The decade-long Mexican Revolution divided a nation, left thousands dead and spawned an authoritarian political system that dominates society even today.
The revolution threw up many characters and leaders, none more so than Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Emiliano Zapata.
In December 1914 Mexico was in a state of political anarchy. Northern general Villa had fallen out with the Conventionalists led by Venustiano Carranza in the wake of their alliance to oust the dictator Victoriano Huerta. Meanwhile, Zapata’s growing Indian army had waged their own revolution in the south, rocking the status quo in six states.
Unquestionably, Villa and Zapata were the most powerful men in Mexico at that moment, reveling in and taking advantage of the chaos and divisive climate.
By December 4, both Villa’s and Zapata’s armies had occupied Mexico City and the two revolutionaries met for the first time. During their initial encounter in the suburb of Xochimilco, they mapped out their war plans and agreed to swap prisoners for execution. Villa promised to provide arms so Zapata could continue to wage his offensive against Carranza’s forces in the south, but as his own army was also short of weapons and ammunition, the agreement came to nothing.
On December 6, Zapata and Villa took part in a joint parade through the streets of the capital. Some 50,000 men from both armies participated. They marched down the Paseo de la Reforma to the Zocalo and the National Palace. There, a photographer took the famous image (above) of Villa sitting in the presidential chair, with Zapata at his side. Neither of course was president – that dubious honor had fallen to Eulalio Gutierrez, an interim appointment who uneasily hosted a banquet for both men at the palace where the photo was taken. (A week later he would denounce Villa and Zapata and flee the capital.)
According to historical records, Villa insisted they take turns sitting in the presidential chair. “I didn’t fight for that,” Zapata apparently said. “We should burn that chair to end all ambitions.”
The two men couldn’t have been more physically different – the dark-skinned Zapata was slender and somber; the paler Villa rotund and gregarious. But they clearly respected each other’s courage, while sharing no trust.
Neither did their armies have much in common. Zapata’s Indian forces, reputedly cruel and barbarous, astonished the capital’s population with their polite behavior. They begged for food at the doors of the rich, while Villa’s wayward troops held drunken orgies, firing rounds of bullets into the sky at all hours of the day.
The two revolutionaries soon abandoned the capital to continue their campaigns. Zapata took Puebla but refused to advance any further, announcing his disgust with national politics. He retreated to Morelos and by mid-1915 further setbacks had forced him to withdraw to his hideout in the jungle. He was assassinated in 1919.
Villa’s fortunes fared little better. He took Guadalajara on December 13, 1914 before returning to the capital a week later. General Alvaro Obregon chased him out of Mexico City in January 1915 and in April the two men faced off in the Battle of Celaya, one of the most bloody in Mexico’s history. The three-day confrontation claimed 12,000 casualties and spelled the start of Villa’s declining influence. Retreating to his northern stronghold, he took out his anger on the United States, blaming President Woodrow Wilson for backing Carranza. (His rage boiled over into the famous raid on Columbus, New Mexico, when his troops killed 18 citizens.) Like Zapata, Villa would meet his end at the hands of an assassin; slain in 1923.