Interview with Francisco Piñon Carvajal, adopted son of General Francisco Villa, conducted in Cd. Chihuahua, Mexico, on October 20, 1976, by Dr. Ruben Osorio:“THE REPORT OF REGINO HERNANDEZ LLERGO, Regino Hernández Llergo arrived in Canutillo on April 30, 1922, in the company of the photographer Fernando Sosa and a woman named Emilia whom he introduced to Gral. Villa as his wife. They stayed six days in the agricultural colony, during which, the reporter took the opportunity to converse several times with Villa. Days later, from the 12th to the 18th of June, Hernández Llergo published a long report in in “El Universal” about the life of Villa in Canutillo. Francisco Piñon Carvajal, adopted son of Villa, who had become his right hand, lived at his side since 1920, and was present during several of the conversations between the general and the reporter.
A MASTERWORK OF DEFAMATION”Francisco Piñon Carvajal
Interview
****************************************************************Dr. Osorio: During the his stay in the Hacienda de Canutillo, Sr. Regino Hernández Llergo spoke several times with General Villa and reproduced in his report the declarations that he made about various topics. There appear also in the report a series of descriptions about the appearance of the general, his manner of expressing himself, his customs, his family life, the life of the hacienda and about the work that took place there; all of this accompanied by abundant graphic material provided by Sr. Sosa [photographs]. Now that we have carefully read and studied all of this material, I am going to present to you summaries only of the most important points in the report with the objective of your making comments that you might judge convenient, asking that you express yourself absolutely freely. In the first place, General Villa is described in various parts of the report as a person with a frightening appearance, “tall, tough, with a steely mustache, stomping about with the footsteps of a titan.” Did General Villa really have such an aspect of being a such an very impressive man?
Sr. Piñon: This information is very untrue. The frequent descriptions that the newspaperman Hernández Llergo made about the impressive appearance of General Villa are totally false. He was a person accustomed to the use of a pistol from his early youth, this making it for him a very commonplace object. The General was a very serious person in every sense, he was no exhibitionist; I never saw him take a pistol out to show off or to show it, not even to clean it and he never wore one in front but rather at his right side. The reporters from El Universal went to Canutillo in order to conduct and interview with General Villa and they related their trip as if it were some dangerous adventure in which they were in life threatening situations all the time, and that is how they presented it in the newspaper before public opinion. During their visit to the hacienda, these persons [barely] managed to remain calm in the presence of the general, in a cold sweat, trembling, pale, feeling their shorts in their shoes, and they felt that at any moment they would come to a bad end, according to the words of their text. I should mention that this report grossly deformed the image of the general in this sense, since he maintained friendly and working relations with a great number of persons who visited the hacienda; inasmuch as he was in the habit of treating with many people every day whom he always received with great cordiality, and since then, he did not have this barbarous aspect that this report tried to convey. I consider that the description that Sr. Hernández Llergo made of General Villa is false, in what he refers as his fearful appearance and the report is ridiculous in its reference to their exaggerated fears.
Dr. Osorio: The reporters were impressed by the way that, in Canutillo, everyone wore a pistol, and no one took theirs off ever, even when they ate, worked, or rested, by orders of the chief. They never saw Villa without his pistol. Is this true?
Sr. Piñon: No, I want to declare that this is not true. In the first place, only the soldiers who followed him in the Revolution called him “chief”, all the rest of us called him general. In the second place, the reporter did not describe the manner in which there was a guard stationed at the entrance of the hacienda as there were always soldiers of the personal guard. These, the guards, had a reserve of arms but that is all. The workers did not go about armed, neither did the teachers, Colonel Trillo didn't either, and I didn’t wear a pistol. General Villa himself didn’t even wear a pistol, he didn’t need one because he had a guard stationed at the entrance and, in addition, it would get in the way while working because he always involved himself personally in helping the workers with their labors that they were doing. There is a well known photograph of General Villa driving a yoke of mules and he is not armed. Also he frequently played fronton with his friends in a ball court that still exists in Canutillo, and of course, he didn’t play armed. I think that the report intended to give the impression that at the hacienda they lived in a tense environment or one of eminent danger and for this everyone had to go about armed and this is not true. When the general went out on horseback to the field as he did several times with the reporters, he tucked his pistol into his belt, but there inside the hacienda he habitually eschewed wearing one.
Dr. Osorio: So, was he a good shot?
Sr. Piñon: Yes, I have seen him shoot a pistol several times, and I consider him to have been a very good shot.
Dr. Osorio: Sr. Hernández Llergo mentioned that General Villa carried a pistol holstered in a leather sheath exquisitely embroidered with silver thread and that on the last day of his visit, there was placed at his disposition a horse with one of the general’s silver saddles, which had on one side an ammunition pouch and on the other a showy 45 pistol. Was the general really so affected with using such ostentatious objects?
Sr. Piñon: No, he was not so affected. And that which is mentioned in the report, besides being a lie, is ridiculous. I can assure you that General Villa did not wear such ostentatious objects. He wore for his pistol a common saddle leather holster with very simple adornment and he never had any silver saddles, this is a lie. I never saws him in any ostentatious acts, he was a person who lived modestly and he was completely dedicated to his work.
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All rights reserved by Dr. Ruben Osorio Zuniga. Prior written permission to republish in part or in whole is required except for excerpts of one sentence or less.
Translation by E. Bryant Holman, Ojinaga, Chihuahua
To contact Dr. Osorio rubenosorio@ojinaga.com
