La toma de Guadalajara

 

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Picture taken from www.lib.msu.edu/diversity/pancho.gif

History of the battle of Guadalajara

 

The Mexican Revolution, which had begun initially quite modestly in 1910, proved to be one in which the heroes and the heroic stories were seemingly summoned and sustained by the people’s sheer passion and desire for change; an energy so great that it was able to sustain the pressure, to somewhat ameliorate many occurances, of a national government and a beuracracy that wished to keep the will of the people oppressed in order to self-serve.  Such is the origin of many heroes of the time, such as Emeliano Zapata as well as Pancho Villa, to name the obvious. 

During the time of the Mexican Revolution, the corrido saw what was to be its greatest period of ascent, to which many of these heroes can attribute such great fame.  Such a corrido was “La Toma de Guadalajara,” which tells the story of the Division of the North, led by Pancho Villa, and their sacking of the city of Guadalajara.

            The city of Guadalajara is the capitol of the Mexican state of Jalisco, which is located on the Southern third of the Pacific coast, located between the states of Nayarit, to the North, and Colima, to the South.  However, the corrido begins not in Guadalajara, the focus of the narrative, but rather a couple of weeks earlier in November, 1914, on the route from Chihuahua to Guadalajara. 

            As stated in the corrido, Villa is following the same route as the carrancistas, the army under Venustiano Carranza, commander-in-chief of the Constitutional Army, which was established by the Guadalupe Plan of March 1913.  That same month, “Francisco Villa  [had] crossed into Chihuahua from the United States, where he had taken refuge on escaping from prison (Gilly, 100).”  Under Villa’s natural leadership, “the Northern Division soon took shape and developed into an irresistible military machine (Gilly, 101.)”  At this time, Carranza and Villa are fighting for the same side.

            Up until the middle of 1914, Carranza, Villa, and Obregon had been fighting on the same side, more or less.  However, soon after Carranza declared himself president in August of 1914, Villa turned on him, and thus we find ourselves in the era of “La Toma de Guadalajara.”  Villa follows Carranza’s army through Torreon, Fresnillo, Lagos, Iapuato, and La Barca, encountering varying levels of resistance, eventually to make it to Mexico City.  Dieguez is mentioned in the corrido here.  Manuel Dieguez, a divisional commander in Obregon’s army in Guadalajara, was forced to flee from Guadalajara by the pending invasion by the Villa and his Northern Division army in late 1913.

            The corrido speaks of Julian Medina, as well, who was to later become the villista governor of the state of Guadalajara.  Upon entering and taking Guadalajara, Villa made an instant impression.  The prisoners and officials are all given liberty by Villa, who gives them food and clothes, to the sound of the people exclaiming, “Que Viva Pancho Villa!”  Interestingly enough, by April of 1915, Villa had moved on, and Dieguez had again assumed control of Guadalajara, but not before the corridistas again solidified Pancho Villa as one of the greatest heroes of the revolution. 

            Soon after the United States declared their support of Obregon and Carranza, Villa began his raids on the United States border.  Villa would eventually surrender to the Mexican Government after two failed attempts by the United States to capture him.  He retired, living on the salary of a general until his assassination in 1923.  However, through the permeation and survival of corridos such as “La Toma de Guadalajara,” his legend lives on.

 

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