Tuesday, September 18, 2000

Pancho Villa’s auto just part of the show
By Bill Whitaker

Say what you will about Miguel Hidalgo, the Mexican Revolution of 1810 and its relevance to informed Hispanics on Diez y Seis de Septiembre.

When many Americans think of Mexico, they think instead of fiery Pancho Villa, who once even invaded the U.S.

No wonder gringos “invading” Mexico for leisure’s sake remain fascinated by Villa, either Mexico’s most colorful revolutionary — or its most ruthless criminal.

Even after Villa’s assassination in 1923 — enemies ambushed him and his entourage as they motored along to a christening one summer day — Pancho remains the stuff of legends. Among the Texans who know so is Abilene’s own Bill E. King.

And when, during a visit King and two pals made to Chihuahua City in 1950, a Mexican guide proposed they pay a call on Villa’s widow, the opportunity was too much to resist.

So what if Villa actually left several widows?

Frankly, King and his pals — including a Dodge salesman — were surprised to hear any widow of Pancho Villa was alive, let alone receiving guests.

“But we went to her place, all made of typically Mexican stucco adobe walls,” the longtime dentist said. “It was a big, beautiful place, too, with furniture out in the courtyard. I don’t know how she got it all. But she sure didn’t get it by selling those postcards. That’s what she did.

“She’d sell these picture postcards of her husband’s car just riddled full of bullet holes. I have no idea why she’d sell such a thing. But we bought three of them!”

The old car was also in the courtyard.

“I initially thought it was a Ford, though I couldn’t say much about it. It was full of bullet holes — maybe 100 or 200. It looked like a sieve.”

Villa might have been dead and buried, but Mexico still bristled with patriotic verve. For instance, King, then a young dental school student, witnessed another marvel in Chihuahua City — an agile scaler of buildings dubbed “The Human Fly.”

Adorned in little more than tennis shoes and a bathing suit, he scaled a cathedral, all the way to the top of the spire, then stood by one hand while waving a Mexican flag with the other.

“There were literally hundreds in the square below, cheering as he waved that flag,” King recalled. “They yelled, ‘Ole! Ole!’ And, you know, it was better than any bullfight!”

But Villa’s widow remained the highlight of that visit to old Mexico, a fond memory of King’s youthful forays.

“It was kind of funny,” he said. “She was very nice, very friendly, and said she was so glad we stopped by. Of course, the only reason we’d stopped by was because the guide took us there!”

Of the three to visit Villa’s widow, the most excited was the Dodge salesman — and that may well have been because that shot-up wreck of a car on public display was an American-made Dodge.

Contact associate editor Bill Whitaker at 676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com. Check out Bill’s previous columns at www.brazosbill.com.