In 1916, Mexican revolutionist Pancho Villa led a raid on a small American town. Today, new research sheds light on Hispanic perspectives of the conflict.
One day, Dr. Anna Nogar stumbled upon a review of Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico, that asked, “Why is this state park named after criminals?” During her Humanities Center Colloquium titled “A Window into the Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa’s 1916 Raid and La punitiva in the Hispanophone Borderlands,” on October 3, 2024, Nogar—a professor of Hispanic Southwest Studies from the University of New Mexico—illustrated how questions like the one expressed in review of the state park can be a result of historical biases or favored regional narratives; to the reviewer, Pancho Villa was a criminal, but to others, he was a hero. In her lecture, Nogar went on to explain how her research of Hispanic texts offers a unique window into the Mexican Revolution and, in particular, the 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico.
A Literary Lens
Nogar began by painting a picture of the 1916 raid within the broader context of the Mexican Revolution. In 1916, Pancho Villa led a group of Mexican revolutionaries over the Mexican-American border where they raided and killed American citizens. In response, the US launched an expedition into Mexico to capture Villa. Nogar noted that Villa’s raid on Columbus marked “the first attack on the continental US since the War of 1812. . . and the first time. . . the US used advanced military equipment against Mexican citizens.”
Her research finds Spanish-language sources from the borderlands that discuss these historic conflicts, offering alternative narratives surrounding the Pancho Villa raid. In her exploration of the Chronicling America database, Nogar found a noteworthy poem published in a 1916 Santa Fe newspaper. She unpacked its complex portrayal of regional political and cultural dynamics, noting that it “reported and commented on events differently than did their English-language counterparts,” due to its exposure to Mexican narratives. The poem’s use of code-switching—switching languages based on context—along with its sympathetic yet critical view of Pancho Villa provided a stark insight into the events of the time.
Commemoration and Collective Memory
To conclude, Nogar shared how people commemorate this raid in the present-day, highlighting the annual “Cabalgata Binacional” event, a reenactment held in Columbus, New Mexico, and Palomas, Mexico—two towns just 3.5 miles apart. Created 21 years ago, this event unites people “from both sides of the border, joined together in peace and unity to commemorate the casualties of the raid.” Nogar emphasized how events like the Cabalgata provide a dynamic look into the collective memory of historical events, helping the community grapple with the legacies of both the Mexican raid and the American intervention.
Find the full calendar of upcoming Humanities Center events here.