"...Villa was an outlaw for twenty-two years. When he was only a boy of
sixteen, ... he killed a government official... that in itself would not
have outlawed him long in Mexico, where human life is cheap; but once a
refugee he committed the unpardonable crime of stealing cattle from the
rich "hacendados." And from that time to the outbreak of the Madero
revolution, the Mexican government had a price on his head." -John Reed,
Insurgent Mexico, (1914)
American journalist John Reed was sent in 1913 to Mexico by the
Metropolitan Magazine to cover the Mexican Revolution, an armed
struggle from 1910 to 1920 that had a major impact on Mexican culture
and government. While reporting on Pancho Villa, a former bandit, who
became a Mexican revolutionary general and one of the most prominent
figures of the Mexican Revolution, Reed established his national
reputation as a war correspondent.
Reed's articles were published in his book Insurgent Mexico (1914),
which offers a fascinating read for anyone interested in the Mexican
Revolution and its history.