The epic legend

What the white and the black legends have in common is that they do not attribute any great political or social importance to Villa prior to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. The epic legend, by contrast, states that in his years as an outlaw, Villa became the idol of Chihuahua's peasantry and the scourge of the Terrazas. No one has better described the epic legend than the U.S. correspondent John Reed:

An immense body of popular legend grew up among the peons around his name. There are many traditional songs and ballads, celebrating his exploits--you can hear the shepherds singing them around their fires at night, repeating verses handed down by their fathers or composing others extemporaneously. For instance, they tell the story of how Villa, fired by the story of the misery of the peons at the hacienda of Los Alamos, gathered a small army and descended upon the big house, which he looted and distributed the spoils among the poor people. He drove off thousands of cattle from the Terrazas range and ran them across the border. He would suddenly descend upon a prosperous mine and seize the bullion. When he needed corn he captured a granary belonging to some rich man. He recruited almost openly in the villages, far removed from the well travelled roads and railways, organising the outlaws of the mountains.

The epic legend not only painted Villa as a more influential man than he had described himself in his memoirs but as a more generous one as well. One version of this legend reached all the way to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. In a conversation with the British ambassador, Wilson described Villa as "a sort of Robin Hood [who] had spent an eventful life in robbing the rich in order to give to the poor. He had even at one time kept a butcher's shop for the purpose of distributing to the poor the proceeds of his innumerable cattle raids."

It is extremely difficult to separate truth from legend, to determine the veracity of these contradictory accounts, because so few documents exist for this early period of Villa's life. None of Villa's accounts of his own life, the accusations of his enemies, and the ballads that form the basis of the epic legend are corroborated by contemporary documents. Villa's autobiography is based exclusively on his memoirs, while Celia Herrera quotes only one document dealing with Villa's life prior to the outbreak of the revolution--a report by a local jefe político stating that in 1907, Villa and some companions had stolen 22 head of cattle and mules.

Extricating fact from fiction and separating truth from legend with regard to Villa's early life requires not only examination of all contemporary documents, including a critical evaluation of both Villa's memoirs and those of his contemporaries, but an understanding of the milieu in which he lived prior to the revolution, that of Mexico's northern frontier, and above all the state of Chihuahua. It was in many respects a region with a history far different from that of the rest of Mexico, a place where heroism and bloodthirstiness had come together in an inextricable and violent mix.


The early life of Pancho Villa

Villa's early life remains shrouded in mystery. This is partly because in contrast to the other main figures of the Mexican Revolution, he had for many years been an outlaw, roaming through vast areas of northern Mexico.

That fact alone is a major obstacle to anyone wishing to unravel the story of his early life. The task is made even more difficult by the many legends, forged by both friends and foes, through which researchers have to hew their way.

There are three basic versions of Villa's early life, which I shall call the white legend, the black legend, and the epic legend. The first, based largely on Villa's own reminiscences, portrays him as a victim of the social and economic system of Porfirian Mexico: a man the authorities prevented from living a quiet, law-abiding life, although he attempted to do so. The black legend portrays him as an evil murderer, with no redeeming qualities. The epic legend, largely based on popular ballads and traditions that seem to have emerged mainly in the course of the revolution, portrays Villa as a far more important personality in prerevolutionary Chihuahua than do either his own account or the black legend. What all three legends have in common is that they are based, not on contemporary documents, but rather on reminiscences, popular ballads, rumours, memoirs, and hearsay. What they also have in common is that none of the three legends, black, white, or epic, is entirely consistent within itself.

The white legend is primarily based on an autobiography that Villa dictated to one of his secretaries, Manuel Bauche Alcalde, at the height of his power in 1914. These memoirs came into the possession of one of Mexico's greatest novelists, Martín Luis Guzmán, who after some rewriting and editing published part of them as the first part of a 1984 book entitled Memorias de Pancho Villa (Memoirs of Pancho Villa). In this book, I have relied on Villa's original memoirs, which the family of Martín Luis Guzmán generously allowed me to consult.

One of the few aspects of Villa's life about which all agree is that he was born in 1878, on the Rancho de la Coyotada, part of one of the largest haciendas in the state of Durango, owned by the López Negrete family. His parents, Agustín Arango and Micaela Arambula, were sharecroppers on the hacienda. The child who would later be known as Francisco Villa was baptised Doroteo Arango. (Different opinions exist about his real name.) His father died at an early age, and his mother had to support her five children.

This book on happiness is the result of many conversations between the Dalai Lama and a psychiatrist based in Phoenix, Arizona, Howard C. Cutler. According to the Dalai Lama, what people really want is happiness in their lives. He maintains that people are really compassionate and gentle in nature, unlike the traditional western view of man as a cruel and predatory creature. While the Dalai Lama agrees that there are many cruel people in the world, he believes that the seeds of kindness and empathy for one's fellow humans are in each of us, waiting to be nurtured.

Studies have shown that people who are compassionate are less likely to develop cancer and when they have heart attacks, they are more likely to live longer afterwards. A professor showing his students films of Mother Teresa of Calcutta helping the poor took saliva samples afterwards and found an increase in an antibody that fights respiratory ailments. Dr. Cutler and the Dalai Lama conclude that people are truly happy when they are sympathetic and reach out to others to help them.

Although this book has many Buddhist viewpoints in it, it is suitable for any one of any conviction to read and learn about compassion. Even if one does not believe that all people truly are good-natured and kind, it might help to plant those seeds and make the world a better place through acts of charity and kindness.