Pancho Villa: Mexican Robin Hood?

It is the birthday of Mexican hero Pancho Villa (1878), who led revolutionaries in northern Mexico for a decade beginning in 1910. The result of the conflict was the Mexican Constitution of 1917, which established social rights for the country’s citizens. Villa, whose real name was José Doroto Arango Arámbula, robbed trains and raided haciendas to support the cause. He virtually ran the state of Chihuahua, which provided him with resources to conduct his war.

When he crossed the border and raided Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, that got the attention of the United States government. General John J. Pershing chased him for nine months but never captured him. Then the United States got into World War I and Gen. Pershing was needed elsewhere. Villa retired in 1920 and received a large estate, which he set up as a colony for his former soldiers. Three years later, Villa got involved with politics again and was assassinated.

Here is a fascinating program, The Hunt for Pancho Villa, from The American Experience with vintage film footage. Pancho Villa is depicted is either a Mexican Robin Hood or a common criminal.

Happy birthday, artist John French Sloan

In the Wake of the Ferry (1907) was depicted on a U.S. postage stamp honoring Sloan in 1971.

It is the birthday of artist John French Sloan (1871), who is best known as one of the founders of the Ashcan school of art, so called for the painters' penchant for depicting realistic urban scenes in New York City's working-class neighborhoods. It was developed around Robert Henri, Sloan's friend and mentor, and flourished briefly among newspaper illustrators in Philadelphia in the first decades of the 20th century. Sloan's work evolved over the years. For 30 years, he spent summers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, painting landscapes and scenes in the small Spanish town. Here is a sideshow of Sloan's work: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/john-french-sloan/mcsorley-s-bar-1912#supersized-artistPaintings-295791