Let's Go With Pancho Villa

Translation is always a delicate topic, and when I first saw Adolfo Arrioja Vizcaino’s biographical work on Ivor Thord-Gray’s service with the Mexican Revolution: “El.Sueco Que Se Fue Con Pancho Villa” – (which literally translates as “(The Swede Who Went With Pancho Villa)”, it struck me as perhaps a little sensational, since most of Ivor Thord-Gray’s service in the Mexican Revolutionary Army was with Carranza, serving under Generals Lucio Blanco and General Álvaro Obregón.  Thord-Gray served under Pancho Villa for only a matter of weeks, and although his role in battle of Tierra Blanca is not insignificant,  it was also certainly not decisive, nor is there any evidence that he was a great influence on the strategy and tactics of Pancho Villa.

On the other hand, there is evidence to consider the military significance of Thord-Gray's role in the Constitutionalist army, as organizer of the Cavalry officer’s training school, as an advocate for the participation of semi-autonomous indigenous fighters, and perhaps most intriguing, on the military tutoring of General Obregón. So why did Arrioja Vizcaino choose the title “El Sueco Que Se Fue Con Pancho Villa”?

Our problem as it turns out is not in the title, but in the translation. The expression “…que se fue con Pancho Villa…” is an idiom, which is more accurately rendered as “..who joined the revolution..” , so we should translate the title “The Swede Who Joined the Revolution”.

The origin of the idiom “..que se fue con Pancho Villa..” really comes from the smashing success of the novels of Rafael F. Muñoz, especially “¡Vamanos con Pancho Villa!”, (Let's Go With Pancho Villa) first published in 1931, and made into a (great!) movie by 1936. The imagery of Muñoz’ novels so colored the perception of revolution for this first post-revolutionary generation that to say that someone had been with the revolution was the say “ese es uno de los que se fue con Pancho Villa”. Vamonos con Pancho Villa (Spanish Edition) El sueco que se fue con Pancho Villa