Pancho Villa: The Making of a Modern Legend

Abstract

What makes a man—or the public memory of a man—into a a legend? The Western world has always had legendary heroes, men who in life waged vigorous campaigns against terrifying odds, and who, in death, bear reputations burnished and embellished and gloriously expanded by the stories their admirers tell. Dietrich of Berne, Frederick Barbarossa, Alexander of Macedon, Charlemagne, the Cid, Russia’s Prince Igor, Cordoba’s Great Captain, and others, live on in legend centuries after their physical lives ended. The stories of these heroes are told in sagas, epics, and lays, in ballads and folksongs, romances and myths. There are also heroes more newly-made. Their stories are broadcast through the media of twentieth-century communication: popular biographies, historical fiction, diplomatic telegrams, reports of senatorial committees, newspaper accounts, magazine articles, motion pictures. Mexico provided the pre-eminent legendary hero of modern times: Pancho Villa.

Drinking difference: Race, consumption, and alcohol prohibition in Mexico and the United States

“…The press both praised and denigrated Villa. For example, the Nation magazine described him as ‘very different from the purely selfish and utterly ignorant cutthroat and robber,’ while the Fortnightly Review explained Villa’s actions as ‘a recital of cold-blooded murders, thefts, torturings [sic], and atrocities of an even worse description’ (Brandt, 1964: 154). These contradictory media depictions ‘visually reinforced’ Villa’s ‘radical otherness’ to Americans (Marez, 2004: 215).…”