The Punitive Mexican Expedition IV

PART FOUR

Politics, when I am in it, makes me sick

William Taft

           

            The consequences of the murder of President Madero were feeled beyond Mexican borders.

            By the time General Huerta became the leader of the headless coup d’etat and ordered the killing of Madero and Pino Suárez, the US Embassy was ruled out by Henry lane Wilson.[1]  The Ambassador felt –and showed, and open and deep aversion against maderista regime, as said by some historians, as result of Madero’s refusal to favor Wilson in some personal business that the American politician asked the new President by means of his own wife and Sara Pérez, Madero´s spouse.[2] Beyond his mission to protect American lives and properties in Mexican territories, Wilson wanted to take advantage of the new social and economic conditions grown in the country to make a personal fortune, but this was the opposite to Madero’s Revolution, focused in get Mexico and its citizens in possession of the richness the country offered. So, as Mondragón and his followers rise against Madero, Wilson begun to send American State Department telegrams that, in the best of the cases, exaggerated the social and political situation.[3]

Henry Lane Wilson played more than an observer roll in the fall of Madero regime.

            US president William Taft and his State Department Secretary Philander Knox were unaware of Mexican affairs, perhaps not too much beyond knowing the Revolution were taking place very near to El Paso, TX, and that US Army captured or killed some Mexican revolutionaries in US territory. This may seem unlikely as US long arm always reached foreign politics, but with Presidential elections around the corner, they may have been too busy to care about a dusty revolt south of the border so, as they received Wilson’s telegrams and phone calls, they supported Huerta’s revolt, the very desire of Wilson. Wilson made too much that only narrate the events occurring in México: he promoted a reunion in US Embassy with ambassadors of Japan, Chile, England, Spain and other countries to determinate the politics México should follow in the next months and signed the so called Plan de la Empacadora, a document in which they, the ambassadors, dictating precisely the steps the transition government will take to carry the new politics. This document is better known as the Pacto de la Ciudadela (or Pacto de la Embajada, as said because it was signed into the American Embassy in México City. There even exists a picture in which Wilson is signing the paper in his office of Reforma Avenue). Again, the American flag crowned Palacio Nacional (in a metaphoric way, this time) as did in 1847.

            On March 1913, Woodrow Wilson became President of the United States and named William J. Bryan as State Secretary. Following their non intervention politics, they did not recognized Huerta´s government (as some European nations did) and removed Henry lane Wilson from the Office and from the country. But the harm was done.

            The very night Huerta ordered the killing of President and Vice President, Wilson celebrated George Washington’s birthday at US embassy and Huerta joined him to celebrate. Eventually, as Mexican northern governors rise against Huerta, US Government shot down all kind of support to the de facto Government and recognized Carranza fight, mainly because of two reasons: a) Carranza represented an army that fought against a dictator and, b) as an act of democracy against tyranny. 

From the left: William Taft, Philander Knox, Woodrow Wilson and William Bryan. The foreign politics of the White House changed as the power was given to Wilson and Bryan.

            One of the Mexican governors that rise in this second Revolution was Venustiano Carranza in Coahuila. Born in 1858 in Cuatro Ciénegas, as son of a local politician, he spent his early life in a political tradition family. As a youth, he went Saltillo and Mexico City to study. He returned as a bachelor to contest for the post of Mayor in Cuatro Ciénegas, and he won. After that, he did contest to Governor of Coahuila but lost against García Galán who did re-elected in contravention of Madero’s ideology to which Carranza added immediately. Once in revolutionary army Carranza was named War and Navy Secretary and, after that, finally Governor of Coahuila after a popular election, charge in which he was the very moment of Huerta’s revolt. He published the Plan de Guadalupe as a statement against the golpistas.[4]

            Being an extremely proud person, Carranza named himself as El Primer Jefe (The First Chief) of this new revolution. It should be said that Carranza depicted Madero ‘cause he did consider the President as a soft politician. But, contrary to what one can expect, he didn’t respect the opposite –that would mean Villa’s roughness and decision. He´d only accepted his own toughs. Yes, he was proud.

            The new politic s of the White House seemed to benefit Carranza as it should allow the free commerce of weapons and ammunition from the US into México[5], but it was against of American politics of non intervention. So, the chance of Americans support the Revolution was stuck.

            The Revolution took eleven months to throw Huerta from Palacio Nacional. With Carranza in position of The Chair, Huerta on the loose heading Veracruz, and Villa´s División del Norte following him, the US Government asked for free elections. But Carranza did not organize them, on contrary; he seemed possessed of the illness of all Mexican politicians: Power. So, as an advertisement to the Mexican Revolutionary Governement, president Wilson decided to invade the Veracruz harbor in April 1914, which, even against the resistance of the brave people of the city, was occupied until November of the same year.

What, in the name of God, was Villa doing meanwhile?

We have argued before that Carranza did not like Villa and that Villa did not trust Carranza. The President did freeze the División del Norte ordering it to do some “tactical” movements in the north of the country, preventing that Villa and Zapata meet in Mexico City. Villa, as a soldier, as a northern and as a wise man, was waiting to see what it seemed to him an imminent betrayal of Carranza and the gringos against the Revolution.

Leon Canova, US State Department Mexican Affairs’ strong man was sent by his Government to approach Villa and pact with him against Carranza. But Villa refused to receive American support, perhaps because of his anti-american beliefs as he had grown watching US citizens and politicians take advantage of Mexican people along years. Of course, in this appreciation one can easily fall in the cliché of the poor Mexicans oppressed by the powerful Americans,[6] the lucha de clases, the historical mutual benefit-betrayal-disrespect relation, the boot of the oppressor on the neck of the oppressed. There is more, as we all know: Mexican-American relations have always been framed by two main facts: American desire of expansion and Mexican need to appear as victims in one hand, and the American interventionist politics (centered in the deep paranoia of the Government that seem to believe that anything out if its control is made against it) and the Mexican tiredness to be ruled by self serving politicians and wars that lead nowhere for the people without taking any real action to change that, on the other.

American president Wilson wanted an American (as a continent) hegemony in the political field and a revolution in the biggest latin-american country, in addition shoulder to shoulder border, was a concern. Villa had a non political but practical defined social project in mind (it was carried out some years after in his hacienda in Canutillo, Durango)[7] that take not in account any American intervention. This project, aside to Zapata’s Reforma Agraria was a stone on the shoe of Carranza whose only concern was to keep power. Carranza, in fact, never came out with a social proposal or a political reform plan: the Revolution was the moving of the Power bones from one tomb to another. So, Villa decided, in 1915 when Huerta was held prisoner in Fort Bliss (where he will die soon) and President Wilson did recognized Carranza’s regime, to dissolve the División del Norte. But he did preserved the regular corps named Los Dorados, the elite of the División, soldiers of proven bravery who were in charge of ending the military actions of the División, military police and personal guard of General de División Villa. It’s said that the name came because of their brunette skin, for they was paid in gold, and because they were superior to a famous band of outlaws named the Plateados (Silver Ones) that had been defeated by the corps. They probably were the original name of a corps of Brigada Cuauhtemoc, commanded by Trinidad Rodríguez who did give the name for Brigada Villa, commanded by Francisco Villa himself.[8]

Los Dorados de Villa, elite troops of the División del Norte. Villa marked with arrow.

It seemed a mistake, but Villa was one step forward.

As long as all the revolutions took place in México, Villa created a vast, immense, network of adepts to his cause. Elected Chihuahua’s Governor in December the 8^th, 1913, Villa promulgated the so named Decreto de Confiscación de Bienes de los Enemigos de la Revolución,[9] a document that stated a non precedent act of social justice in which he deprived the Terrazas family and similar ones from all the properties that they took from the peasants and the workers in Chihuahua. But it did affected American properties as well. All along this time, Villa did buy and buried weapons, money, gold, silver, ammunition and other gear in clandestine pits, caverns, cannons, houses, preventing to ride again against the government. Now this was the time. With the power in Carranza’s hands, Villa only got to call his old commanders to rise that war machine called División del Norte.

When Villa finally regrouped the División del Norte he was able to make Congress to remove Carranza from the Presidency and as an answer, Carranza begun a itinerant Government as Juárez did in his time, carrying all his stuff in a train from México City, the “chair” included (not only the figure of power, the chair, but the very furniture), to end his travel in Veracruz.

But the main fact of this story is not the legend of Villa, nor the proud of Carranza or the murder of Madero; is the invasion of a little town in New Mexico named Columbus.

Why did Villa attack a border town in a state so recently added to the Union?[10]

---

[1] Yankelevich P, La revolución y Estados Unidos, Relatos e Historias en México 3(27):Nov 2010, 77-84

[2] Taibo II, PI, Temporada de Zopilotes, una historia narrativa de la Decena Trágica, editorial Planeta Mexicana, México, 2009

[3] Yankelevich P, Op. cit.

[4] Rosas A, El Primer Jefe, Relatos e Historias en México 1(9); May 2009, 38-45

[5] Doesn´t it sound as a fact of actuality?

[6] One should remember the statement of Porfirio Díaz: “(…) poor of México: so far from God and so near to the United States.”

[7] A central piece of his Project was education as the only mean to change people’s mind. In the period that he was Chihuahua’s Governor, he’d build 50 elementary schools in his state (looked on our actual lights it’s nothing, but in the time we are talking about it was unthinkable for the government to do so). This shows the impact of Villa in Chihuahua people: they not only had a Governor extracted from the lines of the farmers and ranchers, but one that cared about their future, that gave them the opportunity to get the tools to improve their way of life, one that think and act as themselves.

[8] Ávila GR,  La elite de la División del Norte, Relatos e Historias en México 3(3);Feb 2011, 25-28

[9] Salmerón-Sanginés P, El sueño de Pancho Villa, Relatos e Historias en México 1(2);Oct 2008, 38-45

[10] Arizona and New Mexico territories were added to the Union in 1912, during presidency of President Taft as wroten by Bumann J, Patterson J, Our American Presidents, Willowisp Press, Ohio, 1989, page 97

For some readers

Hi, readers.
I thank you for viitong this site and for making so kind commentaries.
There are two partners that wrote opinions and asked to insert a blog in my blog roll in this site (one of them) and to write with me in some kind of four hands article.
I´m glad to accept, but... ypo did not told me your blog adress to include you in my blog roll and you did not toodmen where to contact you to get in touch.
I hope you still read this post and be able to send me a mail (my adress is above).
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Patience

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Sobre el primer párrafo de una novela

Yo tenía la sensación de que querer explicarle a la gente cómo se escribe era una impertinencia demasiado grande.

Stephen King

Existe un solo modo de atrapar a un lector: iniciar con un párrafo contundente. Cuando menos, es lo que creo.

The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years –if it ever did end– began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain. (1)

Otro ejemplo.

Como el fugaz destello condenado de explosiones solares que sólo impresionan borrosamente los ojos de los ciegos, el comienzo del horror pasó casi inadvertido: en la locura de lo que vino después, de hecho fue quedando olvidado y tal vez no se le relacionó de ningún modo con el horror mismo. Era difícil juzgar. (2)

¿Qué es lo que nos incita a leer un libro determinado?

Para muchos, seguramente es el hecho de que previamente han leído a un autor y su estilo les gusta. Para otros, debe ser la recomendación de un amigo, o el interés que entrevieron en los ojos de alguien que leía el mismo libro, o la portada (arte que ha ido desapareciendo: la portada de un libro suele estar hecha en la actualidad con un fotograma de una escena de la película que ese libro inspiró o de la imagen de bellos seres humanos que en nada se relacionan a los personajes de la trama y que, por lo demás, ya nos hacen formarnos una idea de cómo serán los personajes antes de leer la descripción que el autor hace de ellos), o con la presencia o ausencia de ilustraciones en dicho libro (desgraciadamente esto sigue siendo una realidad. Cuando yo era niño y me veían leyendo un libro –y me refiero a mis familiares adultos– me preguntaban, invariablemente: y… ¿no tiene monitos? ¡¿Puras letras?!). Incluso habrá quien compre y lea un libro simplemente basándose en la reseña que suele estar impresa en la contraportada (tarea ingrata esa de reseñar libros, dicho sin sarcasmo).

Por mi parte puedo decir que la gran mayoría de las ocasiones que me hago de un libro (cuento o novela, hay que aclarar, porque libros técnicos no caen dentro de este sistema de selección) ya sea bajo préstamo, compra o decomiso, será sólo después de haber leído el primer párrafo, el cual debe incitarme a leer el resto de los caracteres impresos. Pero este método es perfectamente falible, porque me he encontrado con muchos chascos y muchas agradables sorpresas.

Sin embargo, la mitad de las veces, funciona.

Una vez que el primer párrafo ha atrapado la mirada, uno puede seguir leyendo sólo hasta que la voz del dependiente pregunta ¿Se lo lleva?, o hasta que el libro está tan manoseado que da pena dejarlo de nuevo en el estante.

Aunque, dicho sea ya con seriedad, sólo los autores geniales pueden atraparnos con el párrafo primero.

«Si en esta ciudad no lloviera, hacía mucho que la habría abandonado», pensaba José Daniel Fierro pensando en que pensaba; porque había ideas que eran trabajo, reutilizables pensamientos que formaban frases y luego se iban por el camino de las teclas. La sensación era suya, pero podría ser del viejo villista que trabajaba en una tlapalería hacia la mitad del capítulo tres de la novela que estaba escribiendo. «Si no lloviera» . . . escribía en la cabeza mirando las gotas de agua estrellándose en el doble vidrio ante su mesa blanca e imaginando sin oír el splash, los pequeños plop. Había que ponerle a la frase un poco del sonido del viento que empujaba la lluvia contra la ventana y que se hacía imagen literaria sacudiendo el laurel solitario del camellón, haciéndolo bailar. «Si no hubiera laurel», también se habría ido, él, no el viejo del capítulo tres. Cada vez escribía más de irse y, sin embargo, se quedaba. Encendió un Mapleton con la colilla del otro. Ana, sentada a sus espaldas en un sillón blanco, levantó la vista del libro que estaba leyendo y estiró la mano para robarle un cigarrillo. (3)

Es el caso de Cortázar en aquella obra (no recuerdo cuál es el título, desgraciadamente; es vergonzoso esto de tratar de hacer un buen ensayo y no contar siquiera con las referencias en la mano) en el que comenzó el primer párrafo con un Si condicional seguido inmediatamente de una nota al pie que llevaba a otra nota al pie que llevaba a otra. Nadie de este planeta pone notas al pie después de la primera palabra de un libro a menos que sea Cortázar.

Pero el hecho es que de esa primera impresión que dejan las palabras iniciales de un libro deriva la capacidad de atrapar o no al lector, de que lo sumerja en la incertidumbre, de que le abra la posibilidad de interesarse en un texto determinado. Dicen y dicen bien que un libro es una nueva vida detrás de la portada, pero hay vidas que son de lo más aburridas y otras que despiertan sueños de pasión y de aventura y de deseo de compartirlas.

Estos dos libros que cité al principio son de ese tipo.

Primero, Stephen King y su majestuoso It, traducido fielmente como Eso (sería el colmo que los traductores le hubieran puesto Eso-o-el-payaso-asesino-de-los-colmillos-de-bestia-del-infierno o peor aún Eso-que-viene-del-espacio-para-alimentarse-de tus-peores-pesadillas) del cual mi hermano se expresa diciendo: ese wey escribe puras pendejadas (es su opinión, por eso la reproduzco aunque no la comparta). Para quien haya visto la película que se hizo en los años 90 (un suspiro por Anette O´Tull) y haya leído el libro seguramente habrá una desagradable mezcolanza de personajes y situaciones que, indicutiblemente, son consecuencia de que el libro es muy extenso y que debieron ajustar al presupuesto del filme. Dejando de lado la película, la novela es muy interesante en dos aspectos fundamentales. Uno es el reflejo de la amistad entre niños (la presencia del ente, un bogart, es meramente incidental, sirve de vehículo para reforzar la amistad de estos muchachitos) que nos hace recordar nuestras propias infancias, libres de prejuicios, donde existían sólo dos clases de personas, los adultos, los grandes y nosotros, los niños, todos iguales aún con nuestras diferencias. Los juegos de los personajes en los Yermos son iguales a los que hacíamos en la casa familiar, en la huerta de los abuelos, en los ríos y los patios frondosos de las casas de los parientes en las vacaciones. Es como leerse a sí mismo como personaje.

El otro es la maldad colectiva; la ciudad es un lugar extremadamente violento per se, Derry está viva en más de un sentido, es el reflejo de la calidad humana: increíblemente hábiles para crear, habilidad sólo superada por nuestra propia crueldad. Y nuestra indiferencia. ¿Existen lugares embrujados, malditos? Seguramente sí, si el lector cree en esas cosas. Como Juárez. Un lugar violento en extremo, inexplicablemente cercano a una de las ciudades más tranquilas de los Estados Unidos. ¿Es el agua? ¿El aire? ¿O, simplemente, la gente que los habita? Derry nació maldita, y cobra su cuota de sangre en ciclos de ocho o nueve meses que se repiten cada veintisiete a treinta años. Y, aunque todo el mundo lo sabe, nadie parece estar interesado en buscarle una explicación. Es como el caso de la gente que vive en el valle de Chalco: sabe que cada año el canal de La Compañía se va a desbordar en la temporada de lluvias y ni el gobierno del Estado de México ni la población de la zona son capaces de prevenirse. El delicioso recuerdo de las gomitas de dulce que comíamos de niños, la sensación de sentirse acompañado, los amores callados y la amistad gritada a los cuatro vientos le van a traer al lector más de una sonrisa nostálgica a los labios.

These were his friends and his mother was wrong: they weren´t bad friends. Maybe, he thought, there aren´t such things as good friends or bad friends –maybe there are just friends, people that stand by you when you´re hurt and who help you feel not so lonely. Maybe they´re always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and living for. Maybe worth dying for, too, if that´s what has to be. No good friends. No bad friends. Only people you want, need to be with; people who build their houses in or heart. (4)

Por otro lado, quien fuera director del programa de armas psicológicas de la CIA, William Peter Blatty, criado por jesuitas, interesado en el tema de la posesión diabólica desde el punto de vista psiquiátrico, escribió The exorcist, creo yo, una de las novelas más aterradoras de todos los tiempos. No es simplemente la idea de una niña a la que posee un espíritu que puede o no ser el diablo mismo.

 

-¿Dices que no eres el diablo?
-Soy sólo un pobre demonio que lucha. Un diablo. Una diferencia sutil, pero no he perdido enteramente mi influencia sobre Nuestro Padre que está en el Infierno. A propósito, cuando lo veas, no le mencionarás a él que solté la lengua, Karras, ¿no es cierto? (5)

 

La posesión de la niña resulta, también, meramente incidental. Es sobre la frágil naturaleza humana sobre lo que Blatty quiere escribir y lo consigue. Finalmente, dice el padre Merrin, el objetivo de la posesión no es el poseso, sino los que están alrededor de él. El mal mismo, representado por el diablo, no es más que un vehículo para alejarnos de nuestra condición humana. Para demostrarnos cuán animales podemos ser a pesar de nuestros avances científicos.

Ambos libros tienen inicios maravillosos y contundentes, tramas complejas que van más allá de escenas como representadas en cine o teatro, finales insospechados que invitan a una segunda o tercera lectura.

Emecé era una excelente editorial argentina que, creo, ha desaparecido. Ellos tradujeron El exorcista. Las traducciones de Emecé eran, en mi peculiar opinión, mejores que las que hace actualmente Alfaguara y estaba llenas de modismos que son más afines a los latinoamericanos de las que hacen los ibéricos (no offense: ellos habrán inventado este hermoso lenguaje, pero los modismos americanos son lo que le da sabor). Muchos libros de Stephen King también fueron traducidos por Emecé. Actualmente, El exorcista está publicado por Booket y Eso por Alfaguara. O consígalos en inglés, que son mucho mejores. Esos dos deberían ser leídos desde la adolescencia.

(1) King S, It, Viking Penguin Inc. New York, 1986, page 3

(2) Blatty WP, El exorcista, Emecé editores, Buenos Aires, 1971, traducción de Raquel Albornoz, página 23

(3) Taibo II PI, La vida misma, Júcar Editores, colección Etiqueta Negra, México, 1987, página 4

(4) King S, Op. cit. page 769

(5) Blatty WP, Op. cit. página 236

The Punitive Mexican Expedition III

A brief review of a two-sided story

PART THREE

War is not merely an act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, carried on with other means

Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz

German military theorist

De todos los Madero, fueron a elegir presidente al más tonto

Gustavo A. Madero

Once Madero was held prisoner and forced to resign presidency, Pedro Lascuráin, by the time Secretary of Exterior Relations was constitutionally elected President of the Republic as long as 45 minutes, time just to appoint Huerta in the Secretary he has just left and resign himself to presidency, automatically making Huerta the new President of Mexico.

The murder of Madero and Pino Suárez is precisely related in Taibo´s Temporada de Zopilotes.[1] Synthesizing his narration, once Blanquet held Madero, Huerta kept him in the quartermaster of Palacio Nacional aside the Vice-President and General Felipe Ángeles. But there were no a visible head of the coup d´etat, and Huerta took advantage of this situation shaping up as the leader once the very promoters of the revolt had been killed one and subordinated the other to Huerta´s orders. He sent a hitman, Major Francisco Cárdenas, to kill Madero in these terms:

– We know, Cárdenas, that you´re a man who knows how to do what is ordered. The one that killed a Santana[2] can easily kill a Madero. Don´t be shy. It´s not the first time you kill a man.

– Yes, my General, but no one this size.

– Very shortie, he is.[3]

– And must die all three?

– Well, Ángeles may stay, but the other two must die today without dilation.

So Madero was taken from his prison and introduced in a rented Protos and Pino Suárez in a so rented Peerless, the first escorted by Major Cárdenas and Corporal Francisco Ugalde and the second escorted by Corporal Rafael Pimienta and Officer Agustín Figueres. It was 2220 hours on February 22^nd 1913,[4] and the two cars left Palacio Nacional heading to Lecumberri Penitentiary, less than a mile away. Parking behind the prison, Cárdenas shouted, pushing Madero: “Off you go, damn it!” and shoot him twice in the head, from behind. Pino Suárez tried to run but he was reached by the bullets of Pimienta; wounded and with a broken leg, Vice-President was killed by Cárdenas and Pimienta. The autopsy showed thirteen wounds in his body. The corpses were buried in a ditch and covered with rocks.

Palacio Nacional after apprehension of Madero and Pino Suárez

 

With the end of maderist presidency, Huerta decided to dissolve Congress and begins trades with the American Embassy commanded by Henry Lane Wilson who, in fact, actively participated in the coup d´etat generating a political agitation in the days between the Bernardo Reyes and Félix Díaz rising and the killing of Madero.

 Mexico, history of: Huerta mocked in political cartoon. Photograph. Enciclopaedia Britannica Online. Web. 10 Jul 2011. Swann Collection of caricatures & cartoon/Library of Congress, Washington D. C. (LC-USZ62-85449), by Thomas E. Powers, 1913

All these illegal acts unchained the rage of the army Generals (very late, I should say) and provoked the signing of the Plan de Guadalupe by General Venustiano Carranza Garza. One should give a glimpse on this man: born in Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, he was son of a prominent farmer and elected Mayor of his town. He held a political struggle against Governor Garza Galán supported by Bernardo Reyes, Commissioner of Porfirio Díaz, in 1894. After that he supported the campaign of Reyes against Porfirio Díaz and added to Madero´s campaign from exile in San Antonio, Texas.

Once Revolutionary Army conquered Ciudad Juárez, Madero elected him to be Governor of Coahuila, a political place he had desired since he was Mayor. After that and when Madero was elected President, Carranza Garza occupied the Secretary of War and Navy. He seemed not to like Villa´s natural scent.

From the left: Emilio Madero (?), Pancho Villa, Venustiano Carranza, José María Pino Suárez y José Medinabeytia, in Chihauhua, 1914. Villa and Carranza viewing opposite sides. They did not like each other.

Aware of Huerta´s coup, Carranza declared himself in default and refused to recognize the Huerta´s government, holding the rank of First Chief of the Revolution (a rank he desired since the days of first Mexican Revolution), as said in the Plan de Guadalupe, proclaimed in March 26^th 1913.[5] In southern México, on the other hand, Emiliano Zapata, leader of Liberating Army of South, modified the Plan de Ayala, document in which people of Morelos state deplores Porfirio Díaz regime to deplore Huerta´s coup, without subordinating to Carranza´s orders and begins a parallel war against Huerta.[6]

 Palacio Nacional. In the middle, Villa sited in Presidential Chair. To his left, Zapata, holding a huge hat.

Carranza rise the army from northern México in three big corps: Northwest Army under command of General Álvaro Obregón in Sonora where José María Maytorena was Governor, Northeast Army under command of Pablo González Garza in Coahuila, state governed by Carranza himself and, lately, the Northern Division commanded by Francisco Villa in Chihuahua, where the Governor was Abraham González.[7]

Once up in arms, Carranza´s army was easily defeated and The First Chief crossed all the biggest states of northern México from Coahuila to Sonora to join Obregón´s army. In Chihuahua, on the other hand, the revolt wasn´t unified and there were many guerrillas fighting against federal troops, one of these commanded by Villa who, lately, will be elected commander in chief of Northern division. In this political convulsed river, the fisherman made them profit and Pascual Orozco negotiated with Huerta´s government, legalizing it. So he was pursuit and defeated by Villa lately.

Carranza sent to Chihuahua to Juan Sánchez Azcona and Alfredo Breceda trying to get Villa´s submission to his very power. Villa decided to join the Constitucionalista army (so named by Carranza) only if Chihuahua territory was not to be under the command of Sonora´s military and himself was not to be under any command. By the time, Chihuahua was torn by bandits and “gavillas” of thieves so, Villa, far from face the government troops dedicated his forces to pursuit and eliminate these gavillas, bringing back to the state the tranquility it has lost, wining, by the way, the respect of people cause his army was severely punished if there was any act of vandalism after their entrance to any town.[8]

Villa was never subordinated to Carranza´s power and operated always in his own terms of internal government and chains of command keeping in mind his primary objective: the defeat of Huerta. But Carranza was looking forward, watching himself in the Presidency. And Villa and his power in the biggest state of the Republic was an obstacle to him. When the fight moved southbound and won territories and cities, one of those being Torreón, Coahuila, Carranza begun to show an authoritarianism that divided the army. 

Maybe the most popular photograph of Pancho Villa, misknown as The Fall of Torreón, it was taken in Zacatecas.

Once Torreón was in hands of the revolutionaries, Carranza tried to separate the División del Norte sending Villa and a little column of this corps to support Pánfilo Natera´s army in the assault to Zacatecas city. Villa refused, in polite terms to do so and Carranza insisted. It was June 11^th 1914. Carranza received a telegram from Villa proposing to move not only a column of his forces, but the entire Division, but Carranza insisted in sending not only three thousand, but five thousand men to support Natera. The next day, Villa sand a new telegram to Carranza saluting him and apologizing to be unable to help Natera questioning him for his decision to attack Zacatecas by himself instead of waiting for Northern Division. By the way (maybe as a probe to Carranza), Villa asks the First Chief to name a new commander of the Division. Natera failed in taken Zacatecas; even more, his army was almost annihilated. Carranza answered Villa that, if he had accomplished the orders himself had send Villa, Zacatecas would be under their rules. Taibo says:

In the conference, Carranza argued that if Villa had not received the supports that Carranza send him in Torreón with Durango corps, (Villa) he would not been able to take it. He is not proposing Villa to subordinates to General Natera; it´s all about that “he takes the city and expedites the way for himself southbound”. And, insists, victim of the authoritarianism that obsessed him: “Natera will stand for two days. Send (Eugenio Aguirre) Benavides, (Jesús) Ortega, (Calixto) Contreras or whomever you want”.

It has become an authority duel begun as a political maneuver (…). “The reason that was heavier in the spirit of Mr. Carranza to avoid Villa to take Zacatecas was that, once it has fall, he could be able to continue his march to México City”. [9]

Villa resigned to the command of the Northern Division and called Felipe Ángeles (that one that was held prisoner aside Madero) to give him the command of the forces. Ángeles fears the cracking of the Division which, in fact, it´s about to happen. Some of the military menace to go to the sierras and begin a guerrilla against Carranza. Villa sent a telegram to General Álvaro Obregón in Sonora, informing him about his resignation. Obregón and Villa had met in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The meeting was, surprisingly, witnessed by General Pershing; there is a photo in which a young Lieutenant George Patton shows a naive smile. Carranza asked the generals supposedly gathered in the telegraph office in Torreón to designate the chief that would replace Villa. The generals answered asking Carranza to reconsider Villa´s resignation in view of his services to revolution. Carranza asked to designate another chief. The generals stand clearly that Carranza would not be able to go over the División del Norte and its chains of command based in the popular election of its chiefs:

We could, following the example of sir General Villa, let the command of our troops dissolving so the División del Norte, but we cannot deprive our cause of a so valuable element of war. So, we are about to convince the chief of this División to continue the fight against Huerta´s government as if no unpleasant event had happen today and we admonish you to do same, to defeat our common enemy.[10]

Carranza, deaf to reason, asked them to designate a new chief. General Maclovio Herrera, partner of Villa since the beginnings of Madero´s revolution, and infinitely more prosaic, telegraphed to Carranza:

Mr. Carranza: I´m aware of your behavior toward my General Francisco Villa. You are a son of a bad woman.[11]

But the other generals, modestly more moderated, answered:

Torreón, June 14^th, 1914. Mr. V. Carranza. First Chief of the Constitucionalista Army, Saltillo, Coahuila. Your last telegram made us to suppose you had not or wanted not to understand our two last telegrams. They says in its medullar part that we do not take in account your order to General Villa resign the command of the División del Norte, and we could not assume another position against this apolitical, anti-constitutional and anti-patriotic action. We have convinced General Villa to understand that his compromise to the Homeland obligates him to continue in command of this corps (…)[12]

Carranza would be, in a near future, pursuit by Villa in his runaway from Mexico City to Veracruz and Coahuila. When Carranza (enthroned as the Máximo Mexicano) knew of the approach of Villa´s army by the north and Zapata´s army by south, charged a train with all his stuff, the Presidential Chair included, and begun a itinerant government trying to emulate President Juárez. When the villistas finally reached Mexico City, says the legend, one of the troopers saw the chair in which Villa and Zapata was photographed and asked:

And we are killing each other ´cause of this thing?[13]

Villa and Zapata entering México City. Villa surprisingly in uniform and Zapata with his charro usual clothes.

---

[1] Taibo II, PI, Temporada de Zopilotes, una historia narrativa de la Decena Trágica, editorial Planeta Mexicana, México, 2009, 155 pp.

[2] Refering to the killing of Santana Rodríguez, a magonist guerrilla from Veracruz.

[3] Sarcasm related to Madero´s size: he was 4´ 8” tall.

[4] Coincidently, this day was celebrated the birthday of George Washington with a reception in the American Embassy. After ordering the murder of Madero, Huerta went to the Embassy to celebrate with Ambassador Wilson.

[5] Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de las Revoluciones Mexicanas, INEHRM, Página del Bicentenario, consulted on http://www.bicentenario.gob.mx, on July 10-07-2011.

[6] Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de las Revoluciones Mexicanas, INHERM, Op. cit.

[7] Salmerón P, La Divisón del Norte, the land, the men and the history of a people´s army, Booklet, Planeta Mexicana editorial, México, 2006, page 299

[8] Salmerón P, Op. cit.

[9] Taibo II, PI, Pancho Villa, Una biografía narrativa, Editorial Planeta Mexicana, 2006, México, pp. 372

[10] Salmerón P, Op. cit. page 454

[11] Taibo II PI, Op. cit. Page 373

[12] Salmerón P, Op. cit. page 456

[13] For most fighters, “the chair” was the coloquial way to refer to the Presidency, to the Power of the Nation. Even today, political struggle is called the Fight by the Chair.

Soneto

En 1966 un joven estudiante ingresó a la Escuela Preparatoria Nocturna Benito Juárez de Ciudad de México. Una fotografía que se conserva de él (tomada unos pocos años después), lo muestra con uniforme militar, sin galones ni medallas, las mejillas ligeramente abultadas, sonriente, mirando al horizonte, con la mano derecha apoyada en una árbol delgado, la pierna derecha ligeramente adelantada y con el cuartel militar de fondo. En el momento en que él ingresó a la escuela nocturna debió ser un poco más delgado.

Originario de Ixtaltepec, en el Istmo de Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, inició la educación primaria a los 9 años hablando sólo zapoteco. Esto debió representarle un obstáculo mediano ya que la mayoría de sus compañeros en el Istmo también hablaban zapoteco; pero entró a la secundaria de 19 años, después de un impass obligado por la situación económica.

En 1967 tomó un curso de literatura dentro del programa educativo de la Preparatoria. Y dentro de ese curso debió estudiar lo que era un soneto.

Soneto: del It. Sonetto y del Lat. Sonus, sonido. m. composición poética que consta de catorce versos endecasílabos distribuidos en dos cuartetos y dos tercetos. En cada uno de los cuartetos riman, por regla general, el primer verso con el cuarto  y el segundo con el tercero, y en ambos deben ser unas mismas las consonancias. En los tercetos pueden ir éstas ordenadas de distintas maneras.

Ateniéndonos a la leyenda, cuando el maestro leyó los trabajos y llegó al de nuestro joven estudiante preguntó quién era el autor y, sorprendido y seguramente un poco avergonzado y temeroso, el muchacho se levantó. El maestro le hizo leer el soneto para toda la clase y después de concluido el último terceto, felicitó al mozalbete.

El soneto dice, a la letra:

La flor marchita

Cual hojas secas que arrebata el viento

pasaron ya tus días de primavera,

la vida para ti fue pasajera,

¡Oh, bella flor! No sabes cuán lo siento.

De haberte marchitado me arrepiento,

no quiero ni pensarlo tan siquiera,

pues sólo de pensar en tu quimera

la pena me arrebata el pensamiento.

Vivir sin tu fragancia cruel ha sido:

no puedo soportar el no tenerte

pues sólo de pensar que te hayas ido

dejándome tan solo con mi suerte

y al ver que no regresas ¡clamo y pido!:

no quiero más vivir, ¡venga la muerte!

Francisco Marcos–Toledo

Ciudad de México, 1967

Seguramente no es la más pulida obra de su género, pero cuando mi padre lo escribió hace ya tantos años y cuando yo lo escuché, de nuevo, recitado por su voz cascada por el cigarro y la edad, con la dificultad de pronunciación que la enfermedad y los años le han dejado, no pude menos que comprometerme a publicárselo en este espacio.

Espero que lo hayan disfrutado tanto como yo.

Te amo, papá.

Balam IX

Llovía.

Era una lluvia pertinaz y cruda, de esas que sólo pueden suceder en Ciudad de México. Constante, sucia, gris más allá del gris del cielo.

Como si llovieran cenizas.

Estaba parado detrás del ventanal del balcón. Pensaba. Aunque, no. En realidad, recordaba.

La vida estaba hecha de jirones de escenas y momentos vividos antes: la casa paterna, con su pasillo una vez lleno de helechos y macetas y luego derruido por la soledad, por la falta de interés; la neblina en aquella escuela donde cursó su primer año de universidad; los días de sol radiante cuando ella estaba con él; luego… de nuevo la lluvia de una tarde en que se reunió con ella, sonriente, esperando un reencuentro y en que se dio de frente conque que ella se sentaba como una adolescente en las piernas de ese otro venido del pasado, de un pasado que no era el suyo.

El dolor, la vergüenza, el alcohol, el vómito, el dolor, el sentirse excluido de esa vida que pretendió compartir y que se le negaba.

Encendió un cigarrillo. Y recordó: si no fuera porque no podía dejar de fumar, bien podría dejar de fumar. Pero eso lo leyó en una novela policiaca y cayó en la cuenta que jamás había hecho nada original. Claro (se consoló): la vida está hecha de jirones de…

Pero el nombre de ese tipo le regresaba a la cabeza como un insulto (él lo sentía como un insulto), repetitivo, soez, vulgar, ni siquiera un nombre de verdad, sólo un apócope.

A lo lejos sonó una sirena. Estaba harto.

Caminó hacia su cama y trató de dormir.

Aunque sabía, por experiencia, que sería inútil.