Benjamin argumedo – Wikipedia

Benjamín Argumedo Hernández (San Buenaventura, March 31, 1874 – Durango, March 1, 1916) was a Mexican general.

Argumedo initially supported Francisco Madero at the dawn of the Mexican revolution but in 1912 he rebelled against the president and supported the coup d’état of Victorian Huerta. He was called the Lion of the lagoon . It is considered the most stubborn opponent of the Bencho Villa for the bloody fights that took place among their armies in the Durango and Coahuila.

Although it is not one of the best known faces, Argumedo was one of the most charismatic leaders of the Mexican revolution. Although often changed deployment and opportunism was certainly not foreign to him, he was always popular among his troops, whose difficulties he always shared. He said he had never shown fear.

Beginning [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Benjamín Argumedo was born in San Buenaventura, Cohuila, on March 31, 1874, as third of the eight children of Don Albino Argumedo and Donna Tiburcia Hernández. He was baptized on May 8 in Matamoros, Cohuila. ^[first]

Little is known about his early years. He worked like tailor and saddle and, like many in that region (Comarca Laguera), did not possess Terre. It is not known with certainty if Argumedo participated in pre -revolutionary activities. However, the people of Matamoros always sympathized with Francisco Madero’s ideas and there was the headquarters of ” The struggle “, Maderist orientation newspaper. Furthermore, one of the places where greater violence was unleashed, after the crisis of 1907, was the Hacienda de Santa Teresa, where Argumedo worked as a saddle. Probably he participated in these disorders, since shortly afterwards he would be combined with the 1910 revolution under the orders of Sixto Ugalde and later of Enrique Adame Macías, with whom he took Matamoros on February 9, 1911. It is also said that Argumedo was head of the Guerriglie in Glita and Matamoros.

Madearmo [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Between April and May, together with Adame Macías, Straumedo conquered Parras, Viesca and, with Emilio Madero, he collaborated on the capture of Torreón. In this action he demonstrated his great military skills but became responsible for May 15 of the massacre of 303 Chinese citizens, accused of having resisted the rebels.

The triumph of the Maderist movement arose new conflicts in the region: Benjamín Argumedo was one of the first to declare himself against the new government. At the beginning of 1912 various groups of agricultural workers set out under the orders of the Argumedo including Pablo Lavín and José de Jesús Campos. They did not have a clear goal, however, their files swelling for the growing unemployment in the region. In mid -February Staverdo besieged San Pedro de la Cologne with 600 men. They were rejected and headed to the south to take Matamoros Laguna; Later Argumedo headed south of Torreón, already in command of 1 000 men. His first actions such as Orozchist were the taking of Mapimí, on March 15 and the unsuccessful attack in Pedriceña, in the Durango, together with Emilio P. Camp. A month later Argumedo finally took Pedriceña with 3 000 men; Afterwards he threatened Torreón. At the end of May Pascual Orozco was defeated by the Victorian general Huerta and Argumedo was defeated in mid -June by General Aureliano Blanquet. Already with a few men, he began to operate between the border of the Zacotecas and Durango; Later the force met with other rebellious groups, thus forming a considerable column. At the end of July they headed to the south-west of Chihuahua and then returned to the Durango with a much less contingent. It was then that he began to plunder Haciendas and assassinate local Maderist authorities. So he remained until the fall of Francisco Madero.

Huerta [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

When Victorian Huerta arrived in the Argumedo power, he changed his position from a bandit to the man of order. In the early days of February 1913 he was between the Zacatecas and the San Luis Potosí, where he was defeated in the Hacienda di Santo Domingo on February 10th. This was his last battle as a rebel, given that he recognized the Huerta government in March; He was appointed brigade general of the federal army. The task of Argumedo was not easy: he had to fight against the Constitutionalists, who in the region were under the command of Francisco “Bencho” Villa and Tomás Urbina. First he was sent to San Luis Potosí, despite being afraid that his troops would move on to the constitutional movement, but he was soon called to operate in the Torreón area. Argumedo showed authority; The best example was the defense of Torreón, on July 13, 1913, where with a small group of men he defeated almost all the rebellious leaders of La Laguna. However, at the beginning of 1914, the Constitutionalists, at the command of the Pancho Villa recovered Torreón, defeating the federals of Argumedo and José Refugio Velasco. They had to take refuge in the south. Later Villa defeated again Argumedo and the federal army in the famous battle of Zacatecas, at the end of June 1914. With the victory of the Constitutionalists on the regime of Victorian Huerta, ARMOGUMO began another phase of his revolutionary struggle.

Rebellion and death [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

He refused to accept the Treaties of Teoloyucan and got up against the government of Venustiano Carranza, converting again in a rebellious one. He began to operate at the border between Puebla and Morelos, to occasions to the side of Juan Andreu Almazán, and to others on the side of Emiliano Zapata. Soon he was defeated in Puebla, where he was injured, and after defending Tezontepec, and then continued to participate in military operations where he was constantly defeated. In mid -April he obstructed the Álvaro Obregón refueling lines for the Bajío campaign, but this time too it was not successful and in June he threatened Pachuca. However, there is evidence that in the same days was with 3 000 men to defend Mexico City. Due to the friction with Higinio Aguilar and with the Zapatist troops, Argumedo is forced to abandon the center of the country. For this reason he convinced the conventional president Francisco Lagos Cházaro to change the headquarters of the government from Toluca to Durango but, in the middle of the journey, Lagos Cházaro changed his destination to Tamaulipas and Argumedo, without any government to defend, he went to Durango, where he arrived at the early December 1915. At the end of January 1916 the forces of Domingo Arrieta and Fortunato Maycotte defeated him, and was seriously injured. The general hid in the Sierra de Los Reyes but General Francisco Murguía captured him on February 4 in the Ranch El Paraíso. They sent him to Durango, where an extraordinary war advice condemned him to the death penalty. Argumedo was shot on 1 March 1916.

Argumedo is the protagonist of the film of the same name ” Persecution and death of Benjamín Argumedo ”(( Persecution and death of Benjamín Argumedo ) ^[2] , shot in Mexico in 1980, directed by Mario Hernández with Antonio Aguilar in the main role. The ribbon contains a version of the general corridor ^[3] , whose original version ^[4] It was recorded for the first time by Andrés Berlanga and Francisco Montalvo in 1935.

During the celebrations for the bicentenary of the independence of Mexico in the Zócalo of the Federal District, a 20 -meter -high and 7 tons heavy polyurethane monument called “Il Colosso”. ^[5]

In an interview with W radio ^[6] e Once TV ^[7] the creator, Juan Canfield, ^[8] He expressly said he had based himself on the argumento features: “It has not been selected for his participation in the revolution (…) but rather for his physical appearance. A very strong man, with a character, with sowritten mustache”, Canfield said to Once TV. ^[7] The fact that the “giant” was based on the face of Argumedo was also ensured in a note of Milenio Televisión . ^[9]

However, the secretariat of the public education issued a press release with date 20 September 2010 in which he stated that “the face of the giant does not portray any particular character and does not have a specific identity. He has no name or surname”. ^[ten] These statements created disputes between the public and the Mexican mass media. ^{[11] [twelfth] [13] [14] [15]}

• Francisco Naranjo, Revolutionary biographical dictionary , Editorial Printing “Cosmos”, Messico, 1935, ISBN 968-805-293-0.
• Jalil Saab H., Mexico: an experiment , Lulu.com (26 July 2010), USA, 2010, ISBN 978-0-557-52324-5.