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The Revolutionary
Pancho
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Regardless of the legend one pursues, the truth is that Pancho Villa was an effective leader of soldiers in the Revolution of 1910. Many times Villistas won victories against overwhelming odds. Villa was fond of saying that he was not an educated soldier but fought in a way that that made sense.
Villa struggled to care for the troops under him. The Division del Norte was one of the more notorious armies of the Revolution. They had a mantel of invulnerability. Much of this mantle was attributable to Villa himself. He would order the army to attack head on against brutal enemy fire. Their belief in Villa let them carry the enemy lines.
Villa took great care of the territory he controlled, he pushed agrarian and educational reform to give the peasants a better lot in life after the Revolution. Villa would expropriate the land of the haceanados and divide it among the local citizenry. What he did not divide he held for a future division among the men that served in his Division del Norte. Many of the points of contention with the other Revolutionary leaders arose from Villa's beliefs in the ideals of the Revolution: to return power to the people and give them a better way of life. When the first Revolution failed to solve the problems of the people, because the leadership pushed for a more conciliatory role, Villa was ready when the Revolutionary spirit flared again.
Some of the Black Legend can be seen in the Villa of this era, he was ruthless and arbitrary. Violations of rules that would get you killed one day would be entirely dismissed the next.