Gringo Rebel

From Merida to Monterrey, Americans ruined by April 1914 U.S. invasion of Veracruz

 

Up until the U.S. Invasion of Veracruz, American ranchers, farmers, miners and merchants were affected by the Mexican Revolution in much the same way as Mexicans of similar station: expropriations, inflation, and payment in rebel currencies, all worthless outside of Mexico. The situation changed for the worse when the blue jackets landed in Veracruz.

While the assets of Texas oil interests and the major investors such as J.P. Morgan Jr. and John Stillman were protected, the result of the U.S. intervention for the typical American settler in Mexico was utter ruin. From Sonora to Jalisco, from Monterrey to Merida, Americans suffered the wrath of enraged Mexicans.

Nationalist Reaction to April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

Carranza shocked Woodrow Wilson with his statement that his Constitutionalists would join forces with Huerta to oppose the Americans, should they extend their occupation out of Veracruz.  

Pancho Villa, on the other hand, told Wilson's agent, George Carruthers

"...all Europe would laugh at us if we went to war with you.  They would say 'that lillte drunken Huerta has drawn them into a tangle at last".   ... Honest, I hope the Americans bottle up Veracruz so tight they can't even get water into it." —The Landing at Veracruz

To Pancho Villa, Lucio Blanco and Alvaro Obregon go the credit for avoiding the terrible catastrophe which would have inevitably occurred if the revolutionaries had joined with Huerta in a war against the United States. This astute analysis of Ivor Thord-Gray in “Gringo Rebel” reveals an aspect of the April 1914 US invasion of Veracruz which has been generally overlooked. Not all the revolutionary leaders were so cool headed, and many fell victim to a nationalistic fever where their hated for the gringo invaders obscured the danger of allowing Victoriano Huerta to consolidate his power.

The opportunity was not lost on Huerta, who in his “sick, alcohol bathed brain”, played it for all it was worth. Zimmerman’s German spy network sprung into action, inciting an already inflamed Mexican nationalism to ravanche for war of 1846.  The situation was confused:

The Benton Case and the April 1914 U.S. Invasion of Veracruz

Pancho Villa’s pal, Rodolpho Fierro, put a bullet in the head of one of Her Majesty’s Subjects, a certain Scotsman named William Benton.   God and his angels must have seen it as just one in a long series of summary executions throughout the sanguine course of the Mexican Revolution, but the British tend to see privation of the life of a Subject as a threat to the hegemony of the empire itself, and are disposed to make a scene, even over such a scoundrel as Benton.

I. Thord-Gray's Military Service Record

Ivor Thord-Gray, Veracruz Mexico October 1914Just to put things in perspective, the story of Ivor.Thord-Gray in the Mexican Revolution, incredible as it is, is just a slice from the pie. The memoir “Gringo Rebel” is an account only of the years 1913-1914. Here is a complete history of his military service, indicating date of commission, and rank:

A Timeline of the Mexican Revolution

The three hundred years of Spanish Colonial History, and the hundred years that followed the War of Independence, are so full of persecution of the Indians and Peons that it would fill a large volume to scratch only a small part of the surface of these centuries.

Killer-Angels: In Defense of the Historical Novel

Good historical novels are praised until they get too good, and then they are savaged in reviews as bad history.     Reviewing John Harris’ novel “So Far From God”, loosely based on “Gringo Rebel”, forces the question on us, since it is a really great example of the very bad historical novel.    So before looking at “So Far From God”, we ought to look at some examples of excellent historical novels, so as not to encourage the throwing out of the baby out with the bath-water.

Thord-Gray's Biographer

We saw here how an arrow from Cupid’s bow was required to bend the course of Timothy G. Turner's life, bringing him to Mexico and eventually crossing paths with Ivor Thord-Gray.   Well, it appears that cupid spent another arrow, changing the trajectory of Stellan.Bojerud’s life to become the biographer of Ivor Thord-Gray:

General I. Thord-Gray Lent His Sword to Many Troubled Flags

General I. Thord-Gray, Swedish born citizen of the United States, has lent his sword to many troubled flags. In 1897 he joined a British cavalry regiment serving in Pondoland, Tembuland, East Griqualand, Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal until the Boer War ended, 1902. He raised a squadron in Johannesburg 1905 for active service with the Germans in Damaraland. Was squadron commander, Royston’s Horse, Zulu War 1906.

General Juan Solares and the Yaqui capture of Acaponeta

What a tangled web we weave.

There were not many Federal officers who fared well under the revolutionary Constitutionalist government. (For that matter, there were a lot of revolutionaries who didn't fare so well under the revolutionary Constitutionalist government.) But the Huertista General Juan Solares must have had an unusual character, since, a year after his capture by revolutionary forces under the command Ivor Thord-Gray, he ended up with authority over northern Sonora in 1915 under Jose Maria Maytorena.

Thord-Gray, Juan Mérigo and the Gray Automobile Affair

Thord-Gray said of Mérigo

“He became a general .. but ended up with a very unsavory reputation.”

This cryptic comment most likely refers to the infamous “gray automobile affair”, as reported here, from the U.S. Congressional record of the sixty-sixth Congress

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