I know very little about the history of Mexico. I know the history of China much better than that of Mexico, but I decided a short time ago to make a greater effort to learn more about the country my family is associated with. I never understood why, as Mexico had only been a nation for a little over twenty years, when the land we lived in was acquired by force by the United States. Our family was on the side of the border that is now the United States.
I know much more about the history of what is now Mexico during its Spanish rule.
While looking at my Facebook page, I came across a story of a Mexican intellectual who was imprisoned here in the United States.
Below is what the story said regarding Magon. If one clicks on the image on the left, one will read the Wikipedia version. I have learned to double-check most of what is posted on Facebook, since much of it is untrue or slanted.
On November 21, 1922, Mexico lost one of its most powerful thinkers — Ricardo Flores Magón.
Today, many people don’t recognize his name, yet his ideas helped shape an entire generation and left a lasting mark on history.
Ricardo Flores Magón was not a soldier.
He was not a president.
He did not seek power or fame.
He was a writer — a man who believed that ordinary people deserved dignity, justice, and the freedom to speak without fear.
Through his newspaper Regeneración, Magón exposed corruption, challenged dictatorship, and called for a fairer society. For his words and convictions, he was relentlessly persecuted in Mexico and later imprisoned in the United States.
Even behind bars, he refused to surrender his beliefs.
From Leavenworth Penitentiary, he wrote words that would define his legacy:
“Asking for forgiveness would mean regretting having dared to dream of a fairer world… I prefer to die faithful to my ideas.”
On November 21, 1922, Ricardo Flores Magón died in a U.S. prison.
But his voice did not die with him.
Today, historians remember him not for the cell where he perished, but for the life he lived:
A life rooted in conviction
A pen that inspired movements
A voice that urged people to think, question, and imagine a better world
The image shown captures his real funeral — a quiet reminder that while his body was confined, his ideas traveled far beyond prison walls.
Some stories are too important to be forgotten — and deserve to be told again.
His story made me pause and think of those assassinations of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, two of the most famous revolutionaries of the Mexican Civil War. There is reason to believe that the United States may have played a hand in those assassinations. Basic research indicates that the United States was not involved in the assassinations.
The Assassination of Pancho Villa
Then days later, on July 20, 1923, Villa was on his way back home after having visited some friends and one of his former wives. Villa sent word to Lara to send him three cheeses. This was code for the three-armed escorts who were to meet Villa on the outskirts of Parral.
Unknown to Villa, was the fact that Lara and his men had left Parral that same day. They had gone to the nearby town of Maturana to allegedly rehearse for the Diez y Seis military parade, which was a Mexican national holiday. This was a bit odd since the celebration was two months away. Villa may not have continued his trip had he known Lara and his men were out of town. However, as they drove into Parral, Villa was now at the wheel and in a good mood. As he came up to the intersection of Benito Juarez and Gabino Barrera, a man on the street raised his hand in salute and shouted out, “Viva Villa.” A cry Villa had heard hundreds of times on the battlefield with his División del Norte.The famous battle cry for Villa was to now turn into a soliloquy for his death, as the man’s raised hand was an apparent signal for the killers hidden in an apartment, overlooking the Mexican hero. They opened fire when Villa’s car reached the corner and slowed to make a turn.
Villa was hit nine times and was killed instantly. Also killed were Trillo, the chauffeur and Villa’s assistant, Daniel Tamayo. Three members of his escort were also hit. Two others began running, Ramon Contreras who was badly wounded, managed to pull out his gun and kill one of the assassins before he managed to escape. The other escort who ran was later cornered next to a river and was shot and killed.
More than forty hollow-point bullets had hit Villa’s car. These bullets expand after entering their target and shred the interior of the object or person they enter. After making sure Villa was dead the killers casually rode off on horseback.
Assassination of Emiliano Zapata.
The story of Emiliano Zapata is a testament to a truly great man.
A new U.S. envoy, William Gates, visited Zapata and then published a series of articles in the United States; he contrasted the order of the Zapata-controlled zone with the chaos of the constitutional zone and said that “the true social revolution can be found among the Zapatistas.” When these articles were read to Zapata, he said, “Now I can die in peace. Finally they have done us justice.”
Soon afterward Gen. Pablo González, who directed the government operations against Zapata, had Col. Jesús Guajardo pretend to want to join the agrarians and contrive a secret meeting with Zapata at the hacienda of Chinameca in Morelos. There Zapata was ambushed and shot to death by Carrancista soldiers. His body was carried to Cuautla and buried there.