Lucio Blanco

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:

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. 

Francisco R. Serrano and Massacre of Huitzilac

The geometry of the relationship between Francisco R. Serrano and Ivor Thord-Gray is interesting, touching on birth and death and marked throughout by distrust. They first met December 1913 in Hermosillo, when Colonel Serrano, serving as Obregón’s Chief of Staff, received the “Gringo” seeking a commission in the Revolutionary Army.

Thord-Gray describes Serrano as  “courteous enough, but gave me the impression that Americans were not particularly wanted, and I soon found him a gringo hater.”

Thord-Gray got around Serrano, hit it off with Obregón, and received his commission from Carranza, not in the Cavalry as requested, but as First Captain of artillery and battery commander.

Pancho Villa through the eyes of Thord-Gray

Thord-Gray’s most significant contributions to the Mexican Revolutionary Army came as Calvary commander under General Lucio Blanco; that is to say, under Obregon. But his service under Villa made a contribution which has been overlooked in the historical accounts, at least so far. I’ll write more about that later, but first, let’s take a look a Pancho Villa through the eyes of Ivor Thord-Gray.

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