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7926: Pancho Villa and Haiti
>From Richard Morse
I'm reading the memoirs of Pancho Villa (Guzman/Taylor, U. of Texas Press)
and though I don't yet know how the book ends, Senor Villa has a couple of
quotes early in the book that have an interesting perspective to me,
having
lived this past decade and a half in Haiti. I might also add that I'm not
advocating the violence by which Pancho Villa lived, but rather the
essence
of these words.
1) p.52 Villa says"...I had not fought for the money but only for the
victory of the people, and would retire to work for my living if the
guarantees he (President Madero) had made were honored now that the
revolution had triumphed."
2) p.54 in a description of one of the victorious military men, Villa
says:
"Now Orozco, under the title of Chief of the Military Zone, had made
himself
king of Chihuahua. He forgot our cause. He had elegant secretaries and
devoted himself to society in the company of our enemies."
Some people in Haiti, after "the return" in '94, believed that the
government
should continue to be a vehicle for attaining personal wealth and they
embraced the traditions of deceit and manipulation, rather than creating
an
environment whereby Haiti, and the region, could benefit as a whole. They
replaced the defeated regime rather than seeking the changes that had been
fought for.
Richard Morse