Revolutions - 9.19- The Conventionists

Episode Date: January 14, 2019

In October 1914 the Aguascalientes Convention met to decide the future of Mexico.  Sponsor: Care/Of  

And welcome to revolutions. Episode 9.19, The Conventionists. Welcome back to the show. My break was great. My vacation was great. I hope everyone out there is doing great. And let's just get right back into it. We left off last time with the fall of Victoriano Werta,

who had been president of Mexico from the 10 tragic days in February 1913, until his realization that he had lost the war with the constitutional and needed to make a run for it in July of 1914. Wirtas' usurpation of power had not returned Mexico to the Porphyrian dream of order and progress. Instead, it had triggered further chaos and revolution. Huge constitutionalist armies campaigned in the north. Zapatista guerrillas permeated the south, and as if that wasn't bad enough, the American army continued to occupy the Porta Veracruz.

By the time the federal army formally surrendered in August of 1914, Werta was long gone. And as we have seen so often, the removal of a shared enemy led the victorious revolutionaries to turn on each other. So the next six months would be a whirlwind of negotiations and potential new alliances that would, by the end of the year, see Mexico not establishing a new peace, but waging a new revolutionary civil war. The old order was now dead, though. One of the first things General Alvara Obrugone did upon entering Mexico City was visit the grave of Francisco Madero and connect the constitutionalist victory to the memory of the noble apostle democracy who had been martyred by the enemies of freedom. But as I said, a few episodes back when the constitutionalist

revolt first got going, its leaders were not going to be following Madero's suicidal instinct for compromise and conciliation. Officials who had served under Diaz or Huerta were going to have no place in the new order. The federal army would be disarmed and then dismantled. Unlike in 1910, when Madero had failed to make the revolutionary armies the armed forces for his presidency, the constitutionalist armies, most of them now operating under good discipline and clear chains of commands, would seamlessly become the armies of the Mexican state. Economic and social reforms would be implemented at the expense of the old Perfurian oligarchy. The refusal of Caranza and Obrugon, Via and other constitutionalist generals to even consider

a Madero-style compromise with their enemies led to an exodus. of rich, conservative, elite families out of the country. Many packed their bags and headed for the relative safety of American-occupied Veracruz. Once there, many tried to convince the Americans to expand the scope of their operations to defend civilization from the hordes of barefooted, illiterate banditos marching into Mexico City. But when the Americans declined such further involvement, these families kept moving and most fled to exile, either in the United States or Europe. The surrender of the Federal Army and the revolutionary capture of Mexico City naturally led to some old scores being settled violently in a few necessary executions. But in the main, this would not be a violent and

bloody purge. It would be a house cleaning, not a massacre. And though at least one radical paper suggested it, the guillotine would not be erected in the Capitol. It was, however, made very clear that the political and social dominance of the former Porphyrians was over. The exact nature of the new order that would replace the old order, though, was not entirely clear yet. The remaining rump of the National Congress attempted to convene and assert some sovereignty in the political vacuum, but they were just ignored. In August of 1914, there was no government of Mexico. There was the chain of command in the constitutionalist armies and the authority of state governors who had been appointed by Carranza, but all of this was operating on martial law and arbitrary fiat.

On what sovereign basis all of this rested, other than the assertions of the plan of Guadalupe, no one could say. There were supposed to be elections, but when they would be held, who could be a candidate, and under what authority the elections would take place, was not established.

The only thing that had been established was the deal that had been struck at the Torreon Conference in early July. That was the little summit between the representatives of Via, Carranza and a few other generals, and they had agreed that after the war was won, that a convention of leading revolutionary officers would convene to shape the political future of Mexico. But this had been vague language meant to paper over divisions inside the constitutionalist camp in the final minutes before the sunset of the old order.

Now that it was the dawn of the new order, they were going to have to start making specific decisions. It was at this uncertain moment that Obrugan, took his first real independent political steps of the revolution. Up until now, Obergon had been almost exclusively a military man, first a colonel in the state militia, then a general in the constitutionalist army. His days and nights had been spent focused on defeating his enemy.

But now that his enemy was defeated, a different overgone emerged. One clearly aware of the fact that he had become one of the two or three most powerful men in the country. He currently led one of the best trained armies in Mexico. and controlled the capital. Now, thanks to the nature of Obergon's character, specifically that he was not an idiot, this did not lead him to, like, declare himself dictator for life and dare anyone to dislodge him. I do feel comfortable saying, however, that by the summer of 1914,

overgoan was looking around at the competition, his own record in the field, and now fancying himself a pretty plausible candidate for president. But first and foremost, Obergoen wanted peace, and it was becoming, very clear to everyone that the personal hostility to Carranza from a lot of other revolutionary leaders, most especially Pancho Villa, was promising nothing but future war. And so Obergon prepared to ditch Caranza in the interest of peace, and also, of course, in the interest of his own growing political ambitions. From this desire to not let the country fall back into civil war, Obrigon took the bold step of seeking, if not an alliance,

then at least de taunt with Pancho Villa, and he was willing to put himself at Via's mercy to do it. Soon after taking Mexico City, Obergoon took the train up to Chihuahua City, where Vio was making his headquarters to embark on personal negotiations between the two best generals of the Constitutional's movement. For his part, Via was amused that Obrugon was coming up

and thought this was going to be nothing but a photo op, another show of fake constitutionalist unity for outsiders, as they both continued to sharpen the long knives. But Obrigon surprised Via with a real, tangible, and apparently sincere offer. If Via was willing to not mess around with local politics in Obrugon's home state of Sonora, which Via very much was doing at the moment, then Obrugone would support an initiative to force Caranza to relinquish power. Obergoen said he and his fellow officers were prepared to force Carranza into becoming provisional president only for the purposes of holding elections, elections that Caranza himself would not be allowed to participate in.

Via perked right up at this offer. This was not some staged photo op. This was a real opportunity to build a new revolutionary axis at the expense of the man Via now hated more than anyone else in the world. Via probably hated Caranza more than he hated Huerta at this point. which is really saying something. But this nascent Obrugone-Via alliance never really got off the ground because neither was able to deliver on the promises they made in Chihuahua City.

Carranza outright rejected any notion that he could be removed so easily. I mean, Obrugan was his best general, but not his only general, and Carranza was not about to be turned into a footnote in history. Meanwhile, in Sonora, the bargain agreed to by Obrugone and Via was ignored by all of their allies and proxies and tensions and skirmishing in the state only escalated. So a few weeks later, Obrugan went back to Chihuahua City, but this time he employed a different and more dangerous strategy. In between continued personal talks with Via, Obergone met with other Division del Norte generals, telling them, not incorrectly, that the

private conflict between Via and Carranza was now becoming a public hazard, Obrgonne sounded out their willingness to defect away from Via in the interest of peace. and more than a few of them indicated they were willing to do it. Via caught wind of this, and believing Obergon's previous promises had been a pack of lies, he blew up into one of his towering rages at their next meeting and said, I have a firing squad ready to go, so prepared to be executed. It took the combined imploring of Felipe Anhalis, and then ultimately Villa's wife, Luzkrao, to convince Via that so brazenly murdering Obrugone would be a fatal mistake.

Obrugan continued to coolly and says that he was absolutely ready to dump Caranza into the dustbin of history, saying most especially that whenever the Convention of Revolutionary Generals took place, that Caronzo would not be able to control their deliberations. Via calmed down a bit and agreed not to execute Obrugan and not to boycott the convention when it convened, and he allowed his rival to leave the city alive. But though he had calmed down, Via's murderous wrath was apparently undemissioned. And it looks like he only wanted to avoid the impropriety of murdering somebody who was his guest. Via had probably already at this point determined that a future war between him and Carranza was unavoidable,

and that Obrugone would clearly be his most formidable adversary. So, after Obrugone got back on a train to Mexico City, Via ordered that train stopped and that Obrugone be executed. But just as Via himself had once escaped Huerta's order to have his, him killed on a train to Mexico City, that was back in episode 9.13, the officer's task with actually carrying out the execution did not act, either out of a miscommunication or outright in subordination. Obrugone was allowed to continue on alive and well. Via's attempt to kill Obrugone was part fit of peak, but also based on a solid prognostication. And in fact,

Via's belief that Obrugone would be his most formidable and dangerous adversary would come true. As Obrigon attempted detente with Via, another group of constitutionalist leaders attempted de taunt with Emiliano Zapata. There would never be peace as long as the Zapatistas held themselves aloof from everyone. And so, in late August 1914, a small click of generals with more radical inclinations than first chief Carranza, reached out to Zapata to see what it would take to get the Morelos guerrillas to stand down. This turned out to be nearly an imposterous. possible cell. Carranza considered the Zapatistas to be barefooted barbarians who were much more

of a threat to civilization than the old Porfarian oligarchy. I mean, Caranza had political beefs with the Porfirians, and so was purging them from government, but he had like metaphysical disagreements with the Zapatistas. It's why the one condition of the Federal Army's surrender had been that the federal army along the Southern line of Mexico City would stay in place until they were relieved by constitutionalist forces to stop the Zapatistas from entering the capital. And this was not anything Zapata himself had missed. And Sapata said that this Karanza does not inspire much confidence in me. I see in him much ambition and a disposition to fool people. So for Zapata, Karanza was just another Madero, and probably even less trustworthy than Madero had

been. But still, Zapata allowed a small delegation of Karanista generals who had proven track records of land reform in areas that they controlled to come to Kornavaka for a meeting. But when this little group got to Zapatista occupied Kornavaka, they found the Zapatista outright hostile to the lawyers and the politicians and the tricksters who surrounded Karnza. Sapada said that any alliance with him and his liberating army of the South would have to be based on two fundamental principles. First, any potential ally had to accept the plan of Iola, and second, Caranza had to resign. And that would be the preliminary demands for future negotiations.

That was not the negotiations themselves. That was just what had to be established before Zapata would even talk to you. Now, since Caronzo was obviously never going to meet those demands, the group of commissioners left empty-handed. And on September the 5th, Karanza gave an interview blasting and scoffing at Zapata. So whenever Karanza took up the presidency, he could expect to be the latest national leader to have to do. deal with continued revolution in the South. And it was now becoming a more aggressive revolution

in the South. On September 8th, Zapata announced that he was invoking Article 8 of the Plan of Iala, which promised total nationalization of land and property belonging to anyone who opposed the plan of Iola. Up until now, Zapatista controlled areas had seen a lot of reclamation or recovery of land, villages making claims about property that had been stolen from them by the Oscendados. But up until this point, Zapata had held his chiefs back from going further than restoration. He didn't even allow them to seize land for their own personal enrichment, as many expected, would be the reward for their service. But after invoking Article 8, real revolutionary land distribution would commence in the South. Survey teams would be organized

to go out, take stock of all the land, and more or less, less due to the Asciendas, what the Asiendas had done to the villages. Encroach on their land, gobble up their property, and redistribute to the people, what had for centuries, been owned only by the powerful. With Zapata remaining aloof from the constitutionalists in the south, tensions between the constitutionalists in the north continued to escalate. Carranza decided to literally break ties with Via, ordering men under his command to cut telegraph lines and literally rip up the railways connecting areas controlled by Via from areas

controlled by Carranza. Via then issued a declaration saying that he no longer recognized Caranza as first chief of anything and that Mexico, all of Mexico, should join in Via's call for a new civilian government to take over the country as soon as possible. With the rift between Villa and Carranza now becoming a real problem, the next rung of officers down the ladder became very concern that this was going to lead to open war, which neither they, nor they suspected Mexicans generally, really wanted. So about 50 of these senior generals, including eventually Obrugan, signed a proclamation demanding that the agreement made it Torreon back in July be fulfilled, that a convention of leading revolutionary generals be held immediately, a convention where

the leadership of the revolution would be able to come together as a group, not as members of individual factions and determined the best way to settle a peace for Mexico. Carranza tried to wiggle his way out of this by agreeing that a convention should be called, and then he scheduled this convention for October 1st in Mexico City. But he tried to keep tight control over it by stipulating that the convened members should be composed of constitutionalist generals or their designated representatives, all state governors, and other officials who had been appointed by Carranza since the beginning of the rebellion, and then other just sort of loose advisors to the first chief.

This was clearly meant to be a rubber stamp convention, designed to ratify the legitimacy of Carranza's move towards the presidency. But showing the weakness of Carranza's position, almost all the rest of the revolutionary generals, including Obrugan, refused to go along with this rubber stamp. The October 1st convention would take place, and it did take place. But a second convention was arranged for October the 10th. This convention would be held in the neutral city

of Aguos Calientes, and this one would be attended only by revolutionary generals, who would be there representing themselves and Mexico. Caranza did not have the ability to stop the Aguos Calientes Convention, and could only insist with frustration that it would be merely advisory and not bind him personally in any way to anything. The Aguos Calientis Convention convened on October the 10th, 1914, to decide the fate of Mexico. Unlike the Matarista era, when the soldiers, had been shunted aside so the civilians could take over. This time, it would be reversed. Civilians were barred from participating in the convention. The soldiers had risked their lives, spilled their blood, and won the war, and they were going to have the last word.

About 150 total delegates showed up, either the senior generals themselves, or delegates appointed to represent them, on the basis of one representative per 1,000 soldiers. Now, were there 150,000 thousand revolutionary soldiers under arms at that moment? No, probably not, and credentials were inflated. But still, nearly all the factions, save for the moment the Zapatistas, were represented. It was a dangerous moment, as Mexico had a long history of military rule. But while the men who gathered at Aguascalientes were all military men now, most of them were civilians who had been converted into soldiers by the revolution, and they all assumed some kind of civilian government would inherit the country. There was no support for setting up a permanent military dictatorship.

That was not on the table. Pancho Villa himself stayed away, but he did send a group of about 40 dedicated Vistas, who would be there to ensure that the boss wasn't screwed over, but most especially to make sure that Caranza was screwed over. Obrugone was there in person as a strong moderate presence inside a group oriented towards peace. That group included most of the generals who had signed the proclamation calling for the convention in the first place, and they formed the bulk of the membership of the convention. A much smaller minority were hardcore carancistas, whose fortunes and careers were tied to their patron, and who were there to ensure the convention did not get rid of the first chief. After convening on October the 10th, they all swore an oath

and affixed their signatures to a Mexican flag, stating that they would abide by the convention's collective decisions. Then two days later, they declared themselves, sovereign. The Agus Calientes Convention would now constitute the sovereign authority of Mexico. Cranza refused to recognize this bold claim and continued to insist that it was merely an advisory body and that as first chief, sovereign authority still rested with him. But Poncho Avia took a different approach. He came down to Aguascalientes. He fixed his own signature to the flag and announced that he would abide by the decisions of the convention. Avia went back to his headquarters, but while he stayed away, he left his interests in the capable hands of Felipe Anjales. And Anhalis became one of the most

dominant players at the convention. Anheleus led the Vistas in pursuit of conciliation and compromise with everyone else in the room. This was a cunning strategy that would further draw a contrast between Via and Carranza, because the Carranza guys were there offering no compromise and no conciliation. They were there to insist that Caranza was now the Supreme National League. of Mexico and demand that everyone else signal their due fealty and submission. The Vistas, meanwhile, had no such lordly demands. And the reason the Vista has had no such lordly demands comes down to one of the vaguely articulated but still supremely relevant ideological distinctions between Via

and Carranza. Though he may himself had only been dimly aware of it, Via was in the middle of trying to revive federalism as a major political philosophy in Mexico. As we saw way back in the first couple episodes of this series and all of the Belivar episodes, the conflict between centralists and federalists in the 19th century was the dividing line of any number of civil wars, coups, revolts and revolutions in Latin America. In Mexico, federalism had been permanently abandoned when Benito Juarez and the liberals, in their struggles first against conservatives and then against the French, embraced strong central authority. This was obviously cemented by war. as his successor, if not exactly heir, Perferio Diaz. Federalism had been virtually extinct in Mexico

since the 1860s. But now Via was trying to bring it back, thanks mostly to his own natural proclivities. Pancho Villa does not seem to have had any national ambitions, and you can count me as among those convinced that Via was not interested in becoming president. That was never his ambition. He wanted local power and Chihuahua, of course, but beyond that, he had no interest. in imposing his will on anyone, and readily invited generals and other political leaders from various parts of Mexico to go home and do as they pleased. That's the future of Mexico that Poncho Villa envisioned. Carranza, on the other hand, was a strong executive centralist, whose hero was the liberal centralist Juarez, and who, in another life, probably winds up as an obscure minister in the

cabinet of alternate reality President Bernardo Reyes. For Carranza, a strong central government was essential to order in progress. So Via was able to compromise on all kinds of things, tell everybody, hey, go home and do what you want. Cranza could not and would not make those same compromises. Now, all of that said, Via may not have personally had national ambitions, but his man, Felipe Anhalis sure did. And Anhalis recognized a way to turn this vaguely neutral convention into a vehicle of pure viismo, a machine that would propel him to the presidency. And that would be to bring in the Zapatistas. With one delegate per thousand soldiers, a Zapatista delegation, aligned with the Vistas,

could pop Kranza out of the leadership of the revolution and settle all things in their own favor. So Anjala stepped forward and proposed that on moral grounds, on political grounds, and for reasons of revolutionary honor, that the not-present Zapatistas, be formally invited to send a delegation. Most of the other guys in the room agreed to this proposal because they were there to ensure post-revolutionary peace, and unless the Zapatistas were satisfied, there would never be peace.

So the convention bless Anjolos personally going to Morelos to invite them. So Anhalis got on a train, he headed down to Mexico City, and then up to Kornavaka to personally call on Zapata. Now, this is kind of crazy and a little dangerous, because remember, last time Anhalis was in Morelos, he was the commander of federal army forces trying to defeat the Zapatistas. But Anhalas was convinced that his relatively compassionate tour of duty and Sopatra's desire for an alliance with Via would see him through this without getting shot. And he was right.

The two men met on October the 20th, and Sopatra started by praising Anhalis as the only man who had ever fought him honorably. This was quite an endorsement. But Zapata was wary of doing anything that might compromise the plan of Ayala, and recognizing the sovereign authority of some convention of Northern Generals was a surefire way of doing just that. So the two men had to come up with a plan. And the plan was this. Sapata would send 26 delegates to represent the army of the South, but they would go merely as observers until the convention agreed to ratify the principles of the plan of Ayala. Anhalis believed that he could pull this off, and so the delegates were appointed. But Zapata himself would not go, nor would any of the other principal chiefs of the army.

None of them seemed to have much in the way of national ambitions. Those who did want to go were the civilian-type intellectuals who had come to Marilos after the fighting started. They had come to provide ideological support and give rhetorical ammunition, not actually pick up a rifle and fire it. So almost every single one of the 26 delegates had to be hastily commissioned as colonels in the Southern Army so they could participate. So then this group of newly minted Zapatista colonels piled back onto the train and headed north. Only very conspicuously they did not first get off in Aguoscellientes. First, they continued further north another hundred miles or so to where Via had set up his headquarters.

And it was only after receiving Via's personal insurances that he supported them and the Plan of Iola, They went back to Aguascalientes. But on the morning of October the 27th, the Sapatista delegation was welcomed into the hall to thunderous applause. And for the first time, all revolutionary factions were in one place at one time, and they did something kind of surprising. They endorsed the plan of Ayala. Now, of course, not everyone at the convention was some radical aggregista.

I mean, most of them weren't. But as Anhalis had promised, he managed to engineer the overwhelming approval of the principles of the plan of Iowa by the convention. And this committed the sovereign authority of Mexico and the future national government of Mexico to pretty radical land redistribution and like social justice. Even Obergone and his guys went along with this, even though it was far more radical than anything they wanted. And this was because they genuinely wanted peace. And besides, plans and promises were made to be broken. But though the embrace of agrarian justice was a pretty big deal in terms of the long constitutional history of Mexico. For the moment, it took a backseat

to the real battle that was now at hand. How to settle things between Via and Carranza to avoid civil war. And this is when Obrugan stepped forward. On October the 31st, he introduced a resolution that called on both Via and Caranza to resign simultaneously. This was the best and probably only way to ensure future peace. To replace Caranza as executive, Obergoen suggests, the little-known and little-supported leader from San Luis Potosi, Yulalio Gutierrez. The resolution calling for this double resignation was, of course, Obrugone continuing his attempts to stop a revolutionary civil war. But, let's face it, removing Carranza and Via at the same time would mean that Obrigon was bound to emerge from the convention as the preeminent leader in Mexico.

Probably only Felipe Anjoliz would be able to rival him. And Anhalis actually helped Obergone secure passages. of this revolution, though probably not, as Obrugone hoped, in the interest of actually getting VIA to resign. Via and Anhalis were playing their own game, but it was to more thunderous applause that Anhalas read a short message from Via saying, not only do I resign, I suggest the convention have both me and Karanza shot. Now, we should not take this at face value. Via and Anhalas were gambling that Karanza would never step down, so their bluff would never be called. It was well-known, that while the convention met, Via was continuing to beef up his arms, and talking quite openly

about how the shooting would start again soon. By being the first to publicly agree to resign, though, Villa got to portray himself as selfless and patriotic, and Carranza as a grasping, dictatorial megalomaniac. And Caranza played his part perfectly. After attempting a few formulas to remain in power, ultimately Caranza said the convention is not sovereign, it is not binding on me and I'm not going to retire. The convention then delivered an ultimatum. They gave Caranza until November the 10th to resign. And when that deadline passed, the convention declared him in rebellion.

Angelus and Via had played things perfectly. The convention was the sovereign authority of Mexico. They had in hand a flag signed by all the other generals agreeing to abide by the decrees of the convention. And the convention had just declared Caranza. illegitimate and in rebellion. To complete this deaf political maneuver, Via was then declared commander-in-chief of the convention's armed forces. But as it turns out, solemn oaths and signatures on the flag do not count for as much as they should. Not only did the hardcore

Carrancista's walk out, but so too did most of the moderates, including Obrugon, who now decided to reconcile with the first chief. Now, one might think that Obrgon would have sided with Via over Caranza, whose unwillingness to sep aside was now the thing plunging Mexico back into the war that he had been trying to avoid. And it's still a matter of speculation and argument why he went back. Probably it was a mix of being more socially and politically aligned with the conservative Carranza rather than the radical Vistas and Sepatistas.

Also, probably mixed in was personal hatred of Via for, you know, ordering his execution. Plus, on top of that, there was the recognition that even if he personally sided the via, that many of his comrades and fellow officers would not. If he crossed the lines, he'd do it alone. Obrugone's goal had been to avoid a civil war. He had failed, and so all that was left to do now was pick aside. And he picked Caranza. Caranza, fatefully welcomed Obrigon back, rather than excommunicating him for the months Obrugone had spent trying to get rid of Carranza. So after the declaration that Caranza was in rebellion, the constitutionalist forces pulled out of Mexico City and reconciledated near Veracruz, knowing that they would very

likely lose any direct encounter with the Division del Norte. Via immediately prepared to march on the capital, but in the meantime, someone had to occupy the city, and that someone, by default, was the Zapatistas. Now, Sopata never had any desire or ambition to capture Mexico City, and his men were all peasant guerrillas. So it was with some awkwardness and a hint of hesitant embarrassment that the Morales' guerrillas'rillas walked into Mexico City on November the 24th. The culture clash was sharp. Most of these guys had spent their lives in villages or working on Asciendas, and the biggest city they had ever encountered was Kornavaka. And here they were now technically in control of one of the great world capitals. They were unsure of exactly what was expected of them.

And there's a story that one night a fire company went blaring off down the road and a company of Zapatistas, having never seen such a thing, assumed it was some kind of enemy attack and they opened fire. It'd be funny, except they killed all 12 firemen. Sepata himself was not thrilled about having to leave home. And rather than take up residence in some posh house, as all the constitutionalists had done after Obergoen took the city back in August, Sopata pointedly occupied a small hotel room near the train station so he could get back to Morrillos as soon as possible. Press and the city swarmed him now, but Sapata mostly refused to give them more than a few monosyllabic answers. And it was with great relief that the first advanced divisions of Via's division del Norte arrived at the outskirts of Mexico City on November the 26th. Two days after that, Sapata was on a train to Kornavaka, and most of his men soon followed. So that brings us to the great meeting that will conclude today's episode, the meeting of Villa and Zapata. Sapata agreed to host Via at a small house in the small city of Sochi Milko, which blaze between

Kornavaka and Mexico City. And on December 4, 1914, Via and his entourage arrived. About 60 men crammed into a large upstairs room, and we have a firsthand English account of the moment they met, and every book I read just quotes that in full, so I will do the same. And this comes from an American representative that Villa had invited along to a witness. This witness said, quote, after the exchange of a few greetings, these men who had never seen each other before, but who had been working in accord for some months, locked arms, and went to the municipal school building where they were to hold a conference. They were ushered

into a large upstairs room, which was immediately crowded with about three-score persons intimate with the leaders. There were only a few chairs in the room. Generals Villa and Sepanta sat at a large oval table, the two men making a decided contrast. To my left, sat Polino Martinez, one of General Sepata's confidential men and a delegate to the convention. Next to him was General Via, tall, robust, weighing about 180 pounds, with a complexion almost as florid as a German, wearing an English helmet, a heavy brown sweater, tacky trousers, leggings, and heavy riding shoes. Sapata, to his left, with his immense sombrero, sometimes shading his eyes so that they could not

be seen, dark complexion, thin face, a man very much shorter in stature than Via, and, weighing probably around 130 pounds. He wore a short black coat, a large, light blue silk neckerchief, pronounced lavender shirt, and used alternatively a white handkerchief with a green border, and another one with all the colors of the flowers. He had on a pair of black, tight-fitting Mexican trousers with silver buttons down the outside seam of each leg. Via did not have a sign of jewelry on, nor any color in any of his personal adornment. End quote. sat awkwardly together, and Sepata decided to loosen things up a bit by ordering some cognac. But there is a little quirk to Via that I have somehow managed to not tell you about yet.

And that is that he did not drink and he did not smoke. Now, if you walk into the Mexican Revolution with some minimal amount of information, you probably assume that Pancho Villa must have been some cigar-chomping tequila-swigging wild man, and it certainly fits with his cultivated public persona. But he never drank, and he never smoked. He was stone sober, and he didn't go around dressed to the nines. He was going around in, like, frumpy, khaki clothes. It would be easier to imagine Zapata this way as a peasant warrior, you know, bread, water, sackcloth, and ashes, that kind of thing. But he was the one who liked fancy clothes and enjoyed drinking.

So, Bia did not drink, but when the cognac arrived, he didn't want to insult his host, and so he gamely took a shot and nearly choked on it, calling for water to help him not die. Now, this no doubt shocked Zapata, because, I mean, how is the legendary Pancho Villa, the northern bandito choking on a little swig of cognac? It's ridiculous. But he played it cool and diplomatic and tried not to make Via feel too bad or embarrassed. So the cognac didn't really loosen things up. And ultimately, after about a half an hour or so, the halting conversation turned to Caranza. And it was here that things finally lubricated as Via and Sopata bonded over complaining about Caranza. Via said that Caranza was high. and mighty and Zapata replied, I always said so. I always told them that Caranza is a son of a bitch.

Thus, their alliance was cemented by a mutual loathing of a shared enemy. And probably like a third of all friendships in human history have been cemented the same way. Now, what helped them also cement their alliance was the fact that they shared a common federalist vision. Neither one of them wanted to be president of Mexico, so there would be no contest for that office. Both wanted local power, and what was best for their own people, but that meant they did not want a strong central executive. And they agreed that the national government, such as it was, should focus on foreign affairs and a few other small administrative things, which either Via nor Sepada really cared about. In this, Gutierrez was a great choice for president because he had no national following of his own,

and as Via put it, would make no trouble. After they concluded their initial talk in the big group meeting, the two leaders retired with just a few others to plan a joint military campaign against Carranza and the constitutionalists. Zapata would attack and capture Puebla City, while Via and the Division del Norte would move against Obrigon's army in the vicinity of Veracruz. Via promised Sapata ammunition, supplies, artillery, whatever he needed, and how could they lose? After this meeting, the one time the two legendary revolutionaries met face to face. They traveled together down the road to Mexico City and called on Gutierrez in the presidential palace

after parading their joint conventionist army through the streets of the Capitol. In a famous photograph, staged after the repeated pleadings of journalists and photographers, Via sat in the presidential chair, looking jovial and laughing, while Sipata leaned next to him in his signature dour slump.

This was only for a minute, but Via in the president's chair was a signal to Mexico and the world that Pancho Villa was now the pre-enzo. was now the preeminent warlord of Mexico. And at that moment, he was. But to offer some foreshadowing, without spoilers, this is the peak of Via's career. This is the peak of Via's life. Sitting there for that one minute in the presidential chair with a big grin on his face and victory against his enemies, surely, just a battle or two away. He was, after all,

undefeated in the field, and he did not anticipate any blemishes to his unblemished record. But that is not how it went. And despite so much that was working in Via's favor at that moment, his long-term prospects were not nearly as bright as everyone seemed to believe. And this was thanks in part to the Americans deciding to throw their weight decisively to Carranza. And next week, the civil war between the conventionists and the constitutionalists will fully erupt, and Via will have to face an enemy armed to the teeth with the guns of Veracruz.