Villa offered his army to Gen. Victoriano Huerta in order to destroy forces opposing Madero's presidency; Huerta's response was to throw him in prison. He managed to escape and allied himself instead with Carranza. Villa, with a force of volunteers and mercenaries won quick victories at Ciudad Juárez, Tierra Blanca, Chihuahua and Ojinaga, earning him the governorship of Chihuahua state.
The U.S. Army invited Pancho Villa to meet with Gen. John J. Pershing and other senior officers at Fort Bliss, Texas. Returning to Mexico, Villa pressed south, using the railroads to strike quickly and win battles against Huerta at Gómez Palacio and Torreón. Carranza, wanting to get to Mexico City first, called him off, but a defiant Villa attacked the silver-producing mountain city of Zacatecas. Encountering a massive federal force, Villa won a gruesome battle that sent Huerta into exile. But he and Zapata broke with Carranza, suspecting he wanted to be a dictator. Carranza sent his ablest general north to battle Villa. Gen. Álvaro Obregón trounced Villa in the Battle of Celaya in 1915.
Villa's influence waned in following years; his last major military foray was in Ciudad Juárez in 1919. He retired to the hacienda of El Canutillo in Durango and was assassinated while driving his car through Parral, Chihuahua, in 1923.
]]>Route of Democracy: The Zapatista Route
This route encompasses the campaigns of Zapata's Liberation Army of the South, in the states of Morelos, Puebla, Mexico and the Federal District.
Zapata, born to a middle-class family in a village in Morelos, became an early champion of Indian rights. As head of his village's defense committee, he redistributed hacienda lands, sometimes peacefully and sometimes by force. When Madero ran for president against Díaz, Zapata quietly allied with the challenger. He became the general of the Ejército Libertador del Sur (Liberation Army of the South) in Morelos, which supported Madero. Zapata's small force took the city of Cuautla in March 1911 and closed the road to Mexico City. However, Zapata objected to Madero's conservative turn after becoming president. The two couldn't to reach a compromise, and Zapata retreated in November to the mountains of Puebla, where he issued the Plan de Ayala, demanding reforms and denouncing Madero. His reconstituted army joined with other former Madera supporters to oppose the new president.
Zapata soon was the revolution's de facto leader, and his guerilla tactics overthrew city after city. What he got for his troubles was Gen. Victoriano Huerta, formerly Madero's top general, who deposed and executed Madero in 1913. Zapata refused to unite with Huerta, which prevented the general from fighting guerillas in the north under the command of a moderate politician, Venustiano Carranza. Zapata continued to fight independently for a civilian president, occupying first Mexico City and then Puebla, and winning numerous battles. But Carranza defeated Villa in the north in 1917, isolating Zapata, and called a constitutional convention that adopted a reformist constitution (mostly still in force today) and elected him president. Carranza had Zapata assassinated two years later.
]]>Hidalgo, a criollo Catholic priest, called his parishioners to arms with his now-famous Grito ("Shout") de Dolores. He marched to Guanajuato, where the Spanish barricaded themselves in a grain warehouse. A massive monument to El Pípila, a miner who burned down the doors and gave Hidalgo the first victory of the independence movement, stands on a hill high above the city. With Ignacio Allende, he defeated Spanish forces at the battle of Monte de las Cruces, just outside Mexico City. But rather than pressing to the capital, he retreated to Guanajuato and spent the rest of the war fleeing from a bolstered royalist army. His forces occupied Guadalajara but then were pushed northward toward the U.S. border, where they hoped to find refuge. The Spanish army caught up with Hidalgo in the state of Jalisco and convicted him of treason. He was executed by firing squad in Chihuahua in 1811, and his head was put on public display in Guanajuato for 10 years.
Sentiments of the Nation Route: José María Morelos Campaign
This route is based on the military campaigns led by Morelos and collaborators such as Nicolás Bravo and Vicente Guerrero. Its broad sweep takes in the states of Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Morelos, Mexico, Puebla, Veracruz and Chiapas.
Morelos, a former student of Hidalgo and also a parish priest, assumed leadership of the revolutionary army after Hidalgo's death. He blockaded Mexico City for a month and occupied the cities of Oaxaca and Acapulco. In 1813, he convened the Congress of Chilpancingo, which signed the "Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of Northern America" and adopted guiding principles for independence. Two years later, the Spanish captured Morelos and executed him for treason in San Cristóbal Ecatepec, Mexico state. His army split into guerilla bands, the most notable led by Guadalupe Victoria in Puebla and Vicente Guerrero in Oaxaca. It was Guerrero who worked out the Plan de Iguala, guaranteeing independence, with Gen. Agustín de Iturbide, a royalist officer who had been sent to quash Guerrero but defected to the rebel side.
]]>And that's just on the national level. Many states have their own bicentennial commissions that are restoring historical buildings and sites, improving roads and parks and planning special events. Guanajuato, cradle of the independence movement, is building a 245-acre Bicentennial Expo Park that will host four months of cultural celebrations beginning in July. It's all a lead-in to the official blow-outs: Sept. 16, when Miguel Hidalgo's "El Grito" called for Mexicans to take up arms against the Spanish government in 1810, and Nov. 20, the day Francisco I. Madero called for a national revolt against Porfirio Díaz.
]]>The nickname for the people of Veracruz is Jarocho, and the term is also applied to those things typical and traditional of Veracruz culture.
The jarana has 5 string positions. The upper and lower carry individual strings
Modern jaranas are built much like guitars—separate pieces for the bottom, sides, top, and neck. The modern ones also have gear driven tuning knobs. Every night of the week, five or size Veracruz groups (with their modern jaranas and harps) wander the outdoor restaurants of the zocalo playing for a living.
The Jarocho Jarana, the jarana that brought music to the people of Veracruz for hundreds of years is built—back, sides, and neck—from a solid piece of wood. In essence, the body of the jarana is carved from wood stock and then a top and fingerboard are added. Tuning is by pegs.
Government funding is supporting the return of the Jarocho Jarana and the traditional music. La Bamba is the piece (and often the only piece) of Veracruz (of jarocho) music most of us know. Son jarocho is percussive, lively, rhythm-intense music.
It’s also pure fun and happiness.
Carnaval is the people’s party. It’s a happy time, a time to blow off steam and reduce stress, a time to get tired while you’re getting rested up, a time to see the incredible parades and go to the happenings. And a time for us at The Language Immersion School to...
]]> close shop.We’re only half a block from the parade route—it passes right along the waterfront at the end of our block. It’s so crowded and so loud and so much fun that: [1] our teachers and charlantes can’t get here, [2] you couldn’t hear the teacher even if he or she could get here, and [3] who wants to study anyhow.
There’s music and dancing. Everywhere you’ll see and hear happy families joking and laughing and having fun. Veracruz’s is a family Carnaval. There’s excitement in the air. There are people everywhere, and we live right where the action is. Classes canceled!!! We’re going to be out in the crowd, right in the middle of the party.
We had a wonderful Christmas; we’re about to have a happy New Year.
And we’re already ready for the fun and excitement of Carnaval.
And you only need three things. One is the desire to get to know the people of Mexico, Mexico’s just plain folks. The second
]]> is a home base, and the third is someone to choreograph getting you there and getting you home.The desire is easy. Mexico’s warm and friendly people welcome you (and especially so here in the state of Veracruz). How can you not want to meet them and see their daily lives in action? How can you not wish to participate in fiestas, and ceremonies, and in the happy or sometimes poignant little moments of daily life? It’s always been easy to have the desire.
What’s new is that now in Mexico there are those ready to help. They supply a home base, a point of departure. They work with you on destinations, and they help you line up bus tickets and have someone on the other end meet you. And after a day or two or even more, on the other end someone there gets you back on the bus to your home base.
The next day or the day after, it’s time to head out again. The home base staff gets you lined out, and you’re back on the road. And in an hour or a few hours you’re right back where you’d never dreamed of being able to be—in another tiny town or village, or in a river valley loaded with adventure and ecology activities, or for a day or overnight in a spectacular city. It’s all yours.
A home base and folks to help you make arrangements is all it takes. You might want to check out Mexico Cultural Tourism dot Com. They’re an example of a home-base-and-help group located in the fun and exciting city of Veracruz.
Cataract surgery has become so simple a procedure—on anyone else’s eye, but this time
]]> it hit home at our language school. I needed lens replacements.I considered returning to the U.S. But I checked around. Top-notch care is available here in Veracruz. What has happened over the past 15 or 20 years is that as Mexico City has gotten more and more dangerous, high quality physicians have left their teaching positions in Mexico City’s several fine teaching hospitals and have come to Veracruz.
Short of open-heart and complicated neurosurgery, I’d stay here for anything. Not only are the doctors good, the hospitals are good, and the nursing staffs are good. And, of course, the costs are much lower than in the U.S.
It’s so good in fact that our school has considered offering Spanish study and surgery packages. But we’re teachers, not health care folks, and so we’ve rejected the idea.
If medical care is keeping you from coming to enjoy the wonderful and warm, happy and exciting culture of Veracruz, don’t give it another thought. Veracruz has a doctor for you.
And my eyes and I give everyone involved in my cataract surgery an A+.
Our students and staff go to the folk dance on the malecon almost every Wednesday night. It’s part of the City’s cultural program.
Veracruz is rich in folk art and fine arts. The people love their traditions, and they love to have foreigners share in them. The website MexicoCulturalTourism.com invites you truly...
]]> to participate in the lives and culture of Mexico.The folk dance we and some students attended the other night was spectacular. And, it was spectacularly different from anything we’ve seen before. The Russians came to town.
Russian folk dance from Ossetia (northern Caucasus Mountains) awed the audience in the Clavijero theater.
The power of Russian rhythm vibrated the theater. Dance steps brought constant applause, and the costumes were dazzling.
In Veracruz there’s always something wonderful to do and to see. Usually it’s Mexican, but you never know. Old, traditional Mexico is the norm in this City, and yet there are so many cosmopolitan moments.
It’s old Mexico. Beef and pork hang from...
]]> hooks in the ceiling, un-refrigerated. The butchers slice off the cuts the buyer wants. Chickens sit on countertops alongside gizzards and livers and hearts and feet and even, in some booths, heads. The chicken and chicken parts are also un-refrigerated.The vegetable booths have more fruits than I know what are, and they have all the standard vegetables.
And there are flowers, and medicinal herbs, and curtain rods and even pet birds and rabbits and dog food.
And there are people everywhere—people who shop this way day in and day out. It’s normal life. Two blocks away is a huge supermarket. It’s also normal life.
Veracruz is true Mexico. It’s a fantastic city for the tourist who wants to see what life was like 50 years ago and get a glimpse of what life will be like ten years from now.
But ten years from now, I hope with all my heart, tourists will still be able to see what life was like fifty years ago. Veracruz is a national treasure.
Three levels of boxes wrap around the main floor. The candelabra glisten with thousands of lights; the marble stairs are sculpture.
There is no distant seating. Instead of looking at the orchestra or soloist from afar, ...
]]> one feels a closeness. It’s a spatial closeness, but it leads to feeling that one is part of the music. It’s a magic we’ve never felt in other concert halls.Last night some of us from the school attended a piano concert. The young pianist, Gabriele Baldocci, is incredibly talented.
The audience was delighted with his performance. I’m sure audiences everywhere always are.
The bat wasn’t happy. We often say Veracruz has everything. Little by little we keep seeing how much newness “everything” includes. Racing in sixty foot diameter circles, the bat was spinning around over the floor flying up high at the third level of boxes.
Now and then it dipped to the second level and even detoured over the stage. Baldocci seemed never to notice it. Fearing being buzzed by an errant bat, we kept close watch.
Baldocci plays again tonight, both last night and tonight are charity events. We’re hoping for a full house and “clear” skies.
High-rise buildings are going in everywhere. There’s one under construction a block north of the school and one a block south.
In addition, old buildings are being restored and renovated, and more new houses are being built than one can believe.
What’s changed? The people on the street will tell you that nothing has changed. But yes, they’ll tell you, things are better today than they were eight or ten years ago. Life’s easier.
Will housing overbuilt? Probably. One of the things that makes Mexico so much fun is that everything is done to the max. Will the restored and renovated old building have 100% occupancy? Probably not, and for the same reason.
What about the high-rise condominiums, will they sell? Mine’s an anecdotal answer, an answer found looking up from the street. They’re selling. So far there’s no glut on the market, and we see a new start every few weeks.
Little by little, life is getting better for the regular folks down here. There’s more money moving around, and a little of it ends up in lots of pockets.
We know how important new construction is to the US economy. Down here we’re actually getting to see the importance in action.
We don’t want Veracruz to change. We love it just the way it is. But we also love its people.
We want life to be easier for them. So, we hope we’ll have to keep looking up, and as a result, for the regular folk, things will keep looking better and better.
The people of Veracruz didn’t seem to notice.
]]> They never pay attention. The hurricanes always miss. But we paid attention. We and our language school students traveled inland for safety.During the night, the hurricane turned northward. Everyone knew it would, everyone except us. No one was worried, no one except us.
So, Veracruz is once again totally undamaged. We returned to town the next day and it was as if we’d never left.
Tall buildings, resort hotels, fine restaurants, beverage service and chaise lounges, that’s the vision of a popular, beautiful beach. And lots, and lots, and lots of people. Trouble parking, lots of noise, roller skaters, hot dogs, candy apples, and cotton candy.
Villa Rica has none of it.
]]> Well I take it back, Ricardo and Guadalupe have a fine restaurant. It has four plastic tables (seats sixteen on its sixteen plastic chairs), a counter without stools, porous walls around the kitchen, and a TV for those interested in soccer. I forgot, it also has a thin and leaky layer of palm branches as a sunroof over the eating area.The village of Villa Rica, a third of a block of sand in from the surf’s edge, has 150 residents. On a busy summer day, the village’s population doubles—3000 or so feet of beach and 150 people using it.
The sand is clean and off-white. On a hillside a mile away is an ancient ruins. Although not large, archaeologically it’s important. It’s easy to get to; Villa Rica (sharing with several surrounding communities) has three taxis.
It still exists, pristine beach. Loved by its people. Protected by its people. Visited by some bathers, and by some participating in eco-tourism. It also has a branch (a small branch) of our language immersion school. Our branch up there is open only to intermediate and advanced students.
An hour and a half up the highway from the City of Veracruz, Villa Rica is a beach in a still natural setting. It’s great for cultural tourism, eco-tourism, adventure tourism, and Spanish in context—Spanish learned out-and-about in the community.