Villa and Zapata: A History of the Mexican Revolution

by Frank McLynn

  The US factor appearas in Edward Haley, Revolution and Intervention: The Diplomacy of Taft and Wilson with Mexico, 1910-17 (Cambridge, Mass. 1970); Karl M. Schmitt, Mexico and the United States, 1821-1973; Conflict and Co-existence (New York 1974); Berta Ulloa, La revolucion intervenida, relaciones diplomkticas entre Mexico y Estados Unidos 1910-14 (Mexico City 1971); Moise S. Alperovich and Boris T. Rudenko, La revolucion mexicana de 1910-17: La politica de los Estados Unidos (Mexico City 1976); Clarence C. Clenenden, Blood on the Border: The United States and the Mexican Irregulars (New York 1969); Howard F. Cline, The United States and Mexico (1968); Linda B. Hall and Don M. Coever, Revolution on the Border: The United States and Mexico, 1910-1920 (Albuquerque 1988); Paul V. N. Henderson, Mexican Exiles on the Borderlands, 1909-1913 (El Paso 1979); Leon C. Metz, Border: The US - Mexico Line (El Paso 1989); James A. Sandos, Rebellion in the Borderlands: Anarchism and the Plan of San Diego, 1904-1923 (Norman, Oklahoma 1992); Paul J. Vanderwood and Frank N. Samponaro, Border Fury: A Picture Postcard Record of Mexico's Revolution and US War Preparedness, 1910-1917 (Albuquerque 1988).

  The secondary (but none the less important) personalities of 1911 are dealt with in the following works: Orozco in Michael C. Meyer, Mexican Rebel: Pascual Orozco and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1915 (Lincoln, Nebraska 1967) and Ramon Puente, Pascual Orozco y la revuelta de Chihuahua (Mexico City 1912); Garibaldi in Giuseppe Garibaldi, A Toast to Rebellion (New York 1937); Limantour in Jose Yves Limantour, Apuntes sobre mi vida piiblica, 1892-1911 (Mexico City 1965) and Kenneth M. Johnson, Jose Yves Limantour v. United States (Los Angeles 1961). Interest in Magon and the Magonistas has become a growth industry. See Colin M. MacLachlan, Anarchism and the Mexican Revolution: The Political Trials of Ricardo Flores Magon In the United States (Berkeley 1991); Juan Gomez Quinones, Sembradores: Ricardo Flores Magon y el Partido Liberal Mexicano: A Eulogy and Critique (Los Angeles 1977); Ethel Duffy Turner, Ricardo Flores Magon y El Partido Liberal Mexicano (Mexico City 1984).

  Further relevant material on Zapata (additional to that cited for the chapter on the rise of Zapata) is as follows: Lola Elizabeth Boyd, ed., Emiliano Zapata en las letras y el folklore mexicano (Mexico City 1979); Carlos J. Sierra Brabatta, Zapata: senor de la tierra, capitkn de los labriegos (Mexico City 1985); John H. McNeely, `Origins of the Zapata Revolt in Morelos', HAHR 46 (1966), pp. 153-69; Arturo Warman, `The Political Project of Zapatismo', in Friedrich Katz, ed., Riot, Rebellion and Revolution: Rural Social Conflict in Mexico (Princeton 1988), PP. 321-38; Francois Chevalier, `Un facteur decisif de la revolution agraire au Mexique: le soulevement de Zapata, 1911-1919', Annales, E.S.C. 16 (1961), pp. 66-82.

  The spreading ripples of the Zapata movement through neighbouring states can be traced in a number of works: Ian Jacobs, Ranchero Revolt: The Mexican Revolution in Guerrero (Austin 1982); Atenedoro Gomez, Monografia historica sobre la genesis de la revolucion en el estado de Puebla (Mexico City 1960); Moises Ochoa Campos, Historia del estado de Guerrero (Mexico City 1968); Jesus Romero Flores, Historia de la revolucion en Michoacan (Mexico City 1964); Hector R. Olea, Breve historia de la revolucion en Sinaloa (Mexico City 1964); Romana Falcon, `Los origenes populares de la revolucion en 191o: El caso de San Luis Potosi', Historia Mexicana 29 (1979); Alfonso Francisco Ramirez, Historia de la revolucion en Oaxaca (Mexico City 1970); Manuel Gonzalez Calzada, Historia de la revolucion en Tabasco (Mexico City 1972); Luis Rubluo, Historia de la revolucion mexicana en el estado de Hidalgo, 2 vols (Mexico City 1983); Jan Bazaut, Cinco haciendas mexicanas: tres siglos de vida rural en San Luis Potosi (Mexico City 1975); Ciro de la Garza Trevino, La revolucion en el estado de Tamulipas, 1885-1913 (Mexico City 1973); Antonio Nakayawa, Sinaloa: el drama y sus actores (Mexico City 1975); Hector F. Castanedo Jimenez, Jalisco en la revolucion (Guadalajara 1988); Jose G. Zuno, Historia de la revolucion en el estado de Jalisco (Mexico City 1971); Octavio Gordillo y Ortiz, La revolucion en el estado de Chiapas (Mexico City 1986); Cuauhtemoc Gonzalez Pacheco, Capital extranjero en la selva de Chiapas, 1863-1962 (Mexico City 1983); Robert Wasserstrom, Class and Society in Central Chiapas (Berkeley 1983).

  The closing stages of Madero's struggle against Diaz (and Diaz's failure to contain this revolt as he had contained earlier ones) are examined in Paul J. Vanderwood, `Response to Revolt: The CounterGuerrilla Strategy of Porfirio Diaz', HAHR 56 (1976), PP. 551-79 and Don M. Coerver and Linda B. Hall, Texas and the Mexican Revolution: A Study in State and National Border Policy, 1910-1920 (San Antonio 1984). A good source for 1910-II is the work written on the Mormons in Northern Mexico: Karl E. Young, Ordeal in Mexico: Tales of Danger and Hardship Collected from Mormon Colonists (Salt Lake City 1968); N. S. Hatch and B. C. Hardy, Stalwarts South of the Border (El Paso 1985); and Harold Taylor, Memories of Militants and Mormon Colonists in Mexico (California 1992). There is additional material on Pascual Orozco in Roderic A. Camp, Mexican Political Biographies, 1884-1935 (Austin 1991); Alberto Morales Jimenez, Hombres de la revolution mexicana (Mexico City 1960) and Joaquin Marquez Montiel, Hombres celebres de Chihuahua (Mexico City 1953).

  The growing importance of ideology is highlighted in John D. Rutherford, Mexican Society during the Revolution: A Literary Approach (Oxford 1971) and James D. Cockcroft, Intellectual Precursors of the Mexican Revolution (Austin 1968). The last days of Diaz are graphically covered in a number of accounts by travellers, journalists and eyewitnesses: Patrick O'Hea, Reminiscences of the Mexican Revolution (London 1966); Edward I. Bell, The Political Shame of Mexico (London 1914); Anita R. Brenner and George Leighton, The Wind that Swept Mexico (New York 1943); Ernest Gruening, Mexico and its Heritage (1928); Timothy G. Turner, Bullets, Bottles and Gardenias (Dallas 1935); Henry Baerlein, Mexico: The Land of Unrest (1914).

  As might be expected, academic interest in the women of the Revolution has quickened in recent years. Ana Macias, `Women and the Mexican Revolution, 191o-192o', Americas 37 (198o), pp. 53-82 is a pioneering essay, but since then the following have appeared: Ana Lau and Carmen Ramos, Mujeresy revolucion, 1900-1917 (Mexico City 1993); Elisabeth Salas, Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History (Austin 199o); Maria Herrera-Sobek, The Mexican Corrido: A Feminist Analysis (Bloomington 199o). Mercenaries get a good airing in Lawrence D. Taylor, `The Great Adventure: Mercenaries in the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1915', Americas 43 (1986), p. 25-45 and, especially, in the two-volume work by the same author La gran aventura en Mexico: El papel de los voluntarios extranjeros en los ejercitos revolucionarios mexicanos, 1910-1915 (Mexico City 1993). Some roistering adventures are recounted in the memoir literature: Edward S. O'Reilly, Roving and Fighting: Adventures under Four Flags (New York 1918) and Ira J. Bush, Gringo Doctor (Ohio 1939) are typical examples.

  Machine guns are explained and analysed in John Ellis, The Social History of the Machine Gun (19'75) and G. S. Hutchinson, Machine Guns: Their History and Technical Employment (1938).

  MADERO AND ZAPATA

  The awkward Madero interregnum is covered in all the standard books (such as Ross and Cumberland already cited), but there is additional material in Francisco R. Almada, El presidente Madero y los problemas populares (Chihuahua n.d.); Heliodoro Arias Olea, Apuntes historicos de la revolucion de 1910-1811 (Mexico City 1960); Marcelo Caraveo, Cronica de la revolution (1910-1929) (Mexico City 1992); Mario Contreras and Jesus Tamayo, Mexico en el siglo XX: 1900-1913 (Mexico City 1983); William W. Johnson, Heroic Mexico: The Narrative History of a Twentieth-Century Revolution (San Diego, 1984) and Luis Lara Pardo, Madero: Esbozo Politico (Mexico City 1938). Among the important eyewitness accounts are those by Bell, Gruening and Strode (already cited) plus Rosa E. King, Tempest over Mexico: A Personal Chronicle (1936) and Rafael Aguilar, Madero sin Mascara (Mexico City 1911).

  The conflict between Madero and Zapata was fought initially with words, later with swords. For the ideological contest see Arnaldo Cordova, La ideologia de la revolucion mexicana: formacion del nuevo regimen (Mexico City 1973) and Arturo Warman, `The Political Project of Zapatismo', in Friedrich Katz, ed., Riot, Rebellio
n and Revolution: Rural Social Conflict in Mexico (Princeton 1988), pp. 321-38); Robert A. White, `Mexico: The Zapata Movement in the Revolution', in Henry A. Landsberger, ed., Latin American Peasant Movements (Ithaca, New York 1969). The ideology of Zapatismo, by now taking clearer and clearer shape, is best studied in Chantal Lopez and Omar Cortes, eds., Maniflestos Emiliano Zapata (Mexico City 1986). The same authors have edited Zapata's letters, Cartas Emiliano Zapata (Mexico City 1987) and his decrees, Leyes y decretos Emiliano Zapata (Mexico City 1987). See also Miguel Leon Portilla, Los manifiestos en Nahuatl de Emiliano Zapata (Mexico City 1978). For further insight into the ideology of Zapatismo see Robert P. Millon, Zapata: Ideologia de un campesino mexicano. The `black legend' of Zapata and his alleged atrocities gets its classic treatment (if that is the right phrase) in H. H. Dunn, The Crimson jester (1934)• See also Armando Ayala Anguiano, Zapata y las grandes mentiras de la revolucion mexicana (Mexico City 1985) and Antonio Melgarejo, Los crimenes del Zapatismo (Mexico City 1979).

  Madero's attempt to suppress Zapata's movement by force is dealt with in David G. La France, The Mexican Revolution in Puebla, 1908-1913: The Maderista Movement and the Failure of Liberal Reform (Wilmington, Delaware 1969); Arturo Langle Ramirez, Huerta contra Zapata, una campana desigual (Mexico City 1981) and George J. Rausch, `The Early Career of Victoriano Huerta', Americas 21 (1964), PP. 136-45. The Reyes revolt is covered in Gene Z. Hanrahan, The Election of Madero, the rise of Emiliano Zapata and the Reyes Plot in Texas (1978) and E. V. Niemeyer, El general Bernardo Reyes (Nueva Leon 1966). The Catholic opposition to Madero is highlighted in Jorge Adame Goddard, El pensamiento politico y social de los Catolicos Mexicanos, 1867-1914 (Mexico City 1990); Jean Meyer, `Le Catholicisme social au Mexique jusqu'en 1913', Revue Historique 260 (1978), pp. 143-59; and Antonio Ruis Facius, La juventud catolica y la revolucion mexicana, 1910-1925 (Mexico City 1963).

  Felipe Angeles, the great underrated figure of the Revolution, has begun to attract attention. See particularly Odile Guilpain Peuliard, Felipe Angeles y los destinos de la revolucion mexicana (Mexico City 1991); Federico Cervantes, Felipe Angeles en la revolucion: biografia 1869-1919 (Mexico City 1964); Alberto Calzadiaz, General Felipe Angeles (Mexico City 1982); Matthew Slattery, Felipe Angeles and the Mexican Revolution (Ohio n.d.); Bernardino Mena Brito, Felipe Angeles, federal (Mexico City 1936); Abraham Perez Lopez, Diccionario biografico hidalguense (Mexico City 1979) and the publication by the Instituto Nacional de Estudios Historicos de la Revolucion Mexicana, Felipe Angeles (1985).

  VILLA AND MADERO

  For Villa's career in 1912 Friedrich Katz, Pancho Villa, op. cit. is incomparable. The same can be said for Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution, 2 vols (Cambridge 1986), in respect of the Orozco rebellion, for which see especially vol. 1, pp. 289-333. Some further light is thrown by Charles H. Harris, `The "Underside" of the Mexican Revolution: El Paso', Americas 39 (1982), pp. 69-83 and The Border and the Revolution: Clandestine Activities of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920 (New Mexico 1988). See also Pastor Rouaix, La revolucion maderista y constitucional en Durango (Durango 1932). Villa's private life is explained in Luz Corral, Panco Villa en la intimidad (Mexico City 1976). An invaluable source for Villa's time in prison is Gustavo Madero, Epistolario (Mexico City 1991).

  The year 1912 saw Villa face to face with the monstrous Huerta. For an unconvincing attempt to rehabilitate this villain see William L. Sharman and Richard E. Greenleaf, Victoriano Huerta: A Reappraisal (Mexico City 1960). A diametrically opposite viewpoint appears in Nemesio Garcia Naranjo, Memorias (n.d.). The most balanced view is Michael Meyer, Huerta: A Political Portrait (Lincoln, Nebraska 1972). See also Jose Fernando Rojas, De Porfirio Diaz a Victoriano Huerta, 1910-13 (Mexico City 1913). For the concomitant rise of the military during the rise of the Huerta ascendency consult: Arturo Langle Ramirez, El militarismo de Victoriano Huerta (Mexico City 1976); Michael C. Meyer, `The Militarisation of Mexico, 1913-14', Americas 27 (1971); Edwin Lieuwens, Mexican Militarism: The Political Rise and Fall of the Revolutionary Army (Albuquerque 1968); Jorge Alberto Lozoya, El ejercito mexicano, 1911-65 (Mexico City 1970); J. Barragan Rodriguez, Historia del ejercito y la revolucion constitutionalista (Mexico City 1966).

  For Madero's regime and its errors see, in addition to Ross, Cumberland, etc. previously cited: Jose Vasconcelos, Breve historia de Mexico (Mexico City 1937); Francisco L. Urquizo, Viva Mexico (Mexico City 1969); Manuel Bonilla, El regimen maderista (Mexico City 1962); Andres Molina Enriquez, La revolucion agraria de Mexico de 1910 a 1920, 5 vols (Mexico City 1937); Adrian Aguirre Benavides, Errores de Madero (Mexico City 1980); Moises Gonzalez Navarro, `El Maderismo y la revolucion agraria', Historia Mexicana 37 (1987), pp. 5-27; David G. La France, `Many Causes, Movements and Failures, 1910-1913: The regional nature of Maderismo', in Thomas Benjamin and Mark Wasserman, Provinces of the Revolution: Essays on Regional Mexican History, 1910-1929 (Albuquerque 199o); Nikolai M. Lavrov, La revolucion mexicana de 1910-1917 (Mexico City 1978); Manuel Gonzalez Ramirez, Fuentes para la historic de la revolucion mexicana: la caricatura politica (Mexico City 1955). Felix Diaz is another key figure in the Revolution. He is studied in Luis Liceaga, Felix Diaz (Mexico City 1958) and Peter V. N. Henderson, Felix Diaz, the Porfirians and the Mexican Revolution (Lincoln, Nebraska 1981).

  The downfall of Madero is narrated in a number of eyewitness accounts, notably Bell, Gruening, Moats already cited, and in two volumes by Edith O'Shaughnessy, A Diplomat's Wife in Mexico (New York 1916) and Intimate Pages of Mexican History (New York 1920). The single most valuable printed source is Manuel Marquez Sterling, Los ultimos dias del presidente Madero (Havana 1917). For the unspeakable role played by the fanatical Henry Lane Wilson see Gene Z. Hanrahan, The Murder of Madero and the role played by U.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson (London 1981); John P. Harrison, `Henry Lane Wilson: el tragico de la Decena', Historia Mexicana 6 (1957) pp. 374-405; George J. Rausch, `Poison-pen Diplomacy: Mexico 1913', Americas 24 (1968), pp. 272-80; P. A. R. Calvert, The Mexican Revolution 1910-1914: the Diplomacy ofAnglo-American Conflict (London 1968). Lane Wilson's own self-serving account is in Diplomatic Episodes in Mexico, Belgium and Chile (New York 1923).

  THE REVOLT AGAINST HUERTA

  Among the general works focusing on the year 1913 the following are particularly valuable: Alfonso Taracena, La verdadera revolucion mexicana (1913-1914) (Mexico City 1967); W. Dirk Raat, Revoltosos: Mexico's Rebels in the United States, 1903-1923 (Texas 1981); Hector Aguilar Gamin and Lorenzo Meyer, In the Shadow of the Mexican Revolution: Contemporary Mexican History, 191o-1989 (Austin 1993); Alfredo Bre- ceda, Mexico revolucionario, 1913-1917 (Madrid 1920); J. L. Becker, De como se vino Huerta y como se fue: Apuntes para la historia de un regimen militar (Mexico City 1914); Salvador R. Mercado, Revelaciones historicas, 1913-1914 (New Mexico 1914).

  Carranza is the focus of a number of studies: Douglas Richmond, Venustiano Carranza's Nationalist Struggle, 1893-1920 (Lincoln, Nebraska 1983); Bernardino Mena Bruto, Carranza, sus amigos y enemigos (Mexico City 1953); Alfonso Taracena, Venustiano Carranza (Mexico City 1963); Jesus Castro Carranza, Origen, destino y legado de Carranza (Mexico City 1970); Enrique Krauze, Venustiano Carranza, puente entre siglos (Mexico City 1987); Francisco Urquizo, Venustiano Carranza (Mexico City 1976); Manuel W. Gonzalez, Con Carranza: Episodios de la revolution constitucio- nalista, 1913-1914 (Mexico City 1933); Luis Cabrera Blas Urrea, La herencia de Carranza (Mexico City 1920); Juan Gualberto Amaya, Venustiano Carranza: caudillo constitucionalista, segunda etapa - febrero de 1913 a mayo de 1920 (Mexico City 1947). See also William Beezley, `Governor Carranza and the Revolution in Coahuila', Americas 33 (1976); Jose Vasconcelos, La tormenta (Mexico City 1983); Georges Wolfskill and Douglas Richmond, eds., Essays on the Mexican Revolution: Revisionist Views of the Leaders (Austin 1979); Roderic A. Camp, Mexican Political Biographies, 1884-1935 (Austin 1991); Antonio Nakayawa, Sinaloa, el drama y sus actores (Mexico City 1975); Alberto Morales Jimenez, Hombres de la revolucion mexicana (Mexico City 1960); Ildefonso Villarello
Velez, Historia de la revolucion mexicana en Coahuila (Mexico City 1970); Clodoveo Valenzuela and Chaverri Matamoros, Sonora y Carranza (Mexico City 1921).

  Villa's annus mirabilis in 1913 can be followed in a number of works: the Martin Luis Guzman Memoirs and O'Hea Reminiscences already cited; Ramon Puente, Villa en Pie (Mexico City 1937); Louis Stevens, Here Comes Pancho Villa (New York 193o); Roberto Blanco Moheno, Pancho Villa, que es su padre (Mexico City 1969); Haldeen Braddy, Cock of the Walk. Qui-qui-ri-qui! The Legend of Pancho Villa (Albuquerque 1955); Nellie Campobello, Apuntes sobre la vida militar de Pancho Villa (Mexico City 1940); Luis M. Garfias, Truth and Legend on Pancho Villa (Mexico City 1981); Francisco de P. Ontiveros, Toribio Ortega y la Brigada Gonzalez Ortega (El Paso 1914).

  Predictably, Obregon has received a lot of attention: Linda B. Hall, Alvaro Obregon: Power and Revolution in Mexico 1911-1920 (Texas 1981); E. J. Dillon, President Obregon: A World Reformer (1922); Jose Ruben Romero, Alvaro Obregon: Aspectos de su vida (Mexico City 1976); Died Borquez, Obregon: Apuntes biogrkf cos (Mexico City 1929); Jorge Aguilar Mora, Un dia en la vida de General Obregon (Mexico City 1982); Narciso Bassols Batalla, El pensamiento politico de Alvaro Obregon (Mexico City 1970); David C. Bailey, `Obregon: Mexico's Accommodating President', in Georges Wolfskill and Douglas Richmond, eds., Essays on the Mexican Revolution: Revisionist Views of the Leaders (Austin 1979): Mario A. Mena, Alvaro Obregon: historia military politica, 1912-1919 (Mexico City 196o); Juan de Dios Bojorquez, Forjadores de la revolucion mexicana (Mexico City 1960); Ramon Puente, La dictadura, la revolucion y sus hombres (Mexico City 1938); Charles Hall, `The Miracle School', HAHR 75 (1995); Miguel Alessio Robles, Obregon como militar (Mexico City 1935); Enrique Krauze, El vertigo de la victoria: Alvaro Obregon (Mexico City 1987); Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, The People of Sonora and Yankee Capitalists (Tucson 1988).