Cabalgata Binacional makes 14-day trek to Columbus New Mexico for raid remembrance

JANOS, MEXICO – "You'll be able to tell the guys who have been riding for 10 days," said Norma Gomez, "because they'll be covered with dust."

At the side of the highway between Janos and Nuevo Casas Grandes in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua on Monday, locals from the town of Janos had set up a welcoming party, with food waiting under a gazebo.

The guests arrived amid a flurry of excitement: more than 40 on horseback, singing in full voice, traveling on a dirt berm alongside the highway, escorted by municipal president (equivalent to Mayor) Sebastián Efraín Pineda Acedo, following a pickup truck bearing the logo of the Janos Unidad Municipal de Protección Civil.

Many of the riders were indeed well-covered in dust, having set off from Guerrero municipality on Feb. 23 for a 14-day, nearly 300-mile ride to the United States border at Columbus, New Mexico.

The riders are part of the Cabalgata Binacional Villista, which will culminate in a three-mile "Ride of Remembrance," joined by American riders, from the Columbus Port of Entry to the village plaza on Saturday.

The ride will commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the March 9, 1916 raid on Columbus led by Mexican General Francisco “Pancho” Villa. The raid killed 18 Americans and over 100 attackers, destroying much of the village.

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Joining this year's ride will be Villa's grandson, Francisco Villa Campo, a lawyer based in Mexico City, who will first ride from Ciudad Juárez to Puerto Palomas. After crossing the border, Campo plans to present village officials with an aluminum replica of Pancho Villa's death mask.

Norma Gomez, who leads the Columbus NM Chamber of Commerce, drove a van with our reporter along with filmmaker Cathy Lee Crane and a crew working on a documentary about the village of Columbus. Gomez acknowledged tensions over how to remember "Raid Day."

"I hated Pancho Villa when I was a kid, but in Mexico he's a hero," she recalled as she drove through the Palomas checkpoint Monday morning. With a sigh, she continued, "I keep trying to tell people, we're not celebrating Pancho Villa... We just decided we would have a remembrance ride that would honor everybody that was killed in the raid... We're not celebrating Pancho Villa, we're celebrating life."

The Cabalgata Binacional began in 1999, coinciding with the revival of the annual Fiesta de Amistad (friendship).

At the original friendship festival, held in 1966 marking the 50th anniversary of the raid, Chihuahua Governor Praxedes Giner Durán donated 400 sycamore trees to New Mexico Governor Jack Campbell for the state park, named for Pancho Villa himself, in Columbus.

A common sentiment expressed by the riders was that Villa fought for justice and equality for his people. "This is the heart of all Mexicans," said one elder rider in Spanish. "His mind and heart are walking here."

Among the "villistas" who stopped here to rest and enjoy some food and music, many spoke more about the community spirit among the riders and the municipalities that welcome them than the historical figure himself. Some expressed a desire to extend the spirit of friendship and shared prosperity across the border, spreading friendship instead of fire.

Others spoke of the Cabalgata as a personal challenge, with many relating the physical demands of the journey for horse and horseman alike. Many riders had taken part in this annual ride, which dates back to 1999, for more than a decade.

After the party, the contingent planned to ride for another two hours into the town of Janos before stopping for the night.

They are expected in Palomas on Friday for a celebration. Due to restrictions at the border checkpoint, however, only some will join Saturday's parade into Columbus, while others remain on the Mexican side.

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-546-2611 (ext. 2608) or adammassa@demingheadlight.com.

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