Triumph of the Vanquished: Pancho Villa's Army in Revolutionary Mexico

Abstract

"Triumph of the Vanquished: Pancho Villa's Army in Revolutionary Mexico" studies the origins and formation of Francisco "Pancho" Villa's Division del Norte in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Coahuila during the Mexican Revolution of 1910. It demonstrates the manner by which guerilla cells based on a military hierarchy grew to brigade-size fighting units and later morphed into the Division. Once fully functional, the Division became a formidable force that achieved legendary status in Mexico's history. After tracing the villistas' rise and decline, the dissertation examines the lives of Pancho Villa's followers after 1920 when many became colonists in lands granted to them by Mexico's government. In 1920, the villistas signed a formal peace agreement with the central government and received properties on four colonies, two in Chihuahua and two in Durango. To analyze villismo past 1920, the dissertation focuses on El Pueblito, a colony located in the northwest region of Chihuahua. It highlights the lives of those ex-villistas turned agriculturalists, an aspect of the Revolution studied by only a few scholars.The general intent of this work is to reveal that ex-villistas -- those who were not a part of the surrender process in 1920 and had separated from the Division after their defeat at the battle of Celaya in 1915 -- continued their political struggle in Chihuahua past 1920 and beyond World War II as a part of the Unificacion de Veteranos de la Revolucion, an institution created in 1946 by veterans of the Revolution in the state. As influential and active members of the institution, the ex-villistas pressured local and national government for veteran assistance. At the same time, the former revolutionaries succeeded, through their involvement in the Unificacion, in maintaining a villista legacy, participating as they did in local events and in the construction of statues throughout the state dedicated to their fallen leader.