Francisco Pancho Villa Signed Letter as Commander of the Northern Revolutionary Army COA JSA

Francisco “Pancho” Villa was a famed Mexican revolutionary and guerilla leader. He joined Francisco Madero’s uprising against Mexican President Porfirio Díaz in 1909, and later became leader of the División del Norte cavalry and governor of Chihuahua. 

Villa was an integral part of the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1920. He lead a guerrilla army to help seize control of the country’s northern and border territories for the rebels. In the midst of all the blood and chaos that followed when Diaz (dictator of Mexico 1876) was overthrown, what was left of the Mexico City central government were the battles between the Liberation Army of the South, commanded by Emiliano Zapata, and the Chihuahua-based División del Norte, led by the even more celebrated bandit-rebel Pancho Villa.

The three-cornered civil war that followed was notable for its unrelenting savagery, its unending confusion and (north of the Rio Grande, at least) its unusual film deals. Yes, you read that correctly as there was a curious symbiosis between the United States film industry and Villa the former outlaw-turned commander. Villa was a media savvy man who contracted with a U.S. studio, the Mutual Film Co., to shoot parts of his actual battles with Mexican federal troops for a silent feature film, “The Life of General Villa.” By that point, Villa already had captivated U.S. audience. These initially heroic images reflected and, to a degree, shaped official U.S. foreign policy toward Villa and his rebel compatriots in their uprising against the despotic Porfirio Diaz regime.

From that era is this one page typed signed letter Francisco of Pancho Villa, in Spanish, 8.5″ x 11″, on “Northern Army Commander in Chief” letterhead, from Torreón, Coahuila, Mexico, September 3, 1915.

Commander of the Northern Revolutionary Army the military leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa wrote to Francisco Lagos Chazaro, the acting President of Mexico from June 10, 1915 to October 10, 1915. It was regarding the selection of delegates to a conference dedicated to permanently removing exiled president Venustiano Carranza de la Garza from power.

At the Convention of Aguascalientes, rebel leaders voted to remove President Carranza from power. Carranza fled to Veracruz while his most loyal followers continued to fight against Pancho Villa as commander of the Northern Revolutionary Army, and Emiliano Zapata, commander of the Liberation Army of the South. After many hard months of battle, Carranza’s troops entered Mexico City in August 1915 and took it by force. Another meeting of the convention was planned, at which time this letter was sent by Villa to Chazaro.

Translated (roughly):

“Dear Friend: I trust that you have confidence in me and all those within the North Division Army, whether of military or civilian character. On this basis, I feel obligated to provide more extensive explanations that cannot be sent by telegraph, but not at times like this when I am in the field. Please believe that we are working for the good of the country to avoid armed intervention and obtain, by contrast, the pacification, bringing down the dictatorship of Venustiano Carranza. In this vein, I request that you and our allies nominate three representatives with broad powers to the peace conferences as soon as possible, to ensure that the agreements to be reached are duly ratified by the convention.

I want to add only that we are trying to reorganize a government that will be immediately recognized by the government of the United States and the Latin American republics, so that we may establish as soon as possible a constitutional government.

If the delegates are physically unable to travel to the place of the conferences, it would be desirable to use telegraph to contact people there, in whom they have confidence. I am enclosing a copy of the letter I am writing today to General Zapata, in which I shed more light on the matter. There is no time to write more now. I send you a hug and the most cordial and affectionate greetings. Francisco Villa.”

Authentication: JSA Full Letter

Pancho Villa Signed Letter