Warfare in Waltz Time

The Second Battle of Bauche.

Pascual Orozco

From the whole timeline of the Mexican Revolution, most narratives punt when it comes to the breakdown between the Orozquistas and the Maderistas.    After all, the historian still has to explain why Carranza couldn’t reconcile with Zapata and why Obregon eventually mowed down Villa’s Dorados with heavy caliber machine guns.   Or why Obregon felt he had to take out Carranza and then, about those who felt it was their Christian duty to put a bullet into Obregon's head.   So it seems a small affair in the big picture, that the gente de Orozoquo felt that they had to trade shells with the gente de Madero.

After Madero ascended to the Presidency, there were two rebellions against him in the north,  one led by Bernardo Reyes, who sought to restore the old order, and the other by Madero's former ally, Pascual Orozco, who Madero had given the short shrift once he got into power.    Once they sent Porfirio Díaz into retirement, Madero ordered the insurrectos, including Orozco, to disarm, while retaining the federal army in tact, and offered Orozco some piddling police job, instead of a General command or a Governorship, as might correspond to the importance of his role in bringing Madero to power. 

So it was that the gente de Orozoco had it out with the Madero's federals, and one of their engagements was in Bauche, the same place where Oscar Creighton met his maker.

Timothy Turner was there (again), and this is his account:

Down at Bauche they ran into the Orozquistas popping away at the Maderistas and [the photographer] Scott jumped out and, in his studio Spanish, started ordering them around. Eager to comply, the insurrectos turned their backs on the enemy and posed for Scott who used up all his film before the fight was continued.

But all the time the enemy was plugging away, and two of the Orozquistas were wounded in the back. The lure of a camera was great in Mexico in those days.

It was all so new and so exciting and so romantic. Everybody enjoyed it hugely and wanted everybody else to share the fun.

Were not photographs souvenirs, and should not one let friends as well as visitors have souvenirs? That was more important than fighting any time.

It was warfare in waltz time. —Bullets, Bottles and Gardenias