Pancho Villa Research Paper

Pancho Villa: Outlaw to Revolutionary War hero Pancho Villa is mostly known as being a notorious leader during the Mexican Revolution, but he was not always depicted as the good guy. Although there is not much documented on his life before the outbreak of war, it is without a doubt that he was once a bandit on the run from the law (Quintana 8). His days of being an outlaw would eventually shape him and give him the experience he needed to become one of the greatest revolutionary leaders of his time (Katz 88). Pancho Villa was born with the name of Doroteo Arango on June 5, 1878 (Katz 87). His life began in a small village in Rio Grande which was part of the northern Mexican state of Durango. He grew up on a small estate called the Hacienda
He constantly moved back and forth between Chihuahua and Durango while committing small crimes such as robberies, although, he would only steal what he needed at the time. When he reached his teenage years, he committed his first murder. As the legend goes, when Villa returned to the estate in Durango where his family still lived and worked he discovered that his younger sister had been raped. The story is different each time but her rapist was either the overseer, landlord’s son, or the landlord himself. Furious at what had happened he sought out his sister’s attacker and shot and killed him (Carroll 33). Because he was on the run from the law so frequently he made the decision to change his identity. To search for work while avoiding the risk of being found by the police he changed his name to Francisco Villa and fled back Chihuahua. The reason behind the origin of his name is still unknown (Katz 92-93). Although this seems to have put Villa as a very dangerous criminal he really wasn’t all that bad. He was noted as being a generous guy but his temperament and sudden mood shifts were the only problem which made him dangerous. It is said that he would explode with rage at even the slightest thing that upset him. Villa made several attempts at trying to return to living a legal life by becoming employed, mostly by foreign companies, yet his life of banditry and living with gangs made it nearly impossible. “What all the statements by foreigners who hired Villa have in common is that they recognized his qualities as a leader of men and hired him primarily for that purpose” (96). This lifestyle, along with his independent qualities, made him a prominent figure for the upcoming