2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Psalm 32
Luke 15:1-32
Once upon a time, the National Guard was mobilized and sent to the Mexican border, and no one protested or called it a political stunt. It all started just over one hundred and three years ago, on March 9, 1916, though maybe you could say it really all started at the Battle of Puebla on Cinco De Mayo, fifty-four years earlier, for long before folks were drinking fancy margaritas Cinco de Mayo was a day for celebrating Porfirio.
On that first Cinco De Mayo, General Porfirio Diaz became a national hero as he led Mexican troops against a French intervention. He would ride that celebrity for decades, all the way to the presidency, and with the exception of one four year term, would serve as Mexican president from 1877 to 1911, pretty good for someone who originally ran as an opponent of presidential re-election. Resistance to his continued rule built slowly over the decades, erupting into civil war in 1910, though some prefer the term revolution, depending on which side you pick and which historian you read.
Whether it was a civil war or a revolution, one thing is clear. It was a horrible mess, not a people throwing off a colonial power, a native despot, or even an oppressive economic system, but instead a game of factions and shifting sides, often with little ideology but much naked ambition, greed, and personal animosity.
When a nation become lawless, the lawless thrive. So it was that a bandit from Durango became a revolutionary. Born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, you know him by his adopted name, Pancho Villa. As commander of the División del Norte, he proved himself an able strategist and leader, if not a particularly faithful ally. He would help overthrow one president, but then turn on the one he helped put in power.
Early on he had been depicted as a flamboyant hero in the American press and even caught Hollywood’s eye. But in 1915, he and his army were defeated at the Battle of Celaya in April, and again at the Second Battle of Agua Prieta in November. Villa and his forces became nothing more than a rag-tag guerrilla force from that point on, desperate for supplies. So it was that one morning in March 1916 would find them on the outskirts of Columbus, New Mexico, three miles into US territory. Continue reading “Chasing Pancho: March 31, 2019 Lent 4”