Scenario 1: The Liberation of Mexicali, January 29, 1911.
Mexicali, a town of 500 inhabitants, founded a decade prior, was just then growing along the border with the United States. Porfirio Diaz sold a massive tract at the land junction between Baja and Sonora to the Colorado River Land Company, who were building a canal through the area as part of an irrigation and dike-building project to benefit agriculture in California’s Imperial Valley, across the border. In Calexico, many of the businessmen and other wealthy Americans associated with the company built their homes and offices. The town’s inferior twin, Mexicali, then, was a town of tiny houses and shacks, warehouses and not much else: a colony of workers. The canal as it existed then, called the Alamo Canal, ran south of Mexicali. Train tracks crossed the border on the east edge of town.
Set up:
Arrange the town of Mexicali along a strip representing the border between the US and Mexico. The customs house sits in a prominent, central position in the middle of town close to the border. A line of trees and empty desert space on either side sits between the towns. Two other buildings serving as objectives must include the jail and the Subprefect’s home, the “Yellow House”.
Conditions:
Night time - cold desert, light snow.
PLM Forces:
Commanders Leyva and Berthold plus 22 Mexican and Indigenous Cocopah revolutionaries, divided into three groups.
Group 1: Berthold, Camilo Jiménez, mounted on horseback, and 6 insurgents- Attack customs house
Group 2: Leyva, Ramírez Caule, and five insurgents - Attack “Yellow House,” Home of the the Subprefect Gustavo Terrazas and the local government building
Group 3: -Palomares and 6 insurgents - Attack Jail House.
Government forces:
Commanders: Subprefect Gustavo Terrazas, 20 Rurales officers, distributed as such:
-2 guards at the custom house
-Jailer Jose Villanova at jail with 10 other officers
-2 officers patrolling streets
-5 officers off duty in random homes.
Victory Conditions: PLM must capture all 3 objectives. If all three are not captured, the town is lost and the government wins.
Aftermath: If Rebel forces capture Mexicali, they maintain control of their sixty rifles, a few pistols, and several thousand rounds of ammunition. They also capture $385 dollars, and 9 new recruits.
Historic Note:
The Magónistas stockpiled weapons at the ranch of Edwards, near Holtville, and Edwards transported the weapons across the border by cart to a hiding spot near the Laguna Salada, a week before the rising. The plan hit a setback on January 23, when Mariano Barrera was arrested in Mexicali with a letter to Magón. The following day, the Calexico Chronicle had an article warning of revolutionaries in the area, preparing to rise in Mexico. Colonel Vega, in charge of Baja’s defense, paid no mind to the Magónistas, and sent no troops from Ensenada to protect Mexicali.
It was a cold desert night when the Magonistas entered Mexicali. Snow was even falling. The PLMistas took Mexicali before dawn on January 27. Berthold’s force easily conquered the customs house, arresting the two sleeping officers there. Then the rebels torched the small building. The second group, led by Ramírez Caule, detained the Subprefect Gustavo Terrazas in the “Yellow House,” the seat of government where Terrazas and his family lived. They tied the Subprefect to a pole in front of his house, then dragged him to the jail, where the third group, led by Jimenez, had surrounded the building. The rebels forced Terrazas at gunpoint to order his men to surrender the jail, and they complied. The PLMistas arrested 10 officers, and freed the prisoners, including two liberals. Nine prisoners join the revolution. Only Jailer Jose Villanova attempted to resist, and he was killed as soon as he cocked his weapon. Two custom officers bought their release from the rebels for $385, and crossed the border. The Magonistas freed seven of the arrested officers, who fled their country in nothing but their underwear. They also forced the police chief to shout “Long live the PLM! Long live Ricardo Flores Magón!”
Later that day, the rebels gathered the townspeople in the main square, where Palomars proclaimed: “I want all of Mexico and the whole world to know that we have taken the Plaza de Mexicali on behalf of the PLM, under its program and manifesto, of July 1, 1906. And we want to inform the North American authorities that we are not bandits ” (Bartra and Barrera 147). The rebels decree the closing of the bars, prohibit looting, and invite the locals to join the movement. 17 townspeople sign up, bringing the total forces to 40. Immediately, new recruits began coming from both sides of the border. Within two days, there were sixty revolutionaries under arms. Many of these were local Indigenous Cocapah people, and other local peasants and farm workers, visited months before the insurrection by the PLM agents Pedro Caule, José Cardoza, Fernando Palomárez, and Camilo Jiménez, themselves Indians of the region. Many other recruits were IWW members, who had been gathering in Holtville for that purpose. At least 55 volunteers crossed the border. Three weeks later, the force swelled to 120. Even more than the Mexican Government, the United State Government took note and mobilized forces in response to this uprising. In the first week after the liberation of Mexicali, owner of the Colorado River Land Company, General Otis, convinced US President Taft to move to protect the company’s lands and assets. 20,000 U.S. soldiers fanned out on the California and Arizona side of the border, and the Pacific Fleet headed south to San Diego. The blockade slowed the rate of recruits and supplies coming into Mexicali.
Works cited and other readings:
Magonismo: 1910-1913. Utopía y Revolución. By Rubén Trejo
https://ielibertarios.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/trejo-rubem-1910-1913-magonismo-utopia-y-revolucion.pdf
La Revolución Magonista (Cronologia narrativa). Armando Bartra and Jacinto Barrera. 2018. www.brigadaparaleerenlibertad.com
Baja California más larga que ancha
http://bajacaliforniamaslargaqueancha.blogspot.com/2014/04/v-la-asonada-magonista-en-el-distrito_10.html
La Geografia de la Rebelion Magonista en Baja California
https://geografiaseptentrional.wordpress.com/2018/01/29/la-geografia-de-la-rebelion-magonista-en-baja-california/
The Desert Revolution: Baja California 1911. Lowell L. Blaisdell
Dreams of Freedom: A Ricardo Flores Magón Reader. Chaz Bufe and Mitchell Cowen Verter
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