Cabalgando con Villa is an excellent example of a number of recent Mexican books that provide a picture of Pancho Villa quite different from the usually accepted one. It parallels closely Alberto Calzadíaz Barrera’s Hechos reales de la Revolución, from which the author has evidently drawn much of his material.

This book is not, in any sense, a biography of Villa, nor is it an attempt to evaluate Villa’s position or accomplishments as a revolutionary leader. It is, rather, a series of unconnected and unrelated incidents and episodes, unified only by the fact that each is in some way concerned with Villa. Each incident illustrates, in its own way, Villa’s complex and complicated personality.

Although the material presented is said to be authentic, the book is definitely a contribution to the Robin Hood concept of Villa—the unwilling outlaw who takes from the rich for the benefit of the poor. Insofar as the book has a political or social objective, it is to prove that Francisco Villa was actually and wholeheartedly fighting for the downtrodden masses of Mexico.

The picture of Villa which the reader will obtain from the pages of Cabalgando con Villa varies widely from that traditionally accepted as true. Even readers who are inclined to be pro-Villa in their historical sympathies must be somewhat surprised at a picture of the grim revolutionary chief kneeling in prayer before an image of the Holy Child, or tenderly placing his own garment over the corpse of a fallen comrade.

Nevertheless, whether or not one accepts the author’s obvious estimate of Villa’s character, personality, ideals, and aspirations, this little book will have a degree of value, in showing Villa as his admirers and followers saw him.