By the turn of the century, Profirio Diaz's regime had not only been marked by notable achievements, but also
by brutal tyranny. Under Diaz, the finances of Mexico were stabilized, and country experienced an unprecedented
economic development. Foreign capital, especially American, was invested in the exploitation of the country's
mineral resources; the mining, textile, and other industries were constructed; and the foreign trade increased about
300 percent. On the other hand, foreign investors drained great part of the country's wealth. Much of the ancient
communal lands (ejidos) of the Native Americans, where poverty and illiteracy were widespread, was in the hands
of a relatively small number of landowners. The "haciendas" could reach up to eight million acres at times and
controlled the lives of many. Manifestations of the resulting social discontent were suppressed by Diaz with an iron
hand until the revolution of 1911. After years of growing up on a "hacienda," Doroteo Aranga learned to hate
aristocratic Dons, who worked he and many other Mexicans like slaves. Even more so, he hated ignorance within
the Mexican people that allowed such injustices. At the young age of fifteen, Aranga came home to find his mother
trying to prevent the rape of his sister. Aranga shot the man and fled to the Sierra Madre for the next fifteen years,
marking him as a fugitive for the first time. It was then that he changed his name from Doroteo Aranga to
Francisco "Pancho" Villa, a man he greatly admired.
Upon the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1911 against the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, Villa
offered his services to the rebel leader Francisco I. Madero. During Madero's administration, he served under the
Mexican general Victoriano Huerta, who sentenced him to death for insubordination. With his victories attracting
attention in the United States, Villa escaped to the United States. Pre...