colonists who fought the Apaches raiders were the heroes of Chihuahua. Once the Apaches were gone, the businessmen and government wanted the people’s land because it was now more valuable absent the constant threat of the Apaches. So the power structure just took the land from the people. This is the world of oppression and revenge, some of it justifiable, in which Villa came into manhood.
In 1910, the state of Chihuahua broke out in insurrection led by revolutionary Francisco Madero who was also an experienced politician, Villa became one his trusted military leaders. There were only 5,000 federal troops there and Diaz could not send more because there were only 30,000 troops in the entire country. Madero was able to ascend to the presidency once Diaz presidency was brought down. Madero was assassinated two years later, in 1913 during a coup d’etat . In fact no less than a dozen figures assumed the presidency during the revolutionary period of 1911 - 1928 but Pancho Villa never assumed the presidency. He held power, on and off, but it was largely confined to Chihuahua and surrounding states. He was not immune to brutal acts of violence and retribution. For a time when Villa emerged as a national leader around 1913, and even won the support of the Wilson administration and also the admiration the American left. Villa needed money for weapons and to pay his forces, so once in power he made some reconciliation with foreign mine owners so that they would continue to invest. In Chihuahua after he took power there were no elections and “the army was the supreme arbiter of power”.
In 1915 Wilson wanted no single faction to be strong in Mexico so the American government at times provided arms and money to one side or the other including life preservers to Villa . Eventually Villa figured out that he was being played and this realization explains some of the rage that he harbored against Americans. Villa’s top lieutenant, Pablo Lopez, was captured a few months after Villa’s raid on Columbus New Mexico and he provided some explanations for Villa’s mindset “Don Pancho was convinced that the gringos were too cowardly to fight us, or to try and win our country by force of arms. He said they would keep pitting one faction against another until we were all killed off, and our exhausted country would fall like a ripe pear into their eager hands. Don Pancho also told us that Carranza was selling our northern states to the gringos to get money to keep himself in power. He said he wanted to make some attempt to get intervention from the gringos before they were ready and while we still had time to become a united nation.” The experience of the U.S. Landing in Vera Cruz was very much on his mind.
On Sep 15, 1916 Villa attacked Chihuahua City to rescue prisoners, gain supplies and embarrass the Carranza govt who had nearly 10,000 troops in the city. He attacked surrounding towns and gained more recruits, but the resentment amongst the people against Villa was increasing. Villa never attacked Pershing or the U.S. while the troops were in Mexico. This began the long slide for Pancho Villa over the next three years. His sources of money and ammunition dried up. Villa’s last defeat was at Ciudad Juarez on June 15, 1919. His military advisor Felipe Angeles gave himself up, was court martialed and executed by the Carranza administration. Pancho Villa did not make this mistake but eventually his luck ran out.
Four years later, on July 20, 1923 while living in “relative” obscurity but still with dozens of bodyguards, Pancho Villa’s car was ambushed by his enemies who riddled his car with 40 dum-dum bullets. After making sure that Villa was dead, his killers leisurely rode away on horseback as the government officials turned their heads the other way. The next day Villa’s coffin was carried to the local cemetery in a carriage drawn by two black horses. His men did not attend the funeral since they were holed up at the hacienda expecting to be attacked by government troops. It is not clear from the book what happened to the men in the ensuing years but one can wonder since politically motivated revenge killings were common in Mexico throughout the 1920s.
What happened to Pancho Villa’s head? “On February 6, 1926, the administrator of the cemetery found that Villa’s grave had been opened, and that his head had disappeared. The perpetrators were never caught.” Years later his headless body was moved to the new mausoleum near the Monumento a la Revolucion. Sam Peckinpah made a famous film called ‘Bring me the Head of Diego Garcia’. It is hard for me to believe that Pancho Villa’s tale was not some sort of inspiration for Peckinpah’s film but I have no proof of this.
Five stars. Lots of violence but never overdramatized. Very thorough. Minor caveat for being a little too lengthy and there was an absence of maps and lack of context in some spots.
January 10, 2020
While the first 100 pages of this 985 book was very dry and only dealt with the Mexican economy, the book deserves the 4 star rating when it described in detail the fascinating life of Pancho.
February 25, 2016
This is a massive book, and not for light reading. Still, I think it is the best book on the Revolutionary period. If you are interested in this subject, this should not be the first book you pick up, there is just too much information. However, after you've read one or two other books, and have a good grounding, this is the book that wraps it up. There is nothing left out.
August 21, 2014
The absolute definitive work on Villa, a fascinating character and central player of the Mexican revolution. Tremendous accomplishment by a highly distinguished historian.
April 15, 2010
I was in Ciudad Chihuahua and visited the Pancho Villa Museum. I was struck how many mexicans were there and how quiet and reverent they were at the museum. I thought to my self that I must learn more about this man. I took on a big task of reading this huge book. It was worth it I learned a lot about Pancho Villa and much about "The Revolucion". I was also surprised(as always when reading Mexican history) how much the United States history is intertwined with Mexico...nomad
August 16, 2019
The Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1920/40) produced a host of colourful historical characters, of whom the most famous caudillos (this imperfectly translates as 'warlords') were; Francisco Madero, Victorio Huerta, Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza, Alvaro Obregon, and Jose Doreto Arrango - a.k.a the eponymous Pancho Villa.
It is widely recognised that Madero's downfall, as Mexico's first democratically elected president, was, if not inevitable, then at least over-determined given the political/military chaos that prevented the effective implementation of mass democracy between 1911 - 1913. Huerta's attempt to turn back the clock on the Revolution and restore a hyper-militarised version of the Porfiriato was shown to be equally infeasible. Zapata's agrarian insurgency, while easily the most radical (and endearing to subsequent generations of sympathetic scholars), was a localised movement whose vision of land reform never really extended beyond the parochial purview of the state of Morelos. Pancho Villa was, as such, the only political player who posed a viable alternative to the Constitutionalist faction that eventually emerged victorious by the fall of 1915.
Any historian who studies modern Mexican history must therefore engage with the implicit counterfactual posed by Pancho Villa, namely, why did his movement fail and what would have been the fate of Mexico had it not? Accordingly, Katz's magnum opus seeks to understand the reasons for Villa's eventual failure, while at the same time rescuing him from the more simplistic explanations, e.g. that he was little more than a bandit, which have confined him alongside other thwarted revolutionaries to the ash heap of history.
Katz is not without his biases. As he mentions in the introduction, he fled his native Austria in the 1930s as the Third Reich began to extend its tentacles across Europe. This book was also published in 1998, two years before the so-called "Democratic Transition" of 2000 and after Mexico had lived through nearly eighty years of authoritarian rule under a one party-state that claimed a direct line of descent from the Revolution's eventual victors. Much of what was written by 'revisionists' about Mexico, particularly after the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, interpreted this victory in light of the Mexican state 'Leviathan' that had supposedly been consolidated by the 1940s at least. Clearly these contexts coloured some of Katz's scholarship, principally an almost Foucaltian/James Scott-ish suspicion of state power that becomes increasingly apparent as the Constitutionalist cause (which favoured a strong central state) is painted in sinister hues by the book's end. Although Villa is undoubtedly a more endearing personage that the autocratic Carranza, one has to wonder if Mexico might not have been in an even worse state than it is today had Villa's vision of a decentralised polity governed by autonomous revolutionary fiefdoms ever been actualised.
That said, Katz's sympathies extend only so far. He does not shy, for example, from narrating Villa's descent into military atrocities and the mass execution of civilians, although he does somewhat blunt this criticism by referring to the process euphemistically as a period of "moral decline." Nor does he pull any punches regarding the eventual reasons for his subject's defeat, which were produced as much by Villa's own inability to adapt to the exigencies of modern warfare as by the economic/political conditions which meant the Division del Norte would almost invariably be out-gunned in any long-term land campaign against the Constitutionalists. Villa may have been dealt a poor hand as his sympathisers are right to assert, but few can deny after reading Katz's analysis that he proceeded to play it extremely poorly.
Ultimately, this book emerges as not only a biography of one of the Revolution's most prominent personages but as a history of the Mexican revolutionary epoch itself. It is simply one of the finest works of scholarship on the Revolution that I have ever read, and it deserves a far greater prominence than it currently receives among the general public.
It is widely recognised that Madero's downfall, as Mexico's first democratically elected president, was, if not inevitable, then at least over-determined given the political/military chaos that prevented the effective implementation of mass democracy between 1911 - 1913. Huerta's attempt to turn back the clock on the Revolution and restore a hyper-militarised version of the Porfiriato was shown to be equally infeasible. Zapata's agrarian insurgency, while easily the most radical (and endearing to subsequent generations of sympathetic scholars), was a localised movement whose vision of land reform never really extended beyond the parochial purview of the state of Morelos. Pancho Villa was, as such, the only political player who posed a viable alternative to the Constitutionalist faction that eventually emerged victorious by the fall of 1915.
Any historian who studies modern Mexican history must therefore engage with the implicit counterfactual posed by Pancho Villa, namely, why did his movement fail and what would have been the fate of Mexico had it not? Accordingly, Katz's magnum opus seeks to understand the reasons for Villa's eventual failure, while at the same time rescuing him from the more simplistic explanations, e.g. that he was little more than a bandit, which have confined him alongside other thwarted revolutionaries to the ash heap of history.
Katz is not without his biases. As he mentions in the introduction, he fled his native Austria in the 1930s as the Third Reich began to extend its tentacles across Europe. This book was also published in 1998, two years before the so-called "Democratic Transition" of 2000 and after Mexico had lived through nearly eighty years of authoritarian rule under a one party-state that claimed a direct line of descent from the Revolution's eventual victors. Much of what was written by 'revisionists' about Mexico, particularly after the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, interpreted this victory in light of the Mexican state 'Leviathan' that had supposedly been consolidated by the 1940s at least. Clearly these contexts coloured some of Katz's scholarship, principally an almost Foucaltian/James Scott-ish suspicion of state power that becomes increasingly apparent as the Constitutionalist cause (which favoured a strong central state) is painted in sinister hues by the book's end. Although Villa is undoubtedly a more endearing personage that the autocratic Carranza, one has to wonder if Mexico might not have been in an even worse state than it is today had Villa's vision of a decentralised polity governed by autonomous revolutionary fiefdoms ever been actualised.
That said, Katz's sympathies extend only so far. He does not shy, for example, from narrating Villa's descent into military atrocities and the mass execution of civilians, although he does somewhat blunt this criticism by referring to the process euphemistically as a period of "moral decline." Nor does he pull any punches regarding the eventual reasons for his subject's defeat, which were produced as much by Villa's own inability to adapt to the exigencies of modern warfare as by the economic/political conditions which meant the Division del Norte would almost invariably be out-gunned in any long-term land campaign against the Constitutionalists. Villa may have been dealt a poor hand as his sympathisers are right to assert, but few can deny after reading Katz's analysis that he proceeded to play it extremely poorly.
Ultimately, this book emerges as not only a biography of one of the Revolution's most prominent personages but as a history of the Mexican revolutionary epoch itself. It is simply one of the finest works of scholarship on the Revolution that I have ever read, and it deserves a far greater prominence than it currently receives among the general public.
April 26, 2010
This was my most ambitious reading project since James Joyce's Ulysses. I can't imagine there will ever be a more definitive, comprehensive account of Pancho Villa's life and the role he played in the Mexican Revolution. This book is well-researched and well-written and, ultimately, well worth the effort to read its nearly 1000 pages. It left me with a much deeper understanding of Mexican history and how that influenced events here in the United States.
March 18, 2025
The Mexican Revolution is a difficult subject to approach. It was a loosely organized aeries of uprisings that lasted a little more than a decade. Some of the key figures, especially military commanders were obscure people with obscure motivations. Alliances shifted constantly, sometimes inexplicably. Historical records of events in Mexico at that time were not meticulously kept. A lot of what people know about the revolution is apocryphal and based in folklore, legend, and sometimes propaganda and yellow journalism. It’s no wonder that historians who tackle this field of knowledge often contradict each other in their accounts. It’s hard to tell the truth when the truth is so uncertain. One way of reducing the amount of murkiness and confusion surrounding the Mexican Revolution is to write about it from a biographical standpoint so that one historical figure can act as an anchor, making it easier to organize and analyze the confusing mass of information. That is what the Austrian historian Friedrich Karz does in The Life and Times of Pancho Villa.
The whole story starts out in the northern state of Chihuahua where military veterans of the Mexico-Apache wars were given land as reward for their fighting. As the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz grew in power, the increasingly unpopular oligarchs Luis Terrazas and Enrique Creel were encroaching on people’s land, establishing haciendas, and instituting a system of debt peonage. Francisco Madero started a pro-democracy uprising to unseat Diaz and one of his military commanders was a former bandit named Pancho Villa. This ex-bandit had a natural talent for military leadership and quickly rose in the ranks. His army unit was composed of mostly peasant agriculturalists and Indians and their agitation for land reform and redistribution came into the revolution along with them.
Understanding the mind and personality of Pancho Villa is not an easy task. A lot is known about what he did, but personal accounts of what he was like as a man are on the sketchy side. He is known for being compassionate and cruel in equal measures, he moved easily among the poorest and richest members of society, his educational level was low but he had a natural intelligence and a curiosity for learning, and he was a bigamist who married several women and had a large brood of children. None of this tells you much about the inner workings of his mind. But I also suspect that Katz is not the kind of author who has an aptitude for that kind of writing.
Nevertheless, Pancho Villa’s story is amazing. After helping Madero overthrow the dictatorship, Villa was imprisoned for some unclear reason. After Villa escaped, the military commander Huerta overthrew Madero and reestablished the dictatorship. Villa called up his armies again and the next phase of civil war began. After the revolutionaries called the Conference of Aguascalientes, Villa formed a loose alliance with Emiliano Zapata since both caudillos stood for the cause of land reform. Villa seized power in Chihuaua as acting governor for a while, then eventually returned to fighting in the war, this time against the faction of the revolution lead by Venustiano Carranza, the man who ratified the new Mexican constitution. Just like in the French Revolution, and so many other revolutions in the past, the revolutionary soldiers entered into combat against each other. By the end of the decade, Villa was losing favor with his followers but he kept fighting, probably because he didn’t know what else to do with himself. During this period before his assassination, he led an attack north of the American border on the town of Columbus, New Mexico. This led to a brief invasion into Mexico by the American army that resulted in nothing but more chaos.
There is so much more to this story and most of it is written here in minute details. It is an understatement to say that Friedrich Katz is anal retentive. Ultimately, though, he is on the tolerable side of detail oriented writing, thereby making it just possible to digest. If he had given any more details this book would have been impossible to read. But the details are the best and the worst thing about this biography. By giving such long, drawn out explanations, Katz runs the risk of boring his readers to death and drowning them in information. But at least the information is relevant and, actually, it works to his benefit. Since the Mexican Revolution can be such a swamp of muck to unpack, something goes to be said for the excessive details. Writing it all out this way separates the different strands of the history, bringing them into sharper focus, and making it easy to examine each part of the story in clarity. A quality microscope can make a splotch of biological matter easier to see in its complexity by expanding and exaggerating its appearance so its disorganization looks more organized for our perception. That is what Katz accomplishes in this book. Even though this work is so thorough that it can induce migraines for the reader, it is worth the torment of reading it because it ends up being the most comprehensible and clearly written book on the Mexican Revolution I have encountered so far.
Another impressive aspect of this biography is Katz’s unwillingness to take sides in an argument when he feels there is not enough evidence to draw a strong conclusion. A case in point is the issue of why American president Woodrow Wilson supported the Villista forces at first and then switched sides to support the Constitutionalist Carrancistas. Katz gives multiple perspectives on the issue, but doesn’t come to a definite conclusion because there isn’t any documented records directly explaining Wilson’s stances. Other issues treated in this similar way are Madero’s reasoning for imprisoning Villa, Villa’s continued support for Madero after being imprisoned, Villa’s reasoning for fighting against Carranza and his troops, whether Villa was persuaded by a German agent to attack Columbus as part of a conspiracy to keep America out of World War I, and who was behind the assassination of Villa. He even contemplates the unanswered question of why Villa continued his campaigns of guerilla warfare for so long after the Revolution had lost meaning for him. While it is useful to speculate on unanswerable historical problems, it is even more commendable when a scholar is humble enough to admit that he doesn’t know what the right answers are.
To be blunt, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa is a pain in the ass to read because of its length, excessive detail, and Germanic writing style that could very well make your hemorrhoids act up. But if there is only one book you ever read about the Mexican Revolution, this one is worth the trouble. That’s not to say it exhausts the subject matter because it doesn’t. But it does clarify a lot of the confusion surrounding this hotly debated topic of Mexican history. And by the end, it makes it easy to see why Pancho Villa remains a hero of the poor and the working classes in Mexico, along with Leftists in other countries, and such a villain to heartless conservatives who think the world should only belong to them. And Villa is even a saint to some devotees of Santa Muerte.
The whole story starts out in the northern state of Chihuahua where military veterans of the Mexico-Apache wars were given land as reward for their fighting. As the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz grew in power, the increasingly unpopular oligarchs Luis Terrazas and Enrique Creel were encroaching on people’s land, establishing haciendas, and instituting a system of debt peonage. Francisco Madero started a pro-democracy uprising to unseat Diaz and one of his military commanders was a former bandit named Pancho Villa. This ex-bandit had a natural talent for military leadership and quickly rose in the ranks. His army unit was composed of mostly peasant agriculturalists and Indians and their agitation for land reform and redistribution came into the revolution along with them.
Understanding the mind and personality of Pancho Villa is not an easy task. A lot is known about what he did, but personal accounts of what he was like as a man are on the sketchy side. He is known for being compassionate and cruel in equal measures, he moved easily among the poorest and richest members of society, his educational level was low but he had a natural intelligence and a curiosity for learning, and he was a bigamist who married several women and had a large brood of children. None of this tells you much about the inner workings of his mind. But I also suspect that Katz is not the kind of author who has an aptitude for that kind of writing.
Nevertheless, Pancho Villa’s story is amazing. After helping Madero overthrow the dictatorship, Villa was imprisoned for some unclear reason. After Villa escaped, the military commander Huerta overthrew Madero and reestablished the dictatorship. Villa called up his armies again and the next phase of civil war began. After the revolutionaries called the Conference of Aguascalientes, Villa formed a loose alliance with Emiliano Zapata since both caudillos stood for the cause of land reform. Villa seized power in Chihuaua as acting governor for a while, then eventually returned to fighting in the war, this time against the faction of the revolution lead by Venustiano Carranza, the man who ratified the new Mexican constitution. Just like in the French Revolution, and so many other revolutions in the past, the revolutionary soldiers entered into combat against each other. By the end of the decade, Villa was losing favor with his followers but he kept fighting, probably because he didn’t know what else to do with himself. During this period before his assassination, he led an attack north of the American border on the town of Columbus, New Mexico. This led to a brief invasion into Mexico by the American army that resulted in nothing but more chaos.
There is so much more to this story and most of it is written here in minute details. It is an understatement to say that Friedrich Katz is anal retentive. Ultimately, though, he is on the tolerable side of detail oriented writing, thereby making it just possible to digest. If he had given any more details this book would have been impossible to read. But the details are the best and the worst thing about this biography. By giving such long, drawn out explanations, Katz runs the risk of boring his readers to death and drowning them in information. But at least the information is relevant and, actually, it works to his benefit. Since the Mexican Revolution can be such a swamp of muck to unpack, something goes to be said for the excessive details. Writing it all out this way separates the different strands of the history, bringing them into sharper focus, and making it easy to examine each part of the story in clarity. A quality microscope can make a splotch of biological matter easier to see in its complexity by expanding and exaggerating its appearance so its disorganization looks more organized for our perception. That is what Katz accomplishes in this book. Even though this work is so thorough that it can induce migraines for the reader, it is worth the torment of reading it because it ends up being the most comprehensible and clearly written book on the Mexican Revolution I have encountered so far.
Another impressive aspect of this biography is Katz’s unwillingness to take sides in an argument when he feels there is not enough evidence to draw a strong conclusion. A case in point is the issue of why American president Woodrow Wilson supported the Villista forces at first and then switched sides to support the Constitutionalist Carrancistas. Katz gives multiple perspectives on the issue, but doesn’t come to a definite conclusion because there isn’t any documented records directly explaining Wilson’s stances. Other issues treated in this similar way are Madero’s reasoning for imprisoning Villa, Villa’s continued support for Madero after being imprisoned, Villa’s reasoning for fighting against Carranza and his troops, whether Villa was persuaded by a German agent to attack Columbus as part of a conspiracy to keep America out of World War I, and who was behind the assassination of Villa. He even contemplates the unanswered question of why Villa continued his campaigns of guerilla warfare for so long after the Revolution had lost meaning for him. While it is useful to speculate on unanswerable historical problems, it is even more commendable when a scholar is humble enough to admit that he doesn’t know what the right answers are.
To be blunt, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa is a pain in the ass to read because of its length, excessive detail, and Germanic writing style that could very well make your hemorrhoids act up. But if there is only one book you ever read about the Mexican Revolution, this one is worth the trouble. That’s not to say it exhausts the subject matter because it doesn’t. But it does clarify a lot of the confusion surrounding this hotly debated topic of Mexican history. And by the end, it makes it easy to see why Pancho Villa remains a hero of the poor and the working classes in Mexico, along with Leftists in other countries, and such a villain to heartless conservatives who think the world should only belong to them. And Villa is even a saint to some devotees of Santa Muerte.
December 29, 2021
Incredibly researched and detailed book on the life of Villa. Book alternates between a narrative history of Villa and the impact on the Revolution. At times, the book is almost too dense in its analysis of his life and impact, which makes his story less enjoyable to follow.
February 2, 2021
Competent history, not a particularly engaging read, hugely repetitive. If Womack's "Zapata and the Mexican Revolution" is a 5, this is a solid 3.
June 20, 2022
This is as much a history of the Mexican Revolution as it is a biography of Pancho Villa. It’s the second book I’ve read by Professor Katz. The first was The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution. Both works are the result of meticulous scholarship. Katz was an historian’s historian, pouring through previously unexplored archives, working to develop a more complete understanding of the very complicated decade and a half that ended with Villa’s 1923 assassination. Katz is exceptionally even-handed and painstakingly lays out evidence supporting competing points of view about many matters including Villa’s ideological positions and the identity and motivation of his assassins. With respect to the latter, he concludes, “In all probability, Villa’s assassination was largely the result of the Mexican government’s desire for recognition by the United States in 1923.”
Katz's strong suit was not storytelling. You won’t finish this book feeling like you personally witnessed the Division del Norte in battle or that you vicariously experienced Villa’s childhood. Instead of color and drama, Katz focuses on the politics of land redistribution, Chihuahuan history and economics, the mercurial relationship with the US, the shifting alliances among the various generals. Some readers may find this a bit dry and academic. Personally, I appreciated the depth. Katz is also interesting when he compares aspects of the Mexican Revolution to the French and Bolshevik Revolutions and Villa to Lenin, Batista, Somoza and Trujillo.
Katz's strong suit was not storytelling. You won’t finish this book feeling like you personally witnessed the Division del Norte in battle or that you vicariously experienced Villa’s childhood. Instead of color and drama, Katz focuses on the politics of land redistribution, Chihuahuan history and economics, the mercurial relationship with the US, the shifting alliances among the various generals. Some readers may find this a bit dry and academic. Personally, I appreciated the depth. Katz is also interesting when he compares aspects of the Mexican Revolution to the French and Bolshevik Revolutions and Villa to Lenin, Batista, Somoza and Trujillo.
November 25, 2024
5 Stars
Using this as a review of the film "Starring Pancho Villa as Himself". I'd never heard of the film before but while doing walking tours and museum visits around Mexico City over the last few weeks Pancho Villa came up a load which led me to the film (which apparently used this book as a source). The film follows the insane but apparently true story of an American film crew which followed the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa as he battled against government forces in 1923, in the process shooting the 1st feature length film.
I expected a cheesy historical epic similar to Braveheart, Gladiator etc. (don't get me wrong I love those films, soap operas for macho men) but while the film delivered that on one level it also delivered a surprisingly cynical and complex appraisal of myth-making, propaganda and hollywood. Antonio Banderas was brilliant in the title role and the fella who played Thayer did the observer/narrator role really well (and he really came into his own in the dialogue after the premier at the end of the film and the final scenes). All the side characters and subplots were skillfully realized as well even in minimal screen-time (the tale of the 2 young brothers in Villa's army, the romance sub-plot that doesn't work out quite as you would expect). The action scenes were brilliantly shot as well and the cinematography shot on-site in Mexico was impressive.
Overall this film is now easily one of my all time favourite "hidden gems" of cinema. For anyone interested in Mexican revolutionary history, Hollywood history or just wants to see a great film I'd defeinitely recommend checking it out.
Using this as a review of the film "Starring Pancho Villa as Himself". I'd never heard of the film before but while doing walking tours and museum visits around Mexico City over the last few weeks Pancho Villa came up a load which led me to the film (which apparently used this book as a source). The film follows the insane but apparently true story of an American film crew which followed the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa as he battled against government forces in 1923, in the process shooting the 1st feature length film.
I expected a cheesy historical epic similar to Braveheart, Gladiator etc. (don't get me wrong I love those films, soap operas for macho men) but while the film delivered that on one level it also delivered a surprisingly cynical and complex appraisal of myth-making, propaganda and hollywood. Antonio Banderas was brilliant in the title role and the fella who played Thayer did the observer/narrator role really well (and he really came into his own in the dialogue after the premier at the end of the film and the final scenes). All the side characters and subplots were skillfully realized as well even in minimal screen-time (the tale of the 2 young brothers in Villa's army, the romance sub-plot that doesn't work out quite as you would expect). The action scenes were brilliantly shot as well and the cinematography shot on-site in Mexico was impressive.
Overall this film is now easily one of my all time favourite "hidden gems" of cinema. For anyone interested in Mexican revolutionary history, Hollywood history or just wants to see a great film I'd defeinitely recommend checking it out.
October 13, 2022
I spent ten days reading this massive book (so thick and wide that I can only stack it on the bottom of my shelves) and was thoroughly absorbed by Katz's thorough scholarship and his lively way of presenting Pancho Villa, warts and all, as a revolutionary who was unlike any other. Self-taught, a natural instinct for military maneuvering, a man who inspired great loyalty in the Division del Norte. This isn't so much of a biography, as it is a work of history, largely covering the Mexican Revolution and spilling into Villa's inevitable assassination. Katz does a great job depicting the agrarian struggle that led so many in Chihuahua to fight for Pancho. He's great at showing the land dynamics, particularly in the way that the haciendas were under attack by the Apaches and how this presented an opportunity for Pancho and his army to seize these homes and these coffers. I do wish that he would have been a little better in unpacking the attack on Columbus, New Mexico (for which I have just ordered another book), but this is a minor quibble. He outlines the Mexican Presidents well, as well as such sinister figures as Fierro, Pancho's henchman, known as the Butcher for his free-wheeling executions. Weirdly enough, Zapata only makes a few cameo appearances here. But these are minor quibbles about a mighty volume that masterfully shows Pancho's place in Mexican history and does a great job sorting the truth from the legend (still subject to dispute to this very day!).
March 13, 2023
Biografía extensísima de uno de los protagonistas de la Revolución Mexicana. 1300 páginas según el kindle. Según he leído por ahí, la mejor sobre Pancho Villa, puede ser un buen hilo conductor para aprender sobre una revolución casi desconocida para mí, porque en España no nos cuentan nada más que bobadas sobre el mayor país en que se habla nuestro mismo idioma.
Me gustan mucho los primeros capítulos, en los que se describe en contexto prerrevolucionario en el estado de Chihuahua. Como no se sabe nada sobre la infancia y primera juventud de Doroteo Arango, simplemente desmonta un par de teorías que circulan por ahí y no nos hace perder demasiado el tiempo. Luego comienza la Revolución, Pancho Villa hace su aparición en la Historia y el libro se vuelve PROLIJO:
Primero se extiende muchísimo con el cautiverio de Pancho en Ciudad de México, y luego, tras el asesinato de Madero, se dedica a repasar todos y cada uno de sus colaboradores y participantes en el gobierno de Chihuahua. Como parece que no va a tener fin, lo dejo tras haber leído solamente una tercera parte. A lo mejor algún día leo algún capítulo suelto.
No era necesario volcar todos y cada uno de los datos que hayas logrado recopilar, Fritz. En serio.
Me gustan mucho los primeros capítulos, en los que se describe en contexto prerrevolucionario en el estado de Chihuahua. Como no se sabe nada sobre la infancia y primera juventud de Doroteo Arango, simplemente desmonta un par de teorías que circulan por ahí y no nos hace perder demasiado el tiempo. Luego comienza la Revolución, Pancho Villa hace su aparición en la Historia y el libro se vuelve PROLIJO:
Primero se extiende muchísimo con el cautiverio de Pancho en Ciudad de México, y luego, tras el asesinato de Madero, se dedica a repasar todos y cada uno de sus colaboradores y participantes en el gobierno de Chihuahua. Como parece que no va a tener fin, lo dejo tras haber leído solamente una tercera parte. A lo mejor algún día leo algún capítulo suelto.
No era necesario volcar todos y cada uno de los datos que hayas logrado recopilar, Fritz. En serio.
July 8, 2021
Detailed autobiographical life of controversial Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Reviled by the Americans as a bandit yet regarded as a Robin Hood legend to Mexicans, Villa alongside Zapata and Carranza played a pivotal role in the Mexican Revolution against the disputed Diaz regime and its wealthy landowners. Despite their brutal tactics and revolutionary zeal Villas primary support came from illiterate farmers, peasants, working class and poor indigenous Mexicans all united in overthrowing the 31 year dictatorship. The book provides great factual information from Villas poor upbringing a byproduct of the 1910 uprising brandishing a thick mustache, poncho, with custom bandolier; into to being wanted as an international fugitive by the United States Army; concluding at his assassination.
February 2, 2022
This is the kind of book you read and re-read, value, prize, and keep forever. Exhaustive research and historical coverage of a time when Mexico was plunged into civil war and revolution in the early 1900s. Covers the years which led up to his appearance on the world stage as a ruthless military genius, the background to the oppression of the Mexican peasantry, and abuses inflicted upon the people by a government so corrupt it sought to remain in power indefinitely. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in history, the role Mexico has played in American and world history, especially during wartime, and for a lesson on Mexico for the genealogy buff whose ancestry lies "South of The Border."
December 16, 2019
This is certainly a comprehensive biography (which is good since it was over 800 pages) and includes context of his life, those around him, the political situation in Mexico in the early 20th century, as well as insight from others who were involved in the region. The author seems to avoid presenting a biased portrayal of Pancho Villa's life, which was probably very difficult to do, but in the end provides a fascinating portrait of a complex and interesting person.
May 10, 2024
Balanced and objective
Being born and raised in Chihuahua city I had heard all kind os good and bad stories about Pancho Villa and wanted to learn an as much as possible objective view of this important part of our history. Pancho Villa and his role in the Mexican Revolution. I found the answer in this book. As all humans, we have our angels and demons. I highly recommend this very well documented book to learn about the real Pancho Villa.
Being born and raised in Chihuahua city I had heard all kind os good and bad stories about Pancho Villa and wanted to learn an as much as possible objective view of this important part of our history. Pancho Villa and his role in the Mexican Revolution. I found the answer in this book. As all humans, we have our angels and demons. I highly recommend this very well documented book to learn about the real Pancho Villa.
May 29, 2023
i did not in fact read all 1000 pages of this 1000 page biography of pancho villa but i read a couple hundred here and there and i am now substantially more up on pancho villa at least until 1913. i didnt get to the part where he invades america.
July 30, 2021
Sometimes you wanna meet your heroes, other times, you kinda dont
September 18, 2023
Very dry and academic, but informative, about a very interesting individual.
December 6, 2012
A deep, and I mean deep, study of the Mexico revolution of the 1911-1913 era and one of its important leaders/legends. This book tries to separate the legend from the fact by going deep into a huge number of historical documents and interviews with some of the best historians out there.
Not an easy read at over 1,100 pages. You want to know about Villa? Read this.
Ok, the truth be known after 300 pages of extreme detail I went to the last 30 or so pages of "conclusion: in order to finish the book.
Not an easy read at over 1,100 pages. You want to know about Villa? Read this.
Ok, the truth be known after 300 pages of extreme detail I went to the last 30 or so pages of "conclusion: in order to finish the book.
January 9, 2010
I first picked this book up because my family comes from an area Pancho operated in, not expecting much. It turned into a fun read, one of those reality is way better than fiction deals. All sorts of great stuff like Pancho's right hand man shooting a random guy in the street to settle a bet that a shot man falls forward, or a discussion of what great soldiers children make, as they are oblivious to the dangers of the battlefield and don't eat much. If only they didn't waste so many bullets...
September 23, 2012
Friedrich Katz was one of the great historians on the Mexican Revolution. His whole professional life was dedicated to illuminate the facts of this first social revolution of the 20th century. The culmination of his life work is this book. Brilliantly researched, incredibly detailed, and complete. If you want to get to know Pancho Villa, here is the book to read. Keep in mind that Katz has a distinct ideology underlying his historical work. He selects where the story is going.
May 30, 2008
This is all you ever wanted to know about pancho villa. and mexican social, political history. its well written and exciting in parts, but at 925 pages it will crush your chest if you are lying down reading. In 2008 many of the reforms made because of Villa's revolution are being turned back, as big global agriculture is taking over mexican small holders.
June 30, 2012
Katz is the premier historian of Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution period. This book was another of the many read for completing my Masters thesis. My focus was on the period of the attack on Columbus, New Mexico and the subsequent Punitive Expedition by the US Army. An extreme amount of information in an approachable book.
October 9, 2013
At a cat-squashing 900 + pages, Katz' biography weighs in as the definitive study of Villa and in a broader context, the Mexican Revolution. Katz leaves few leads unexplored in his attempt to separate fact from legend. Purely sweeping!
July 5, 2012
A thorough and balanced account of the life and times of Pancho Villa.
I found this book to be very informative and interesting.
Reccomended reading for anyone who is interested in Latin American history or the Mexican Revolution.
I found this book to be very informative and interesting.
Reccomended reading for anyone who is interested in Latin American history or the Mexican Revolution.
August 2, 2007
BORING
November 11, 2010
This is quite the tome. It is a feat to take on but incredibly thorough, detailed look at not just Pancho Villa but the Mexican Revolution.
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