b. June 5, 1878, Hacienda de Río Grande, San Juan del Río, Mex.
d. June 20, 1923, Parral
byname of FRANCISCO VILLA, original name DOROTEO ARANGO, Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader who fought against the regimes of both Porfirio Díaz and Victoriano Huerta and after 1914 engaged in civil war and banditry.
Villa was the son of a field labourer and was orphaned at an early age. In revenge for an assault on his sister, he killed one of the owners of the estate on which he worked and was afterward forced to flee to the mountains, where he spent his adolescence as a fugitive.
In 1909 Villa joined Francisco Madero's uprising against the dictator of Mexico, Porfirio Díaz. During the rebellion, Villa, who lacked a formal education but had learned to read and write, displayed his talents as soldier and organizer. Combined with his intimate knowledge of the land and the people of northern Mexico, these gifts enabled him to place at Madero's disposal a division of trained soldiers under his command. After the success of the revolution, Villa remained in the irregular army.
In 1912, during the rebellion of Pascual Orozco, Villa aroused the suspicion of Gen. Victoriano Huerta, who condemned him to death, but Madero ordered a stay of execution and sent Villa to prison instead. Villa escaped from prison in November and fled to the United States. After Madero's assassination in 1913, Villa returned to Mexico and formed a military band of several thousand men that became known as the famous División del Norte (Division of the North). Combining his force with that of Venustiano Carranza, Villa revolted against the increasingly repressive and inefficient dictatorship of Huerta, once again revealing his military talents by winning several victories. In December 1913 Villa became governor of the state of Chihuahua and with Carranza won a decisive victory over Huerta in June 1914. Together they entered Mexico City as the victorious leaders of a revolution.
Rivalry between Villa and Carranza, however, soon led to a break between the two, and Villa was forced to flee Mexico City with the revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata in December 1914. Badly defeated by Carranza in a series of battles, he and Zapata fled to the mountains of the north. But in order to demonstrate that Carranza did not control northern Mexico, Villa executed 16 U.S. citizens at Santa Isabel in early 1916 and soon thereafter attacked Columbus, N.M. Pres. Woodrow Wilson then sent an expedition under General Pershing to that area, but, because of Villa's popularity and intimate acquaintance with the terrain of northern Mexico and because of the Mexican government's dislike of Pershing's presence on Mexican soil, it proved impossible to capture Villa.
Villa continued his guerrilla activities as long as Carranza remained in power. After the overthrow of Carranza's government in 1920, Villa was granted a pardon and a ranch near Parral, Chihuahua, in return for agreeing to retire from politics. Three years later he was assassinated on his ranch.
Villa, Francisco, commonly called Pancho Villa (1877-1923), Mexican revolutionary leader. Originally named Doroteo Arango, he was born in Río Grande, Durango. Upon the outbreak of the revolution of 1910-11 against the Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz, Villa offered his services to the rebel leader Francisco I. Madero. During Madero's administration he served under the Mexican general Victoriano Huerta, who sentenced him to death for insubordination. Villa escaped to the United States, and following the assassination of Madero and the assumption of power by Huerta in 1913, he returned to join the opposition under the revolutionary leader Venustiano Carranza. The two men soon became enemies, however, and when Carranza seized power in 1914, Villa led a rebellion against him.
The following year the U.S. government recognized Carranza as president of Mexico, and on March 9, 1916, Villa crossed the border and attacked Columbus, New Mexico, killing a number of citizens and destroying part of the town. A punitive expedition dispatched to Mexico from the U.S. failed to capture Villa. After the overthrow of Carranza in 1920, he came to terms with the new government and retired to a ranch near Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua. He was assassinated there in 1923.
