La Revolución - M. Stefan Strozier

Mike Strozier
(646) 620-7406
mstefanstrozier@gmail.com
303 Park Avenue South #1440
New York, NY 10010
La Revolución
by M. Stefan Strozier
A 5-act play dedicated to the Mexican people.
Dramatis Personae:
Chorus Leader
Emiliano Zapata
Gustavo Madero
Fransisco “Pancho” Villa
Abraham Gonzalez
Martin Guzman (Villista, First Villa Guard)
Susanna Flores Brier
General Pascual Orozco
Portirio Diaz
General Huerta
Venustiano Carranza
Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama
General Felipe Angeles
General Aureliano Blanquet
LTC Jimenez Riverroll
Revolutionary Soldier (Carranzista, Second Villa Guard)
Maria Pistolas
General Alvaro Obregon
Captain Valdes (Obregonista)
Quetzalcoatl
Jose de Leon Toral (a well-concealed member of the cast)
Vendor (a well-concealed member of the cast)
1

2
Act 1
Scene 1
Setting: A café in Havana, Cuba. Martin Guzman, working for General Villa, is on his way to
Mexico City to rally up with Villa’s army. Guzman is being pursued by Diaz’s spies. He meets
Susanna Flores Brier, a beautiful Diaz spy from an established, Mexican family of German
descent. Chorus Leader, playing a gituar, sings La Adelita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEm1al3gJrM
Chorus Leader:
En lo alto de la abrupta serranía
acampado se encontraba un regimiento
y una joven que valiente los seguía
locamente enamorada del sargento.
In the heights of a steep mountainous range
a regiment was encamped
and a young woman bravely follows them
madly in love with the sergeant.
Popular entre la tropa era Adelita
la mujer que el sargento idolatraba
y además de ser valiente era bonita
que hasta el mismo Coronel la respetaba.
Popular among the troop was Adelita
the woman that the sergeant idolized
and besides being brave she was pretty
that even the Colonel respected her.
Y se oía, que decía, aquel que tanto la quería:
Y si Adelita se fuera con otro
la seguiría por tierra y por mar
si por mar en un buque de guerra
si por tierra en un tren militar.
And it was heard, that he, who loved her so much, said:
If Adelita would leave with another man
I'd follow her by land and sea
if by sea in a war ship
if by land in a military train.

Y si Adelita quisiera ser mi novia
y si Adelita fuera mi mujer
le compraría un vestido de seda
para llevarla a bailar al cuartel.
If Adelita would like to be my girlfriend
If Adelita would be my wife
I'd buy her a silk dress
to take her to the barrack's dance.
Guzman: Hello. Can I borrow your broach?
Susanna: Why do you want my broach?
Guzman: What is your name?
Susanna: Susanna. And you are?
Guzman: Martin Guzman. Give it to me. Put this letter inside it.
Susanna: Are you a hairdresser?
Guzman: I am a poet.
Susanna: A poet!
Guzman: This is a letter to General Francisco Villa from the US State Department.
Susanna: Well, that is something.
Guzman: Are you Mexican?
Susanna: Yes.
Guzman: Come to Mexico and join the Revolution.
Susanna: Maybe. What are you thinking, poet?
Guzman: Who we are does not matter to the universe. Actions that we take moving through the
years and days and dark nights are all that seals our fates. It is the shock in your eyes, between
words, that moves my soul. Mexico is love. The Revolution is love too.
Susanna: I want to leave this place. There are too many spies in Havana. And the food is not
very good. The coffee is fine. Yes, I want to return to Mexico.
Guzman: Then I will take you to Vera Cruz.
3

Susanna: ‘The Jewel of the Gulf of Mexico’.
Guzman: What is your story?
Susanna: My father is a German army officer. My mother is the daughter of a farmer, where I
grew up, in Chihuahua. But I have been living in Berlin, with my father. And here I am in Cuba.
If I return to Mexico, will you keep me safe?
Guzman: I give you my word, if you swear your heart to the Revolution.
Susanna: I swear to it.
Guzman: Come, my ship will depart any minute.
[Brier and Guzman exit.]
4
Act 1
Scene 2
Setting: Morelos, Zapata headquarters, November, 1910. Enter Emiliano Zapata and Diaz Soto y
Gama, who is reading from Regeneración, the illegal newspaper of Ricardo Magon.
Diaz Soto y Gama: ‘Workers: listen! Today’s calm conceals the violence of tomorrow’s
insurrection. Revolution is the logical consequence of the thousand crimes of despotism. Your
hands will grasp the gun…’
Zapata: Enough, Antonio! Where did you find Ricardo Magon’s Regeneración?
Diaz Soto y Gama: In Puebla, Emiliano; smuggled inside a Sears Roebuck catalog. These are
the words of Kropotkin, Bakunin, Marx. Pay attention: ‘The Revolution must come, irrevocably.
By blood and fire it will come to the den where the jackals who have been devouring you for
thirty-four years, are holding their last feast, Proletarians! Go to the fight. Knock resolutely on
the doors.’
Zapata: Francisco Madero called for effective suffrage and no reelection and President Diaz
threw him in jail.
Diaz Soto y Gama: Land and Liberty!
Zapata: In Madero’s Plan of San Luis Potosi, Diaz’s election is illegal. He ordered that the
Revolution begin on November 20, less than one week away. Come, we have much work, Senor
Diaz Soto y Gama.

Diaz Soto y Gama: Hasta Belem, Senor Magon.
[Montano and Zapata exit.]
Act 1
Scene 3
Setting: Palacio Hotel, Chihuahua City. Lights rise. Enter Francisco and Gustavo Madero.
[A moment later there is a knock at the door and jingling of keys.]
Madero: Enter.
[The door is unlocked. Enter Abraham González and Francisco Villa. They are followed by
Martin Guzman and Susanna Brier. Villa has a gun at the back of Abraham González’s head.]
Madero: Ah, Fancisco Villa, I am Francisco Madero. I see you have met Senor Abraham
González. This is my brother Gustavo. Would you like a drink?
Villa: I do not drink alcohol.
Madero: We have that in common.
[Gonzalez nods and Gustavo pours a drink for Abraham González and himself.]
Gustavo: May we all live for many years!
Villa: This is my secretary, Martin Guzman, and his woman.
Madero: Porfirio Diaz has been the president of Mexico for over 3 decades. Haciendas are
American slave plantations, and Diaz protects the landowners. You have been pursued by the
rurales.
Villa: My sister was raped by Don Agustín López Negrete.
Madero: Now hunt them!
Villa: I shot him. The rurales threw me in jail me and sentenced me to death under ley fuga. My
life has been hard, senor, fighting with Ignacio Parra and Refugio Alvarado, never enough food,
or water, and only enough bullets to do the job. I made a lot of money. I gave it all away to the
poor. It was easy to bribe the judges; they are corrupt, like the Catholic priests.
5

Madero: We have all become slaves to a corrupt man, his government, the Catholic Church, and
the hacienda rulers.
Villa: How can a good man change his views so easily, Mr. President?
Madero: If I understood why men’s hearts change the same way a snake sheds his skin, there
would be no need for a Revolution.
Villa: My soldiers fight for President Francisco Madero!
[Lights fade to black.]
6
Act 1
Scene 4
Setting: Enter Madero, Abraham Gonzalez, and Gustavo Madero. Battle for Ciudad Juarez,
May, 1911.
Madero: Flores Magon is fighting the Federals in Baja California.
Gustavo: Fighting has broken out across the country.
Gonzalez: Why doesn’t Magon return to writing his newspaper, Regeneración?
Gustavo: You’ve removed the muzzle of the wolf, now it bites the hand.
[Enter Orozco and Villa.]
Madero: What news do you bring, Senor Orozco?
Orozco: The battle of Ciudad Juarez is won.
Gonzalez: March to Mexico City.
Madero: Diaz’s envoys are here in Juarez, ready to negotiate peace.
Villa: Oscar Creighton hurls his sticks of dynamite like toys.
Gonzalez: Why do you stand there, speechless?
Madero: This battle begun without my authorization.

Orozco: We demand that you turn Federal Officer Navarro over to be court-martialed for
bayoneting my soldiers!
Gonzalez: I thought that was standard practice for Revolutionaries.
Gustavo: General Orozco, we are so close to Texas and so far from God that our country feels
pity for us.
Villa: I follow the orders of General Orozco.
Gonzalez: Certain people have captured your intrigue, Senor Orozco. Brother, please, a word.
[The following sets of dialog alternate with pauses in tableau between them.]
Madero: The troops have gathered outside the door.
[The action shifts to the other side of the stage.]
Orozco: I should be minister of war and a stranger from Coahuila, Venustiano Carranza.
Gonzalez: He is old. You Revolutionaries are all young.
Villa: Who is Senor Carranza?
Gonzalez: He is rather tall, wears plain clothes and has a distinguished air about him. He has
long beard that he is frequently combs with his lanky fingers.
[The action shifts to the other side of the stage.]
Gustavo: None of us can agree about Carranza.
Madero: We are an obstinate family.
[The two parts join again.]
Villa: My soldiers have not been paid.
[Orozco draws his pistol.]
Orozco: You have sold the Revolution for your family’s gain!
[Pancho Villa draws his pistol and points it at Madero’s forehead.]
Madero: I am your chief.
Villa: Do not play politics with the soul of Mexico.
7

Madero: I am the soul of Mexico, Pancho Villa.
Villa: We will win the Revolution for the people, the farmers, and take back our lands. I will
fight to the end!
Madero: If you dare kill me, shoot. I order you to seize them.
[Gonzalez and Gustavo carefully take Villa’s weapon from Villa. Villa is confused and does not
resist.]
Orozco: Don’t just stand there, Pancho!
[Madero runs to the door, where Orozco’s men are formed, outside.]
Madero: I am Francisco Madero, the legal President of Mexico! Are you men traitors to your
chief? I started the Revolution that you fight! Would you fight for nothing, for ideals without a
vision? Will you follow the Jackal? Or will you let me lead you to victory with honor! You
might as well be bandits. I hold no rancor toward Diaz. I offer him my hand as a brother. I order
you all to bring me every captain in this army, here to my headquarters, within the hour.
Orozco: There is no point in creating a rebellion within our army.
[Orozco gives his pistol to Gonzalez.]
Villa: I have committed a black crime and my heart is between two stones. I am sorry, my chief.
Madero: Get out of my sight.
[Orozco and Villa exit. Lights fade to black.]
8
Act 1
Scene 6
Setting: May 25 th , 1911. Diaz resigns. Treaty of Juarez signed. Madero enters Mexico City to
cheering crowds and an earthquake that kills hundreds. Huerta sees Diaz off at Veracruz; June
7th, 1911.
Diaz: I have said goodbye to my friends. Thank you for ensuring safe passage on my train from
Mexico City, General Huerta. It is time to leave Vera Cruz for Spain.
Huerta: It is my deep honor.

Diaz: The Little Madman has won. They have turned the mares loose. Let us see who can corral
them again. I sent negotiators to Juarez and they brought me back surrender documents to sign. I
never should have spoken with the American journalist, Creelman.
Huerta: You had no idea he would betray you by writing lies.
Diaz: Young man, never talk to journalists! They are vampires.
Huerta: Yes, Senor President.
Diaz: We must catch all the journalists and run stakes through their evil hearts!
Huerta: You have a long trip to Spain, rest now.
Diaz: I do not want to be exiled!
Huerta: You would face danger if you remained.
Diaz: Exile is a cruel fate. This is why it has been employed for ages. To simply die would be
easy. But to never again see my land and my people, or taste my wine and women, that is painful
to my poor heart!
Huerta: You will return in time.
Diaz: No! If my country has betrayed me, then it is final! I have fought and bled for my country.
Huerta: Yes, senor.
Diaz: I am the president! Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Huerta: Do not worry too much.
Diaz: You give them only as much power as your actions and words.
Huerta: Who are the them?
Diaz: Any one that you give your power! Keep your power or take it back from those who stole
it!
Huerta: Yes, Senor President.
Diaz: Work closely with my nephew, Felix Diaz. A certain agent has managed to get access to
General Villa. She is German. Her name is Brier.
Huerta: Yes, my president.
9

Diaz: I go now, obeying the people. Come here, my son, and hug your father one last time. Let
me feel my son in my arms.
[Huerta and Diaz embrace.]
Diaz: Now they will be convinced, by hard experience, that the only way to govern the country
well is the way I did it, with loving compassion, respect for the people, and force only when
necessary. I love you, my Mexico! Goodbye to you! Goodbye, Mexico!
[Diaz exits. Huerta exits in the opposite direction. Ligths fade to black.]
10
Act 1
Scene 7
Setting: Madero meets with Zapata June 8 th , 1911. Madero and Carranza at the Madero family
mansion on Berlin Street. Enter Zapata.
Madero: Welcome, Senor Zapata. You may lean your carbine in the corner, with the barrel
facing toward the ground.
Zapata: No, Senor Madero.
Madero: This is Senor Venustiano Carranza.
Zapata: It is a pleasure to meet you, senor.
Carranza: And I too am greatly honored to meet the man the press calls the Attila of the South,
leading an army of peasants.
Zapata: Senor Madero, what about reallocating land from the gachupines of the haciendas to the
people?
Madero: That is my goal.
Zapata: The Federal army is still intact; and you have disbanded the armies of the Revolution.
The Army of the South will keep fighting the Revolution, until our goals have been achieved.
General Huerta is attacking our forces. He hangs my soldiers under a fire, burning their feet
while they die.
Carranza: What horror!
Zapata: And Orozco is attacking from the north.

Madero: I will be sending General Huerta to fight the Orozco Rebellion.
Zapata: Why have you left Diaz’s man Leon de la Barra as interim president? The election is
not until the fall.
Madero: I strongly encourage you to form a government with the Figueroas in Morales.
Zapata: I do not seek office, only land reform. Why did you start the Revolution?
Madero: My goal is to hold a free and fair election.
Zapata: You have betrayed the aspirations of the Revolution.
[Zapata stands. Zapata walks over to Madero and gestures with his carbine as he talks.]
Zapata: Look, Senor Madero, if I, having advantage of being armed, robbed you of your watch
and kept it, and then some time later we met again but with both of us equally armed, wouldn’t
you have the right to demand the return of your watch?
Madero: Of course, General, and I would have the right to ask for payment for your use of it.
Zapata: The hacdados have taken land belonging to villages. Your Plan of San Luis Potosi does
not address land reform!
Madero: Can we meet again, Senor Zapata, in Morales?
Carranza: June 12 th is available on your schedule, Senor Madero.
Madero: Very well, then. Goodbye, Senor Zapata.
Carranza: Goodbye, Senor Zapata. I wish you good luck.
Zapata: Goodbye, gentlemen.
[Exit Zapata.]
Madero: General Huerta?
[Enter Huerta.]
Madero: Finish Zapata and turn to fight the Orozco Rebellion. Take Pancho Villa.
Huerta: The bandit?
Madero: Villa is a remarkable commander and served with Orozco.
11

Huerta: Yes, Senor President.
Madero: Villa has a secretary named Martin Guzman who advises him and travels to
Washington, where Villa is popular with General Hugh Scott and has contacts. Guzman is a poet.
There are many Revolutionary journals in circulation, each one controlling a secret army. Do not
underestimate Guzman’s reach. I understand he travels with a woman that is close to Diaz named
Brier. I must find my brother, Gustavo.
[Madero exits stage left. Carranza and Huerta exit stage right. Lights fade to black.]
12
Act 2
Scene 1
Setting: Decena Trágica, Sunday Feb 9th, 1912. National Palace, Mexico City. Enter Gustavo
and Madero. A candle burns on a low table that will appear in the next scene. Enter Chorus
Leader, singing La Golondrina http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPkrJi6JB-8
Chorus Leader:
A donde irá
veloz y fatigada
la golondrina
que de aquí se va
por si en el viento
se hallara extraviada
buscando abrigo
y no lo encontrara.
Junto a mi lecho
le pondré su nido
en donde pueda
la estación pasar
también yo estoy
en la región perdido
OH Cielo Santo!
y sin poder volar.

Deje también
mi patria idolatrada
esa mansión
que me miró nacer
mi vida es hoy
errante y angustida
y ya no puedo
a mi mansión volver.
Ave querida
amada peregrina
mi corazón
al tuyo acercare
voy recordando
tierna golondrina
recordare
mi patria y llorare.
The Swallow
Where will it go
Swift and weary
The swallow
that's gone away from here,
If in the wind
she finds herself astray
Seeking shelter
and doesn't find it?
Beside my bed
I'll put her nest
where she can pass the season.
I am also
in the lost region
Oh, Holy Heaven!
and unable to fly.
I too left behind
my adored homeland
that abode
that saw me born
my life is today
errant and distressed
and no more can I
to my mansion return.
13

Cherished bird,
beloved pilgrim,
I will bring my heart
close to yours.
I go remembering,
Tender swallow.
I will remember
my fatherland and cry.
[Exit Chorus Leader.]
Gustavo: There is a game afoot, brother.
Madero: That is nonsense. I am returned from Morales where General Huerta so aggressively
attacked Zapata that I was nearly killed. Place General Huerta on the inactive list.
Gustavo: He was already on it once for stealing. Then you reactivated him to fight Zapata.
Madero: Put him back on it! Zapata has sided with the Orozco Rebellion and declared the Plan
de Ayala.
Gustavo: General Angeles!
[Enter General Angeles.]
Gustavo: Report your findings.
Angeles: Sir, while fighting Zapata with Huerta, I uncovered a plot to overthrow you. My loyal
officers gave me this letter, detailing the coup de tat and listing the conspirators: Bernardo
Reyes, Felix Diaz, General Blanquet and the 29th Battalion, General Manuel Mondragon,
General Joaquin Beltran with troops at Tacubaya, General Guillermo; Rubio Mavarrete, artillery
commander at Tacubaya, and General Huerta. There are others.
Gustavo: Hand me that letter. I add nearly 14,000 troops ready to rebel.
Madero: Let me see. Mondragon is incorrigible, and Reyes and Diaz would be on such a list, but
many you listed are loyal, such as General Blanquet. Look: there is a question mark next to
Huerta’s name.
Gustavo: I am postponing my trip to serve as Japanese ambassador.
Madero: Do as you wish.
Gustavo: That will be all, General Angeles.
[Exit General Angeles.]
14

Gustavo: General Huerta controls the Federal Army. Your only allies are in the very weak
Senate. I have been told that Major Rafael Izquierdo witnessed a meeting between and General
Huerta and Felix Diaz. The American Ambassador Wilson is plotting with them.
Madero: But how is that possible if Diaz is in prison?
Gustavo: Huerta will send Federal troops to slaughter, in an attempt to stage a rebellion and
sequester you here in the National Palace.
Madero: You are paranoid! Where did you imagine this plot?
[Enter Angeles.]
Angeles: Excuse me, gentlemen. Two columns of troops march to Santiago Tlaltelolco prison.
Gustavo: They will free Diaz and Reyes and attack the National Palace.
Madero: General Angeles, I want you to take command of the army and guard the National
Palace.
Gustavo: But he is junior to Huerta.
Madero: Huerta is now on the inactive list!
Gustavo: You ordered him activated a moment ago!
Madero: Bring General Huerta here at once!
[Exit General Angeles.]
Madero: There is no end to the Revolution.
Gustavo: Then use it as a chance to root out your enemies.
Madero: I am not a dictator. I am here by mandate of the Mexican people and I will leave the
National Palace only by death or the will of the people.
[Enter General Angeles and General Huerta.]
Madero: General Huerta, I order you to quell this rebellion.
Angeles: Sir, the rebels have been beaten back to the Citadel; but General Lauro Villar is
mortally wounded. Reyes was killed in a brief counterattack.
Madero: The Revolution moves too quickly. I am not able to think or control events.
15

Gustavo: Then we must summon more forces, from the military academies of Tlalpan, San Juan
Teotihuacán, Chalco and Toluca.
Huerta: Sir, I must be placed in charge of the defense of the National Palace.
Madero: I approve.
Huerta: Bring me a map of the city.
Madero: The immediate problem is feeding our troops, and those of the other side, and the
populace.
Angeles: Here it is.
Huerta: General Angeles, place your artillery on this overlook.
Angeles: But that location has no direct line of sight to the Citadel. Artillery rounds would
endanger the embassies, here.
Gustavo: And what if we provoke the American embassy and Ambassador Wilson?
Huerta: Do not question my authority!
Madero: I have a telegraph here from the American President Taft, swearing America will not
interfere. But it would be a grave mistake to provoke the Americans into our fight. Have you met
with Felix Diaz?
Gustavo: Surrender your pistol to the president, General!
[General Huerta gives his pistol to Madero.]
Huerta: Senor President, you must let me protect our nation.
Gustavo: Brother.
[Madero and Gustavo step aside.]
Gustavo: If you give that pistol back to him, you are abandoning your country and your family.
Madero: The two things are one.
[Madero gives his pistol to General Huerta. General Huerta hugs Madero.]
Huerta: You are secure in the arms of General Huerta.
Madero: Please be careful.
16

Huerta: Come, General Angeles.
[Exit General Angeles and General Huerta.]
Madero: Leave me now, Gustavo.
[Exit Gustavo. Lights fade to black, except the candle, which begin the next scene.]
Act 2
Scene 2
Setting: Candlelight in Gambrinus restaurant. Gustavo sits at a table, drinking coffee. The 10
Tragic Days are well underway and there is no power to the city. Outside, Generals Blanquet and
Huerta speak.
General Blanquet: President Madero ordered four thousand troops from the 29 th Battalion in
reincorcements. I have left the force outside the city, at Tlaxpana. I took a week to accomplish
this deployment.
Huerta: Very good. You are to take the 29 th and replace the Carabineros of Coahuila, at the
National Palace.
General Blanquet: The Carabineros are loyal to Madero.
Huerta: Yes. And now we are of the same mind. You were a member of the firing squad that
killed Maximilian at Queretaro in 1867?
General Blanquet: Yes.
Huerta: You have served Mexico greatly.
General Blanquet: Thank you, General Huerta.
[General Blanquet bows to General Huerta and exits. General Huerta enters the restaurant and
sits with Gustavo.]
Gustavo: The city is lit by candles.
Huerta: The dark hours are here.
Gustavo: This candle is a light through that darkenss.
Huerta: You rich, educated people always speak in metaphors.
17

Gustavo: No.
Huerta: Do not insult me.
Gustavo: I mean no offence, general.
Huerta: Will you have a drink of Hennessay?
Gustavo: Of course, general. The senate advises my brother to relinquish power.
Huerta: Yes.
Gustavo: Have you considered other outcomes?
Huerta: I have met your spies and they do not impress me.
Gustavo: You are an imbecile! I am sorry. But how can you know anything about Mexican
politics? You drink your Hennessay and smoke cannibis but what of our people, who are fighting
and dying for the Revolution?
Huerta: I understand your concerns. Please give me your gun, because I must go outside on the
dangerous streets and make a phone call and I have forgotten my gun.
Gustavo: Oh, yes.
Huerta: Thank you.
Gustavo: Yes.
[Gustavo gives him his gun.]
Huerta: And you are a fool!
[Huerta grabs Gustavo and pulls him outside.]
Gustavo: Help me!
Huerta: I am laughing at you!
Gustavo: How can you do this to me? We are all one family! We are the nation of Mexico!
Huerta: You are not my brother! You are nothing!
Gustavo: Please, I beg you, do not make me suffer! Take them away!
18

Huerta: I will answer! We hate you, brother! You are a worthless soul that must die on the
street, consumed by the forces of nature and man, destitute, a useless hull.
Gustavo: You beat me down, you torture me, and you make into nothing! Show me mercy,
please, I beg you, I beg of you!!
Huerta: Suffer and die at the hands of your own brothers, your countrymen. We who are your
family!
Gustavo: Please, no!
[General Huerta drags Gustavo offstage, where Federal soldiers fall on Gustavo, and begin to
literally rip him to pieces. General Huerta returns to the stage as Gustavo is screaming. His real
eye is poked out and he is made blind. His glass eye rolls back on stage and General Huerta picks
it up and puts it in his pocket. General Huerta exits. Lights fade to black.]
Act 2
Scene 3
Setting: The National Palace. Madero and General Angeles leaning over a map. Enter LTC
Jimenez Riverroll.
LTC Jimenez Riverroll: I have a message from General Huerta and General Blanquet. General
Manual Rivera and his troops arrived from Oaxaca and had immediately rebelled against the
government. I must accompany the president to a safer place.
Madero: I do not believe that. I am certain of General Rivera’s loyalty to me.
LTC Jimenez Riverroll: We are in great danger and must leave now.
[Enter Major Rafael Izquierdo.]
Madero: Leave this room now!
Angeles: Obey your president, sir!
LTC Jimenez Riverroll: I am on orders of General Huerta and General Blanquet to take you
captive.
Madero: I am the president of Mexico!
LTC Jimenez Riverroll: Ready! Aim!
19

Angeles: Halt! I order you!
[General Angeles shoots LTC Jimenez Riverroll dead and then Major Rafael Izquierdo dead.]
Madero: Excellent, General Angeles. You are a patriot.
[There is a sound of commotion outside. Madero goes to the window.]
Madero: I am unharmed. Colonel Riverroll has been killed while trying to take the President of
Mexico captive.
[Enter General Blanquet in black uniform and gold braid, pistol in hand and speaking in a parade
ground voice]
General Blanquet: Drop your weapon, General Angeles! Senor Madero, President of the
Fatherland, you are my prisoner!
Madero: I am the president and you are a traitor.
General Blanquet: The world has turned upon you.
[General Blanquet leads Madero General Angeles out at gunpoint. Bells ring slowly, lowly,
ominously. Madero does not exit the stage until the dancers in the next scene have entered. The
bells pick up their pace and then they are ringing joyously, high-pitched in tone.]
20
Act 2
Scene 4
Setting: Bells ring end of 10 Tragic Days. As the bells ring, there is a dance scene with Guzman
and Susanna Flores Brier, and Villa and his mistress. The dancing starts while the church bells
are ringing, and then the bell ringing fades as the music rises. Brier and Guzman are talking as
they dance. The song is El Pagare.
Brier: Tell me a poem about the stars.
Guzman: The stars signal your eyes. The light dances in your eyes and answers the stars.
Brier: And the moon?
Guzman: The moon controls the night and this song. Our love is stronger than the pull of the
moon.
Brier: And the night sky?

Guzman: In the nighttime sky, shooting stars travel like will-o-wisps seeking a new home. We
have to be quiet, and listen, and whisper about love in gentle voices.
Brier: And this music?
Guzman: Can you hear each note of the piano clearly? It sounds like singing angels or fey
nymphs in a dark forest chanting strange songs.
Brier: I am very much in love with you.
[The music continues, and Villa and Guzman step to the side. The dancers enter the previous
scene with the misery of the chorus and Madero being escorted away.]
Villa: I escaped jail in Mexico City. Gustavo Madero saved me from General Huerta’s firing
squad.
Guzman: The American Navy occupies Vera Cruz.
Villa: Eight of us got through Texas. We had ten pounds of sugar, one pound of coffee, a pound
of salt, flour, beans; five pounds of rice; water; and, a large container of dried strips of meat,
some potatoes and 500 rounds of ammunition.
Guzman: Very good, General Villa.
Villa: General Huerta threw Abraham Gonzales under the wheels of a train. I miss him dearly.
Guzman: General Obregon marches on Mexico City from the Northwest.
Villa: Carranza is no general. We must return to Chihuahua and gather our forces. I am going to
become governor of Chihuahua. Come, let’s join the dancing ladies!
[Lights fade to black.]
Act 2
Scene 5
Setting: Saltillo, Carranza’s headquarters. Enter Revolutionary Soldier.
Revolutionary Soldier: Chief Carranza, the captains are assembled.
Carranza: Very well.
[Exit Revolutionary Soldier. Enter General Angeles.]
21

Angeles: My First Chief, I have returned from Europe to fight for the Revolutionary Army.
Carranza: You are in perfect time for my Plan de Guadalupe. Please note that my new title is
First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army. I assign you to the Centaur of the North.
Angeles: Villa?
Carranza: and I appoint you to be my Secretary of War.
Angeles: Thank you, First Chief.
Carranza: No, wait, General Obregon will object, since you were in the Federal Army. I hereby
make you Sub-secretary of the Office of Secretary of War.
Angeles: Thank you, First Chief.
Carranza: Here is a wire from General Obregon. He is having great success with his Army of
the Northwest. This year, the Revolution will end.
Angeles: No.
Carranza: Why not, General Angeles?
Angeles: We fight the Revolution for honor. Mexico is a nation of proud people and we have
many traditions.
Carranza: I fight for the same things are you.
Angeles: Then why not issue land reform and better justice for the people in your Plan de
Guadalupe?
Carranza: Mexico is a country that must organize itself. We should come out of the dark ages
and follow European systems of government, such as the French. Come, I issue my plan!
[Carranza and Angeles step outside and face the assembled soldiers.]
Carranza: I have assembled you to listen to my Plan of Guadalupe! All of the leaders of the
Revolution have endorsed my plan: General Villa, General Zapata, General Obregon, and
General Angeles.
Revolutionary Soldier: First Chief Carranza, how long will you hold the title of citizen acting as
First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army?
Carranza: Until such a time as someone is named to replace me.
22

Revolutionary Soldier: And what of land reform? General Zapata’s Plan of Ayala grants that
land will be returned to the peasants who work the land.
Carranza: There will be time for land reform later. General Huerta, the usurper, must be
overthrown.
Revolutionary Soldier: First Chief, the time has come to end the Revolution. With a few words,
you have the power to do that. Return Mexico to its people. Stop the battle of egos for our
nation’s soul. Have courage.
Carranza: Thank you. I promise what you ask will be done.
Revolutionary Soldier: If you swear to land reforms after the Revolution is won, we accept your
plan.
Carranza: I promise you that. Now take this to your men.
[Carranza goes inside. Lights fade to black.]
Act 3
Scene 1
Setting: Pancho Villa and his troops are marching toward Juarez. Villa has just captured a
federal supply train, and has loaded it with his own troops. He is in his special, private caboose.
Villa wears blue pajamas. The windows have chintz curtains and the cars are painted grey. There
are a couple of bunks and a partitioned area for Villa’s cook, his mistress. Villa’s mistress is
setting up plates for dinner. “Whistling Rufus” plays on a fife. The trains are an amalgamation of
humanity, with livestock, soldiers and their wives and children riding on top of the train cars.
Action shifts to Villa’s train car. Silent pauses are occasionally broken by the ‘Tiqui-tick-tick’ of
the telegraph from offstage. The Telegraph Operator is offstage. Enter Chorus Leader, who sings
La Cucaracha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_27Hi1In6o
Chorus Leader:
The cockroach, the cockroach
Can no longer walk
Because it needs
Marijuana to smoke
The cockroach has already died
They are taking it to be buried
Between four buzzards
And a sacristy mouse,
With Carranza’s beard
23

I’m going to make a scarf
And put it on the Sombrero
Of your father, Pancho Villa
A baker went to Mass
Not resting there to pray
But the ask the pure Virgin,
For marijuana to smoke,
One thing makes me laugh
Pancho Villa without a shirt
The Carrancistas have already gone
Because the Villistas are coming
For serapes, Saltillo;
Chihuahua for soldiers;
For women, Jalisco
For love, all the little ways
Villa: Send this wire to the commander of the federal base in Juarez, General Castro: Engine
broken down at Juarez. Send another engine and five cars. Sign it as Colonel Velasquez.
Telegraph Operator: Yes, sir. He is now answering. “Will send the cars at once.”
Villa: Good. If he really sends the cars, I can march straight into Juarez without firing a shot!
[Enter General Angeles.]
General Angeles: General Villa, I report as ordered by First Chief Carranza.
Villa: Welcome, my brother!
[Enter Martin Guzman and Susanna Brier, aside.]
Brier: Martin! I must tell you something important.
Guzman: What? I have to join General Villa. We are late.
Brier: I love you.
Guzman: I love you too.
Brier: Do you remember what you said when we first met?
Guzman: No.
Brier: You said the Revolution is love.
Guzman: Yes.
24

Brier: What did you mean? I thought you meant that if I came with you to fight the Revolution, I
would find love. And I have.
Guzman: I meant that the Revolution must be fought for love of country, and honor to the
family, and respect for humanity. We are fighting for a purpose. We are fighting to show the
world what happens when you must fight to change things. We must succeed.
Brier: Does our love matter more?
Guzman: We don’t have time to talk about love in the middle of a Revolution.
Brier: But I love you!
[A soldier starts to shoot his weapon randomly.]
Guzman: I love you too. Come.
[Action changes back to the train car.]
Villa: Forty hospital cars, well-lined and insulated, operating tables, all equipped with the latest
surgery appliances, and there are at least 100 doctors and nurses to take care of my soldiers!
General Angeles: It’s impressive, General Villa.
Villa: General Obregon is advancing fast to Mexico City. Carranza will attempt to delay our
great Army of the North. But we will send loco loco trains full of dynamite to ram into trains
carrying Federal troops! And we have cannon mounted on flatcars, El Nino and El Chavalito.
General Angeles: Very good, General Villa.
[Guzman and Brier enter the car with Villa and General Angeles.]
Villa: Ah, Guzman. I care about my soldiers, not politics, general. We Mexicans can never agree
on who will be president and conflict forms our government.
Guzman: Perhaps you should lead us?
Villa: It is enough to be governor of Chihuahua and print enough counterfeit money to keep the
economy functioning. Don’t try and understand Mexican politics, Guzman. You might as well
try and understand a woman.
Guzman: Then who will lead us?
General Angeles: First Chief Carranza is not up to the task and at odds with you.
Villa: Senor Angeles, my general, will lead our nation!
25

Guzman: Angeles is a splendid man, but as a coalition candidate he won’t do. He is a general,
after all, not a politician.
Villa: What? You should write about your adventures and keep your mouth shut.
[Villa gets very mad, walks away. Guzman approaches and tries to offer a conciliatory idea,
while still standing his ground.]
Guzman: The disagreement with you and Venustiano Carranza could be fixed up by sending
him your pistol.
Villa: That’s not such a bad idea. Just tell Senor Carranza to be careful with it, as it’s a very
fluky pistol.
[Villa hands his pistol to Guzman. Villa takes a few steps, grabs his waist, and realizes he is
unarmed, even as everyone in the train car has some kind of agenda and all agendas are different.
Villa puts his back against the wall.]
Villa: Say, someone give me a pistol, I’m unarmed.
General Angeles: I’d give you this one, general, but it’s very small and besides it’s an
automatic, and you don’t know that kind very well.
Villa: Bah, what kind of pistol don’t I know well?
[General Angeles gives Villa the .32 pistol. Villa takes the gun, smiles, unloads it, and the bullets
fall on the floor because Villa does not understand automatic pistols. General Angeles picks up
the bullets and gives them to Villa, who loads his weapon very quickly, cocks it, and aims it at
Guzman’s forehead.]
Villa: Now say something to me.
Guzman: Something good or bad?
Villa: Whatever comes out of your heart.
Guzman: Well, I hope this isn’t a fluky pistol.
[Villa drops his pistol.]
Villa: You are as brave as a soldier.
[The solider outside is still shooting his pistol, wasting ammunition. Villa carefully aims his
pistol, shoots his solider in the back of the head. The soldier dies and falls to the ground. After a
pause, the soldier’s mother, Maria Pistolas, suddenly rushes in to caresses her dead son.]
26

Maria Pistolas: Oh, you murderer! You have killed my son!
Villa: He was wasting my ammunition.
Maria Pistolas: Be sorry for what you have done!
Villa: I only regret that I have lost one soldier. You son is dead. Bury him. Do it, now, woman.
Maria Pistolas: Oh, my poor, murdered son! I pray that you do not lose the Revolucion, Pancho
Villa!
[Lights fade to black on Maria Pistolas and her dead son. Guzman and Brier enter Villa’s car.]
Villa: It is a good pistol. I will keep it.
Guzman: I am very tired. We have traveled from Veracruz.
Villa: You are tired?
[Villa and Guzman rejoin the group. Villa addresses all.]
Villa: When my pal Urbina and I were running from the rurales. I couldn’t get over my surprise
that the Mounties were still on our heels. We got through a heavy woods and thicket to a cliff.
We could see the whole plain below. We unsaddled. We fed the horses. ‘Look pal,’ I said. ‘I
guess there’s no danger now. I’ll watch first.’ ‘All right, pal,’ was all Urbina said and went
straight to sleep. He had on a pink shirt, and the button was off the collar. The steady munching
of our drowsing horses. The silence of this strange landscape felt like a dream. I felt no God at
my side. Where was the church? I looked down in the valley. Away off, in the distance, on the
other side of the plain, a little white speck was moving. It was the Mounties! I jumped up and
shook Urbina. ‘Hey pal, wake up, the Mounties are after us!’ I took out my pistol and fired two
shots right beside his ear. I picked up my pal and threw him face down over his horse, and tied
him tight. I found the worst path to throw off the Mounties, and I doubled back on my trail
several times. I found a place. I pulled my pal off his horse and his face was black and purple and
filled with dust. We slept. Mexico is asleep. It is time for our country to awake.
Telegraph Operator: Pardon me, General. The train cars have arrived from Juarez.
Villa: Wire General Castro in Juarez: ‘Wires cut between here and Chihuahua City. Large force
of rebels approaching from South. What shall I do?’ Sign it as Colonel Velasquez.
Telegraph Operator: Yes, my general. (Pause.) Return to base at once.
Villa: Let’s take Juarez for the Army of the North! Move my great army, start the engines!
27

28
Act 3
Scene 2
Setting: Obregon has entered Mexico City and claimed it for Carranza. Carranza will enter 5
days later. Obregon visits the grave of Madero and has many other revolutionaries reburied:
Belisario Dominguez, Serapio Rendon, Adolfo Basso. Obregon gets the remaining clothes of
Madero and Suarez, has them examined and starts an investigation into the deaths of Pino Suarez
and Madero. Obregon is kneeling at grave of Madero. Enter Maria Pistolas, carrying a candle.
Obregon stands.
Obregon: Who are you?
Maria Pistolas: I am Maria Arias.
[Maria Pistolas places her candle at Madero’s grave.]
Maria Pistolas: I am a schoolteacher, General Obregon. Thank you for bringing security and
safety to Mexico City before that bandit Pancho Villa arrives, and keeping Zapata’s army away.
The bandit Pancho Villa murdered my son.
Obregon: Pancho Villa is an inbicile. His army destroyed Zacatecas. My army arrived first to
Mexico City. Villa resigned from First Chief Carranza’s command. Without General Angeles’
artillery and military expertise, The Army of the North would be nothing.
Maria Pistolas: We fought in his army.
Obregon: The Revolution is won. The Usurper Huerta is defeated. He and General Orozco have
fled. I return to my chickpea farm now in Sonora.
Maria Pistolas: And here lies our first president.
Obregon: Mexico is each family’s farm.
Maria Pistolas: We weak women, unable to bear arms could only give our sighs, our tears, and
our flowers on the grave of the martyr.
Obregon: Soldatas of the Army of the Northwest do much more. They fought bravely at key
battles, and serve as the logistical backbone of the force. It’s the same for all the armies of the
Revolution. None of them could exist without the soldatas. The soldiers would not travel but
with their women.
[Obregon gives him pistol belt to Maria Pistolas, It has two pistols.]
Obregon: Maria Pistolas. Will you join me?

Maria Pistolas: Thank you, General Obregon. Yes, I will. But how many millions of Mexicans
will be dead by the time of this Revolution’s end? We are a great big family with many quarrels
and only honor can settle our disputes. It seems we all agree more than we want to admit. Who is
in charge of the family? That is what causes us to fight the hardest, is it not? One man loses and
he seeks vengeance. Another man wins and he is the victor; but only for a day, and another city
falls before him, and always the people suffer. Action causes suffering, and tragedy. We
Mexicans are not making wise decisions. We must change that. The most successful people
always take the right actions. It seems like they are very lucky; but it is simply because they are
taking the right action when faced with a choice. Instead of doing nothing, they change things. If
people choose incorrectly, they suffer. But because people make the right decisions, they are
happy in their lives. Women make good decisions, like men. Senor, there will always be wars.
You leaders of the Revolution fight for noble purposes; but now the Revolution turned on its
own people. Now must the people again act to correct things?
Obregon: You are a very wise woman, Maria Pistolas. The Revolutionary leaders are meeting
for a convention in Aquascalientes to settle their disputes. Will you join us?
Maria Pistolas: Yes.
Obregon: Come with me.
[Maria Pistolas blows out her candle. Obregon and Maria Pistolas exit. Lights fade to black.]
Act 3
Scene 3
Setting: Jail in Mexico City where Martin Guzman is being held.
Guzman: Carranza has jailed all of the young Revolutionaries in Mexico City! We do not fear
you, old man! Pancho Villa will take Mexico City for the Revolution!
[Enter Susanna Brier.]
Brier: Martin, I have the keys. I am here to free you!
Guzman: How did you get in here?
Brier: Carranza’s agents are coming any second. Hurry, we have to run.
Guzman: I want to know how you were able to get me free!
Brier: I have some contacts. I used them.
29

Guzman: Carranistas?
Brier: No.
Guzman: Then who? Tell me!
Brier: They are Diaz agents.
Guzman: What?
Brier: Yes, my family has connections to Diaz.
Guzman: But Diaz is in Spain.
Brier: Yes, exactly. Germany seeks to aide Mexico. Germany wants America distracted by
Mexico. I should not be telling you this! I am only doing this because I love you so much,
Martin! Please, please, come with me and leave Mexico. Please come back to Germany with me.
Leave the Revolution behind. Leave Mexico for me, Martin. It has become too dangerous. You
will be killed. Carranza is only moments from having all of you executed by firing squad.
Guzman: No! I will not abadon my country! Never, not even for love!
Brier: Please, do this for me. You don’t understand everything. You don’t understand how much
I love you!
Guzman: I must go to the Convention at Aquascalientes. Mexico must find a way for the parties
to agree and bring stability. That is how we shall achieve peace. Diaz will never undermine
Mexico’s government from Europe. You are a fool to follow him.
Brier: I said he was connected through my family. I am telling you the truth because I love you!
Guzman: I am going to Aquascalientes. I hope that you can come with me. If not, then stay here.
I do not care.
Brier: I’ve saved your life and freed you from prison and this is how you treat me?
Guzman: I must think of my country first.
Brier: And what about love? What about our love? You call yourself a poet!
Guzman: Goodbye, Susanna.
Brier: You will pay for this one day!
[Exit Martin Guzman. Lights fade to black.]
30

Act 3
Scene 4
Setting: The Convention at Aquascalientes. Enter Obregon.
Obregonista Captain Valdes: Long live the Army of the Northwest!
All: Long may it live!
Obregon: Thank you. I fight for the honor of Mexico.
Obregonista Captain Valdes: Long live the Victors of the West!
All: Long may they live!
Obregonista Captain Valdes: Long live the Revolution!
All: Long may it live!
Villista Martin Guzman: Long live the Division of the North!
All: Long may it live!
Villista Martin Guzman: Long live the Army of the South!
All: Long may it live!
All: Down with the First Chief!
Carranzista Revolutionary Soldier: Long live the First Chief!
All: Down with the First Chief!
Carranzista Revolutionary Soldier: Long live the First Chief!
All: Down with the First Chief!
Carranzista Revolutionary Soldier: Long live the First Chief! How dare you! We all hailed
Generals Villa and Obregon and Zapata but you cannot respect me by letting me shout support
for my First Chief!
All: Down with the First Chief!
Carranzista Revolutionary Soldier: Long live the First Chief!
31

Obregon: Leaders of the Revolution, we are gathered here at Aguascalientes to come to
agreement. Eulalio Gutierrez Ortiz is the new interim president of Mexico. Commissioners have
been sent to Villa and Carranza to try and resolve their differences.
[Enter Guzman, followed by Brier.]
Guzman: Carranza has freed all the young revolutionaries of Mexico City!
[All cheer. Diaz Soto takes the podium.]
Diaz Soto: Gentlemen, my name is Diaz Soto y Gama. A state of anarchy must exist in Mexico.
The fight must be one of alienation. Zapatistas want all the power to the land-owners. If you go
to war for your nation, then you are an idiotic fool.
Guzman: You are a Communist!
Diaz Soto: And what is wrong with Communism? Who are you?
Guzman: Martin Guzman, a Villaista!
Diaz Soto: Ah, well. General Zapata says that if ‘somebody’ tries to distribute the fruits of his
labor, he will fill him full of bullets. You must never ask, holding a hat in your hand, for justice
from the government of tyrants, but only pick up a gun.
Guzman: Then you believe in fighting for the Revolution!
Diaz Soto: Santa Anna’s blunders in the War of Reform cost us our honor! The constitution of
Juarez of 1857 is our jewel, even that of Morelos in 1814. When does it end and the rights of the
people are restored? We do not need a nation and war is for cowards!
Guzman: Mexico is the first nation to grasp the evolution of tyranny and it is Revolution! That
is our gift to the world and to all eternity! For countless centuries to come, countries will copy
Mexico’s Revolution! We were the first Revolution of the twentieth century!
Diaz Soto: Let us go the final step. Let us finish the Revolution, see it through to its final, tragic
end. Land and Liberty!
Guzman: Then we have but overthrown another government. And any nation can make that
claim, all the way back to Julius Caesar.
Diaz Soto: Caesar was such a modern man. Juarez said, “The people and the government must
respect the rights of all. Among individuals, as among nations, peace is respect for the rights of
others.”
32

Guzman: Respect! That was Juarez’s word. Overthrow Carranismo! Form a gornvernment in
Mexcio based on Juarez’s idea of respect! His real ideal! General Obregon is a good man but he
is misguided and we all agree.
Diaz Soto: Led by General Ignacio Zaragoza and 5,000 ill-equipped Zacapoaxtlas on the 5 th of
May, 1862, in the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe, in the city of Puebla, there was a historical
defeat of the great European army. Mexicans are quite capable of greatness, indeed!
Guzman: Are we capable of self-governance, sir?
Diaz Soto: Emperor Maximilian was executed, saying, “I die in a just cause. I forgive all, and
pray that all may forgive me. May my blood flow for the good of this land. Viva Mexico!” That
is our history.
Guzman: I say again, ‘Are we capable of self-governance, sir?’
Diaz Soto: We are Mexicans, sharing the harvest of our lands. The German Karl Marx wrote a
book called the Communist Manifesto. But Marx has copied Mexico. So be it! Let him copy us.
Mexico has been oppressed by tyranny.
[Diaz Soto pulls the Mexican flag.]
Guzman: This Convention will dissolve simply because it has no Pericles or Benjamin Franklin,
for that matter. And perhaps this is our fate as a nation. In that, Mexcio may be an instrument of
the future.
[Diaz Soto continues to pull the Mexican flag. Obregon rushes to the stage. Other generals
threaten to shoot Diaz Soto and he stops pulling the flag.]
Obregon: We thank you, Senor Diaz Soto y Gama. We will now see what the Americas in
Hollywood call a motion picture movie.
[There is a loud cheer quickly followed by silence. Lights fade. A slide show is shown against
the back wall. The slide projector can be heard turning slides. Obregon’s image appears as he
leaves the stage. The Revolutionary Soldier takes out a gun and fires it in the air. Chaos ensues.
Lights fade to black.]
33

34
Act 4
Scene 1
Setting: Villa and his army have marched triumphantly into Mexico City, while Zapata’s army
still lies at its southern boundary, but inside of Mexico City proper. Villa and Zapata meet. Dec.
2nd, 1914. If shown, the soldiers around Villa are his Dorados or “gilded ones” because their
uniforms have various gold trinkets on them and Zapata’s forces are very poor and likely drunk
on tequila. Zapata wears a short black jacket, lavender shirt, blue neckerchief, pant seams lined
with silver buttons, Spanish-style boots, sharp-toed and high-heeled, two gold rings, gaudilycolored
handkerchiefs that emanate from his pockets and a wide-brimmed sombrero. Villa wears
an artilleryman’s helmet, heavy brown sweater with a roll collar, khaki trousers stuffed into worn
leggings and heavy, scuffed shoes. Zapata is sitting with Diaz Soto and they stand as Villa enters
the room with Angeles and Guzman and Brier. Villa and Zapata hug in an abrazo. They sit,
Zapata to Villa’s left. Villa keeps a smile on his face. Enter Chorus Leader. All stand and sing
the National Anthem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG94Eb7CdYQ
Chorus Leader and all in attendance:
Coro:
Mexicanos, al grito de guerra
el acero aprestad y el bridón.
Y retiemble en sus centros la Tierra,
al sonoro rugir del cañón.
¡Y retiemble en sus centros la Tierra,
al sonoro rugir del cañón!
Chorus:
Mexicans, at the cry of war,
make ready the steel and the bridle,
and the earth trembles at its centers
at the resounding roar of the cannon.
and the earth trembles at its centers
at the resounding roar of the cannon!

Estrofa I:
Ciña ¡oh Patria! tus sienes de oliva
de la paz el arcángel divino,
que en el cielo tu eterno destino
por el dedo de Dios se escribió.
Mas si osare un extraño enemigo
profanar con su planta tu suelo,
piensa ¡oh Patria querida! que el cielo
un soldado en cada hijo te dio.
First Stanza:
Let gird, oh Fatherland, your brow with olive
by the divine archangel of peace,
for in heaven your eternal destiny
was written by the finger of God.
But if some enemy outlander should dare
to profane your ground with his step,
think, oh beloved Fatherland, that heaven
has given you a soldier in every son.
Estrofa V:
¡Guerra, guerra sin tregua al que intente
De la patria manchar los blasones!
¡Guerra, guerra! Los patrios pendones
En las olas de sangre empapad.
¡Guerra, guerra! En el monte, en el valle
Los cañones horrísonos truenen,
Y los ecos sonoros resuenen
Con las voces de ¡Unión! ¡Libertad!
Stanza V:
War, war without quarter to any who dare
to tarnish the coat of arms!
War, war! Let the national banners
be soaked in waves of blood.
War, war! In the mountain, in the valley,
let the cannons thunder in horrid unison
and may the sonorous echoes resound
with cries of Union! Liberty!
35

Estrofa VI:
Antes, patria, que inermes tus hijos
Bajo el yugo su cuello dobleguen,
Tus campiñas con sangre se rieguen,
Sobre sangre se estampe su pie.
Y tus templos, palacios y torres
Se derrumben con hórrido estruendo,
Y sus ruinas existan diciendo:
De mil héroes la patria aquí fue.
Stanza VI:
O, Motherland, ere your children, defenseless
bend their neck beneath the yoke,
may your fields be watered with blood,
may their foot be printed in blood.
And may your temples, palaces and towers
collapse with horrid clamor,
and may their ruins continue on, saying:
Of one thousand heroes, here the Motherland began.
Estrofa X:
¡Patria! ¡Patria! Tus hijos te juran
Exhalar en tus aras su aliento,
Si el clarín con su bélico acento
los convoca a lidiar con valor.
¡Para ti las guirnaldas de oliva!
¡Un recuerdo para ellos de gloria!
¡Un laurel para ti de victoria!
¡Un sepulcro para ellos de honor!
Stanza X:
Motherland! Motherland! your children swear to you
to breathe their last for your sake,
if the bugle with its warlike accent
persuades them to battle with courage.
For you, olive wreathes!
A memory for them of glory!
For you, a laurel of victory!
A tomb for them of honor!
36

Villa: Senor General Zapata, today I realize my dream of meeting the chief of the great
Revolution of the South. I came to meet the true man of the people.
Zapata: And now I realize the same dream regarding the Chief of the Northern Division. I
congratulate myself for meeting a man who truly knows how to fight.
Villa: I’ve been at it for twenty-two years.
Zapata: And I since the age of eighteen.
Villa: I was worried of being forgotten. I had an obligation to the Revolution. Carranza is
shameless, taking over the Revolution while I waited. But now I govern Chihuahua and with my
army I do as I see fit.
Zapata: I have said to all of you, always, this Carranza is an imbecile. My army is in Mexico
City and found that Carranza has taken all the money out of the mint, along with horses,
ammunition and treasure. He pulled up the train tracks in his flight to Vera Cruz. He was able to
get Woodrow Wilson’s Marines to leave Vera Cruz on Nov. 23 rd . Will Wilson support Carranza?
Angeles: Now is the time to strike Carranza and General Obregon. Only the winless General
Gonzalez and his army of the northeast guard them.
Villa: General Gonzales, the General Horserace.
Zapata: The General Sidewalk. He is a Bandit with a Necktie, profiting off the Revolution with
greed.
Angeles: The other chiefs are like hats, hanging on a rack. The rack is Carranza, and the best use
of our forces is not to pick off the hats one by one but to topple the rack. Then all the hats will
fall.
Zapata: General Obregon disbanded the Federals in Mexico City but left a rear guard to harasses
my Army of the South.
Villa: Now what will President Gutierrez do about things?
Zapata: And how will he view our two armies? Let’s have some cognac?
Villa: I will have water. Our army comes from the people.
Zapata: The people love the land. They still don’t believe it when you say ‘This land is yours’.
They think it is a dream.
Villa: Now they will see that it is the people who rule, and if not, I have forty thousand Mausers,
seventy-seven cannon, and sixteen million cartridges.
37

[Zapata pours two glasses of cognac, and hands one to Villa.]
Zapata: Here is to our great armies!
[Villa and Zapata drink the cognac; but Villa’s face turns red and he coughs violently.]
Villa: Wouldn’t you like a glass of water?
Zapata: No, you go ahead and drink it.
Villa: Yes, thank you.
Zapata: I must tell you a story. In Mexico City, some of my soldiers were in the street when a
large, red fire engine came rolling around a corner, ringing many bells, on its way to a large fire.
Thinking it was a tank, my soldiers fired on it and killed all the firemen!
[All laugh.]
Zapata: But my army is very respectful and we pay in silver pieces. Now tell me, General, in the
Battle of Juarez, your entire army was in the trains that took the Federals by surprise?
Villa: That’s right. It was in newspapers around the world!
Zapata: I could not move my entire army on the trains.
Villa: But that is the way to do it. It makes your army far more powerful. I took Torreon twice,
Chihuahua City, Zacatecas, and everything down to Mexico City. All of the north is mine up to
the mountains and Obregon’s Army of the Northwest. After Zacatecas, Huerta’s Federals routed.
They blew up the arsenal. My army of over 100,000 took over the city. It was chaos.
Zapata: No, my army does not move like that.
Villa: That is too bad.
Zapata: The jungle trails in my land are our railroads. What about the Convention’s demand that
you resign? What will you do about that request?
Villa: It’s better to speak with my General Zapata first.
Zapata: I only fight for the land and the people. When we have won, I will go back to farming.
What will you do, General Villa, after the Revolution is won? Will you go back to your pastures
in Chihuahua?
Villa: To handle the bulls of Tepehuanes, the horses of Tepehuanes are best.
Zapata: You are my brother.
38

Villa: You are my brother too.
Zapata: Mexico is our nation.
Villa: Mexico is our family.
Zapata: It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. But for now we endure the
hardships of war.
Villa: I have slept on the ground all my life.
Zapata: We cannot be sure the fast-changing events are finished. But Paulino Martinez takes
notes for history, and his newspaper.
Villa: Do you always wear that kind of hat?
Zapata: I never wear any kind but this.
Villa: I always used to wear that kind of hat, made of palm fiber, but for the past three years I’ve
been wearing these.
Zapata: Let us talk in private.
Villa: Yes.
Zapata: Please, everyone leave us.
Villa: Senor Guzman, please give me the paper and pencil of Senor Martinez.
Guzman: Why, certainly, General Villa.
[Guzman gets the notepad from Martinez, who is offstage, and returns.]
Here you are.
Villa: Thank you.
[All exit the room except Villa and Zapata.]
Zapata: From the Villistas, I want Guillermo Garcia Aragon. He was once a Zapatista.
Villa: But he is vice-president of the permanent commission of the Convention and named by
interim president Gutierrez as superintendent of the National Palace.
Zapata: Yes, replacing my brother, Eufemio.
39

Villa: Very well, I agree. And I want General Juan Andrew Almanzan.
Zapata: But he is, at present, my guest. I am his host, in my home. It is dishonorable to treat
one’s guests with disrespect. This is the law of man.
Villa: I understand, then.
Zapata: Will you take, instead, Paulino Martinez, the journalist who is outside?
Villa: The journalist who owns this famous pencil and paper? That is acceptable. He wrote very
critically of President Francesco Madero in “La Voz de Juarez” that is published in Cuernavaca.
Zapata: He wrote poorly of President Madero?
Villa: Don’t you read the newspapers, General Zapata?
Zapata: I read when I can.
Villa: You must read the papers carefully, my friend.
Zapata: I agree with you.
[Zapata and Villa laugh.]
Villa: But Martinez will die for writing lies!
Zapata: And drinking all of my tequila! It is almost gone!
[Zapata and Villa laugh.]
Villa: And for writing poorly of dear Francisco Madero!
Zapata: Kill the bad writer!
Villa: Tear him to pieces for bad lines!
Zapata: My brother, we must form an alliance between our two armies, as our envoys talked
about at the Convention.
Villa: The Revolution moves fast. Our alliance must be dedicated to defeating Carrancismo.
Zapata: Yes, and dedicated to the poor. But I do not have forty thousand Mausers, seventyseven
cannon, and sixteen million cartridges. We fight a guerrilla war in the jungle of the South.
Villa: I will commit to keeping you armed with fresh supplies.
40

Zapata: It is only lack of ammunition that prevents me from fighting every day.
Villa: I get much ammunition from the United States. Woodrow Wilson is my friend. Martin
Guzman travels to Washington for me and I have contacts there. But his woman I do not trust.
Zapata: Mexico should have a constitutional government and president who is a civilian.
Villa: But not Carranza.
Zapata: No, not him.
Villa: We must enter Mexico City triumphantly together, and sit together at the National Palace.
What day do you want to do that?
Zapata: December 6 th is a good day.
Villa: That is good.
Zapata: Let us call our guests back.
Villa: Yes, General Zapata.
[Zapata gets up and calls the guests back from offstage.]
Zapata: Come! We are finished.
[All enter and take up their previous positions.]
Villa: Senor Guzman, give Mr. Martinez back his famous paper and pencil back. Guard it with
your life, for many generations depend on it.
Guzman: Thank you, General Villa.
Villa: Wait a moment. I need that piece of paper with my notes on it.
Guzman: Certainly, Senor Villa, here you are.
Villa: Thank you. I have found the great journalist’s famous words. Listen! This date should be
engraved with diamonds in our history. It is the first day of the first year of the redemption of the
Mexican people. It is the dawn of their happiness because two pure men, two sincere men, men
without duplicity, men born of people, know their grief and fight for their happiness. May the
God of Nations guide you in the great roles you play in the grand undertaking destiny has
entrusted to you. The journalist changes his skin like a rattlesnake. Pancho Villa will not be
bitten.
[Lights fade to black.]
41

42
Act 4
Scene 2
Setting: January, 1915. Huerta, Orozco, and Brier meet in El Paso, Texas.
Brier: Pancho Villa is very strong. His trains run with precision. He controls the telegraph lines
throughout the entire country with discipline of death.
Huerta: Will anyone have a drink of Hennesey?
Orozco: Yes. The face off now is between Villa and Obregon.
Huerta: President Wilson will recognize Carranza’s government. Even the American
ambassador Henry Lane Wilson ordered Madero killed and our pact was signed at his embassy.
The Americans will do whatever it takes to keep the peace, if General Obregon does not defeat
Villa first. Aside from myself, there is no better general.
Orozco: But Villa has friends in Washington. It would be better for the counter-revolution to
make it difficult for Villa to be able to commicate with them.
Brier: Villa sends messages to Washington through his secretary, Martin Guzman.
Huerta: You need to sever that link, Ms. Brier. Guzman is a poet that leads many secret
Revolutionary armies in Mexico that can be activated by a few published words in one of the
journals. He must be terminated.
Brier: Yes, General Huerta.
Huerta: But wait for Obregon to finish Villa off first.
Brier: Why, General Huerta?
Huerta: Because General Villa suspects our plot and you might fail.
Brier: Captain Franz von Rintelen of Germany has promised support of our efforts, this I have
secured through my contacts with President Diaz in Spain. We must support Germany.
Huerta: I have received money and weapons from von Rintelen. I am in contact with Felix Diaz.
The counter-revolution is set to begin.
Brier: Even if Bernardo Reyes’ rebellion failed?
Huerta: It is time to leave El Paso and reenter Mexico. Come, let us begin.
[All exit.]

Act 4
Scene 3
Setting: Battle of Celaya. Apr 13 th 1915. Costumes for Villa soldiers: rope for belt, khakis,
leather slab for a shoe and sombrero. The Chorus Leader sings center stage, and then the scenes
alternate between Villa’s and Obregon’s camps.
Villa: Muchachos! Before it gets dark we will burst into Celaya in blood and fire! We are the
best cavalry in the world!
Chorus Leader:
De Los Combates De Celaya
El dia veintitres de abril
Los combates principiaron
En la ciudad de Celaya,
Los carrancistas triunfaron.
43

Un gran numero de gente
Que traiba Alvaro Obregon
Fueron los que resguardaron
Por todita la estacion.
Villa: I am exhausted from dancing all night. When will this battle start?
Angeles: Obregon has sent a large force into El Guaje Ranch.
Villa: He does not realize that we are already there. Cut him to shreds.
Chorus Leader:
Los carrancistas adentro,
Los villistas les ceyeron,
Les empiezan a hacer fuego
Y los de adentro corrieron.
Les decia Alvaro Obregon:
– Abora lo vamos a ver,
Hoy me matan o los mato
O me quitan el poder.
Obregon: Fall back, behind the barbed wire! Let Villa send in his cavalry. Fall back, now!
Chorus Leader:
Villa: Send in another wave of cavalry!
Angeles: The horses are unable to stand. The ground is too bloody and littered with dead horses
and soldiers. Obregon has trapped us in barbed wire. His machine guns are precisely placed. His
defences are excellent.
44

Chorus Leader:
Por el lado Salvatierra
Se agarraron a balazos,
Unos tirancon metralla
Y otros puros canonazos.
Por ese lado de Estrada,
El Becerro y San Juanico,
Nomas zumbaban las balas
Y hasta se lamian el pico.
Obregon: He is running low on ammunition.
Captain Valdes: Do we attack?
Obregon: Wait to see if he attacks in the morning. Then we will launch our own cavalry.
Captain Valdes: Will Villa attack again, sir?
Obregon: Of course. He is Villa.
Captain Valdes: I have counted 30 cavalry charges. They have nearly broken our line.
Obregon: The line will hold.
Captain Valdes: One charge has taken Silao. He cut the rain lines and we are surrounded.
[A cannonball blows off Obregon’s right arm.]
Obregon: Ah! My arm!
Captain Valdes: General, no!
[Obregon takes out his pistol and attempts to shoot himself in the head. His Captain Valdes
fights to prevent this. Obregon is still able to fire the weapon. The Captain Valdes has removed
the bullets and the gun does not fire.]
45

Obregon: Oh my God, the pain! Why won’t my pistol fire?!
[Obregon and the Captain Valdes struggle.]
Captain Valdes: I cleaned your pistol and I have forgotten to replace the bullets.
Obregon: Ah! You must shoot me! I order you to shoot me!
Captain Valdes: No, sir! I will not shoot you!
Obregon: Give me your pistol! Give me your pistol! Give me your pistol!
Captain Valdes: No, sir! You will not get my pistol!
Chorus Leader:
Por el lado de Apaseo
Entro el general Urbina,
Les ha quitado fortines
A tiro de carabina.
Por el lado Santa Cruz
Estaban posesionados,
Alli fue donde acabaron
Casi todos los rayados.
Villa: I can take the waiting no longer. How many weesks have we been here?
Angeles: But General Obregon is dug in with machine guns and artillery. It is better to wait and
force him to attack. Otherwise, he will rout us again, back to Irapuato.
Villa: The heat is unbearable, swarming flies. My soldiers live among lice and rats the are
devouring the corpes. Why won’t he attack in the open field? We must lure him. What kind of
fighter is General Obregon!?
Angeles: He will not abandon his defenses. We must wait.
Villa: No! We must attack! Send in my cavalry now!
46

Chorus Leader:
Les decia Alvaro Obregon:
– Vamonos a pecho a tierra,
Vamos a ver a ese Villa,
Que dicen que es la pantera.
Decia Alvaro Obregon,
En su combate en Celaya:
– Entrale, Francisco Villa,
A dirigir la campana.
Captain Valdes: Let me help you with that, sir.
Obregon: Thank you.
Captain Valdes: Again Villa comes with his cavalry.
Obregon: Yes. If it rains, we will be very lucky.
Captain Valdes: I think it is going to rain, sir.
Chorus Leader:
Llegaron las avanzadas
Desde El Guaje hasta La Venta,
Nomas se oia el tronadero
De mausser y treinta treinta.
47

Que viva Alfredo Elizondo,
Es un gran gobernador!
Que viva Joaquin Amaro,
Tambien su Estado Mayor!
Captain Valdes: Villa’s infantry is finally attacking. Look at them.
Obregon: Marvelous. They are like a golden field in the sunlight. Villa has finally quit.
Captain Valdes: There are thousands and thousands.
Obregon: A rare and beautiful sight. They will all fall.
Captain Valdes: General Obregon, you have let your beard grow out during this battle.
Chorus Leader:
Les echaron l’agua encima
Para poderles ganar,
Ahi fue donde los villistas
Ya no pudieron pasar.
En la hacienda de Sarabia
Tuvieron otro agarron,
Ahi fue donde Pancho Villa
Los correteo hasta el panteon.
Obregon: Now we will attack.
48

Chorus Leader:
Entrale, Francisco Villa,
No que eres tan afamado?
En la hacienda de Sarabia
Corriste como un venado.
Si no les corro me alcanzan,
Me tumban el pantalon
Y me llevan de la cola
Como se fuera raton.
Angeles: Our ammunition is nearly gone.
Villa: It has stopped raining. We can attack again.
Angeles: Perhaps we should retreat and regroup.
Villa: No! We have come very close to breaking his line several times.
Angeles: It gets harder each time that we lose more valuable cavalry.
Villa: Fight like a man!
Chorus Leader:
Senores, tengan presente
Lo que en Celaya paso:
Que el ejercito villista
Casi todo se acabo.
49

Obgregon decia a los yaquis:
No tengan miedo que mueran;
Muchachos, les aconsejo,
Reviviran en su tierra.
Angeles: General Obregon has launched his cavalry. They are coming.
Villa: We are finished. It is hard to believe.
Chorus Leader:
Respondio un soldado de ellos:
No es cierto, mi general,
Le escribi a un hermano muerto,
No me ha vuelto a contestar.
Todos los carabineros
Y tambien la artilleria
Peleaban toda la noche
y tambien todito el dia.
Captain Valdes: We have won, General Obregon! The Constitutionalists are dead!
Obregon: Villa is routed!
Captain Valdes: We have captured cannon and ammunition.
Obregon: Villa will hobble through the mountains to Agua Prieta and try to reconstitute his
army. He will not escape me. Now Carranza will return to Mexico City. No doubt Woodrow
Wilson will recognize Carranza. Carranza will deal with Zapata. Soon Carranza will step down
and I will become president.
Captain Valdes: The Division of the North have begun defecting to our side. Villista officers are
hiding among the common soldiers.
50

Obregon: Tell them they will have amnesty if they admit they are officers. Then execute every
one of them.
Captain Valdes: Yes, general. Congratulations on your victory, Senor Obregon.
Obregon: Thank you for not giving me your pistol and not loading mine. You did the right
thing.
Captain Valdes: Yes, general.
Chorus Leader:
Pelearon los carrancistas,
Pelearon sin compassion,
Que a tres leguas de distancia
Trascendia la corrupcion.
Alrededor de Celaya,
Estaba todo ajojado,
Donde estaban los carranzas,
Todos bien afortinados.
Chorus Leader: We are defeated, General Villa. How do we escape?
Villa: We must regroup, further north.
Chorus Leader:
Les decia Francisco Villa
Por arriba de las lomas:
– Aqui les traigo a los hombres,
No tuzas escarbalonas.
51

Y decian los carrancistas:
– Ahora de aqui no salemos,
Que si llegan los villistas
Aqui nos acabaremos.
Chorus Leader: Can you grow your army again?
Villa: I will try. Yes, I will try.
Chorus Leader:
Les decia Francisco Villa:
– Vamos pa’ fuerita ya,
A tirarnos a la orilla,
No a tirarle a la ciudad.
En la hacienda de Santa Ana,
Tres leguras lejos de Leon,
Alli fue ‘onde period el brazo
El general Obregon.
Chorus Leader: We believed that you were invincible, general. We left our families and fought
hard for the Revolution.
Villa: My magnificent army is destroyed. I have failed. So many soldiers have died. I am sorry.
There is no God in the skies.
52

Chorus Leader:
Ya con esta me despido,
Antes de que yo me vaya,
Ya les cante a mis amigos
Los combates de Celaya.
Setting: Guzman and Brier in a bar.
Guzman: Can you pour me a drink?
Act 4
Scene 4
Brier: I don’t like to pour your drinks. If we are alone, it’s okay. But when we’re in a place like
this, I would rather you pour your own drinks. I have a reputation to maintain. You can
understand that?
Guzman: That’s fine.
Brier: Do you want some wine?
Guzman: I want some whiskey.
Brier: You better make it a double. You have a long trip ahead of you.
Guzman: Do I? How do you know where I am going?
Brier: You are going to Washington. This one time I will pour your drink. Don’t make it habit.
I’ll go get your drink.
[Brier puts poison into Guzman’s drink.]
Guzman: Thank you.
Brier: That’s okay. I am not going to miss you.
Guzman: What does that mean?
Brier: It may be time to say goodbye, tonight.
53

Guzman: Goodbye, as in forever?
Brier: Yes, forever, my love.
Guzman: That is sad. I don’t know what is worse: sadness or losing love.
Brier: Losing love is awful. Sadness is a passing whim.
Guzman: I disagree with you. Sadness through suffering is the hardest thing to take, because
man is prone to mistakes. Love can always be found again. Perhaps these two things are what
make man different from woman?
Brier: You are the poet. I would have thought that you cared more about love.
Guzman: I care about love. But sadness cannot be helped, sometimes. One can always act to
save love and love lives forever even if it is not saved.
Brier: Martin, I will always love you. You have given me life and shown me love. You have
helped me to understand the meaning of love. I am grateful for that, more than you can ever
understand.
Guzman: I understand.
Brier: Do you?
Guzman: Yes. Just as the Revolution is love. And Mexico is love. We had love. I understand the
meaning of love. Do not think that you are going to explain to me the meaning of love, woman.
Brier: That is saying a lot. But I believe you, I suppose.
Guzman: It’s you who does not understand love.
Brier: How can you say that? You make it sound so cruel. This is not easy for me.
Guzman: I am sure. The Revolution will live. Even though it falters, the ideals of the Revolution
will exist in time, forever. The same people fight for Revolution, over time, and others will take
up the fight.
Brier: Revolutionaries will not fight anymore.
Guzman: Villa will fight to his end. And won’t Orozco fight?
Brier: General Orozco is dead. He was killed by Texas Rangers in Lobo, Texas. He was a good
man.
Guzman: I did not hear that he had been killed.
54

Brier: Yes. He escaped from jail. Huerta died in jail in El Paso. The Americans killed him. Do
you cheer the Americans? President Wilon has recognized Carranza and there is an embargo on
the border preventing any weapons or ammunition crossing.
Guzman: What of the counter-revolutionaries now?
Brier: Do not mock me with your sly smile! You still do not know who I am! I have many very
strong friends and you should think twice before you push me around!
Guzman: And General Obregon, moving through US soil, has defeated Villa.
Brier: I am glad for it!
Guzman: Will you have a drink too?
Brier: No. Why are you not drinking your whiskey?
Guzman: I have no time for this. I have a Revolution to fight! You do not care about the
Revolution or its ideals. You cause is dead, just like our love is dead. Leave me alone. The
Revolution will never die!
[Exit Guzman.]
Act 4
Scene 5
Setting: Villa’s ragtag army invading Columbus, New Mexico. General Fierro is on stage. Enter
Guzman and Villa. When Villa addresses the troops, he speaks the audience.
Villa: Your woman is a spy for our enemies! I should kill you!
Guzman: General Villa, I had no idea.
Villa: Yes! The ass Wilson has recognized Carranza. At Agua Prieta, the Americans put search
lights on my troops and my night assalt was a failure. The Ameircans have an embargo against
all anti-Carranista forces and weapons and ammunition deliveries have stoped. Obregon’s army
was allowed to move through Arizona and into Aguascalientes. He has won. On this day, we
Mexicans invade America! Look how Wilson fortified his border with American troops, along
Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, fearful of attack!
[Villa screams. He is overtaken with emotion; but he composes himself.]
55

What can you do for me that I can’t do myself? This is my army, I own it! And, I can create it
again! My feelings are like a tattered flag, flapping in a harsh wind or they are nothing. They are
gone. Ride to the Arizona bank and take all the money. Steal the horses and then return to
Mexico. Do not kill Americans. If they fire upon you, return fire; but do not kill needlessly.
Those are my orders. General Pershing and Patton came to Mexico to hunt me and they failed! A
50,000 peso reward is on my head! So many pesos, so little head! The great American calvary
attacked Mexican towns and the Amercian calvary was pushed back to the U.S.A. Ride! Ride for
the glory of Mexico! Ride! Ride! Ride for a second war with America! Ride! Ride!
[The Chorus Leader plays “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” and soldiers start singing the song
offstage in dimishing tones, as if they are riding away. Flashes of yellow and red and sounds of
battle. The song starts even as Villa is speaking.]
Chorus Leader:
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary
It’s a long way to Tipperary,
It’s a long way to go.
It’s a long way to Tipperary
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square!
It’s a long, long way to Tipperary,
But my heart’s right there.
56

Act 5
Scene 1
Setting: Zapata is killed by Pablo Gonzales. Enter Chorus Leader. The stage is dark. It is dusk
and outside and Zapata is at a ranch. Pablo Gonzales is offstage or in the shadows. The Chorus
Leader is center stage, playing to the audience. Zapata moves; but is uncertain. Pablo Gonzales
tracks him in the shadows but he is largely obscured.
Chorus Leader:
The sun sets on Revolution,
Lovers are dead and gone;
People return to their farms, millions dead;
Through talking and battles,
No leader came to change a nation;
What a waste it all is.
[A light shines on Zapata.]
Zapata: I can see the stars. The night is dark. What is beyond the night? My thoughts are not
clear. I fear nothing, not even death. I feel the dust in my hands, the earth, dry, sifting in my
fingers. It is the dust of my ancestors. The ancient gods live in the dirt of this land. The
worshippors of the sun, a civilization destroyed in this very place by the Spanish. But the people
live and the land must again belong to the people.
Chorus Leader:
Poets forever search for words for love,
For men and women are very different from each other,
And yet close and trying to understand
The ways of their mate.
Zapata: I lead an army but I am alone on this black night. My goals have not been met. I can see
clear enough devils in my path. I am but a man. There is nothing before me that I fear.
57

Chorus Leader:
Why has God formed lovers like this?
Might He have made things easier?
Sadly, all love must someday die, some how,
As must Revolution, with its romance, valor, heroism,
Fade into memory and the history books—
The leaders must face their tragic fates.
Zapata: The fight for land rights must never end until the Meixcan people have ownership of
their land and there is peace and justice in all of Mexico! Land and Liberty! Land and Liberty! I
cry aloud in a clear voice for all of the peoples of the earth: Land and Liberty forever! And
Revolution until all humans have owned their lands!
Chorus Leader:
And someday, if we hope enough,
The story will be told again.
Zapata: I grow tired. Mexico is my land, my country. Mexico is my home.
[A flash of light and a gunshot.]
Zapata: Mexico!
[Zapata falls, dead. Gonzales runs offstage. Lights fade to black.]
58
Act 5
Scene 2
Setting: A firing squad. General Angeles is against a wall. Enter Obregon.
Obregon: Good morning, old friend! Is it is a fine day to die?
Angeles: In a sense, a release, and one that I can take as a man.
Obregon: Would you like to call out the order?
Angeles: As you wish.

Obregon: We must die as men.
Angeles: I am not going to die, and end my life, as a prisoner to your system, there to mollify
your conscience. You might as well shoot a rat. I will die today a man. You will continue to live,
and your state of existence is open to speculation.
Obregon: It is a bit ironic that you protest your own execution.
Angeles: I am a man of honor. I do not protest! I have no fear! I live by law. Carranza’s show
trial has sentenced me to death. I left Villa’s army and retired as a farmer in Texas. The
Revolution must be fought for honor! We that fought it did as free men. The Revolution has
become civil war. That is why I abandoned Pancho Villa. Carranza has poisoned our government
with his dishonor. I hold no enmity against you, General Obregon. You are one of Mexico’s
greatest generals. You are a fool for following Carranza. You are the one who is dead today,
standing before me in the hot sun, sweating, while I am calm. The Revolution does not die
because I die, it lives forever! I die a martyr for the eternal cause of Revolution! I die a man!
How shall you die, sir?
Obregon: I have a last story for you. When a new minister from Spain arrived, Carranza honored
him with a banquet at Chapultepec. Midway through the meal, the minister discovered his watch
was missing. He looked suspiciously at me, seated on his left but I have no right arm. So he
looked to his right, and there was Candido Aguilar, Carranza’s son-in-law, but his left arm was
paralyzed. The minister shouted, ‘This is no government but a den of thieves!’ Carranza, sitting
across, produced his watch and said, ‘Take it and be quiet.’ The minister was full of new
admiration and said, ‘Senor President, this is why they call you the First Chief.’ I said, ‘You see,
here we are a little inclined to thievery but I only have one arm’.
Angeles: My feelings, to speak honest, are directed at my executioner, and my country. I do not
care what actions my country takes, because it is not my country anymore. I will feel the bullets
enter my skin, and pierce my heart, and tear my flesh, and then I will feel enlightenment and the
love of Revolucion, and I will feel the soul of Mexico, yes? The only pity I have is for a coward,
who is an officer, forced to never experience the pleasure that I act for my own nation, in dying
and yet living forever for my nation! How unfortunate you are to live your entire life, never to
have fought with General Villa or Zapata, or to have experienced the real meaning of
Revolution! I am ready to die! I accept my fate, because my fate is the fate of Mexico, the
country that I love, and my country will never cease to love me in return. There will be many
revolutions in this century, Mexico is not the first. Russia has started its revolution. Mexico has
begun the 20th century. Men like Villa and I were there. What men will end it, men such as you?
I think not! I think that Mexico will establish a standard for liberty that your paymasters—the
Americans—will not meet. No other country will match our desire for liberty with our
understanding of suffering and our desire to fight to make things better and fairer for the
common man and woman. Mark my words, sir! Mexico is correct and just! Will you shoot me
now? You will shoot me, let’s not be fooled. Do not delay my inevitable fate. Do it!
59

Obregon: Just one more story, General Angeles. Did you know that when I lost my arm, my aide
de camp, Captain Valdes, went trying to find it among the dead corpses holding out a ten peso
coin? Yes, and when one of the severed limps reached up to grab the coin, he knew it was my
lost arm! And this is the last that will be revealed for your existence.
Angeles: My death will further the cause of democracy, because great causes are enriched by the
blood of martyrs. Ready! Aim! Fire!
60
Act 5
Scene 3
Setting: Carranza flees Mexico City with Expeditionary Column of Legality. Enter Chorus
Leader. Carranza exits his Expeditionary Column of Legality. Bullets are flying around him.
Enter Obgregon.
Chorus Leader:
The leaders of the Revolution are dying,
Weakened and tragically;
They were once so full of ideals and grace,
Now they are nothing,
Can the people still act?
Obregon: 23 April, 1920. My Plan of Agua Prieta, removing Carranza from power. One, that
national sovereignty resides in the essential and original people…
Carranza: Where is my horse? He was killed yesterday. General Urquizo, loan me your horse.
We will not make it to Veracruz. I seek the reality of stable, constitutional government for
Mexico. The First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army does not chase after windmills!
Obregon: The current President of the Republic, C. Venustiano Carranza, has formed a political
party head and pursing the triumph of that party has systematically flouted one of the popular
vote, has suspended de facto individual guarantees and has repeatedly attacked against the
sovereignty of States and has undermined the organization of the Republic.

Carranza: The gold and silver bullion and the dies from the mint shall be removed from the
Expeditionary Column of Legality! Hear me! The furniture of the National Palace shall be placed
here on the desert floor with order. I shall not flee in panic! The horses shall be removed from
the box cars. I order it done! The thousands of passengers in this great column shall be made
comfortable. These many miles of trains shall be my light through the darkness! I am not fleeing
into exile like Porfirio Diaz, nor resigning like Madero. I will return to my house, either in
victory or in death. We shall march north first, through Puebla, into San Luis Potosi and
reorganize our force. A commission will be sent to the United States to obtain supplies for a new
military campaign.
Obregon: All the generals, chiefs, officers and soldiers—which support this plan—will form the
Liberal Constitutional Amry.
Carranza: The time has come to burn the legal documents and papers of the government of
Mexico. Burn them, let there be no more record of what has come before this time!
Obregon: Article Ten. As soon as this plan is adopted by most of the nation, and Mexico City is
occupied by the Liberal Constitutionalist Army, we will proceed to appoint an interim President
of the Republic, C. Adolfo de la Huerta.
Carranza: I will not be taken prisoner and I refuse safe passage to Veracruz! I do not care what
offer General Obregon has granted me! I will stand in the face of any danger. Madero may have
been the soul of Mexico but I am the heart of this great nation. The armies that clash, they do so
over my philosophies. Let us eat a good breakfast of scrambled eggs, beans, and strong coffee, or
if there is not the means to make strong coffe, then I will settle for weak coffee!
Obregon: Article Sixteen. The Liberal Constitutionalist Army is governed by the Ordinance and
General Military Law currently in force in the Republic.
[Carranza is shot dead by a bullet. Lights fade to black.]
Act 5
Scene 4
Setting: Enter Chorus Leader. Enter Pancho Villa and two men. One man carries a bag of cash
for payroll to the Doarados that work on Villa’s farm. They cross the stage slowly. Another man,
who is a vender, his face obscured by a hat, is on the other side of the stage.
First Guard: General Villa, there is a rumor that here in Parral assassins are lurking and they
have been trying to kill you.
Second Guard: It is true, General.
61

Villa: Ha! There is not a man alive that can lay a hand on Pancho Villa!
First Guard: Do you think the assassins have been sent by President Obregon?
Second Guard: Obregon has gone to much trouble to make a peace treaty with General Villa.
General Villa has a cote of white doves at Canutillo, his hacienda, and when he whistles they
land on his arms!
First Guard: Obregon is a vengeful man.
Villa: My men have turned into cowards. We have been away from the battlefield too long.
Second Guard: We only want your safety, my general.
Villa: We have lost so many men.
First Guard: General Fierro could not free himself from quicksand because his pockets were
full of gold.
Villa: Poor, ignorant Mexico. Until she has education nothing much can be done for her. I was
twenty-five before I could sign my own name. I fought for ten years so that poor men could live
like human beings, have their own land, send their children to school and have human freedom.
Second Guard: Viva Villa!
All Guards: Viva Villa!
[The vendor takes out a hankerchief and wipes his brow and then motions above him with it.
Sounds of gunshot and lights flash. The three men fall dead. The vendor runs away.]
Villa: Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
62

Act 5
Scene 5
Setting: Obregon is assassinated. Obregon speaks at a political function, held outside. An artist
named Jose de Leon Toral enters, painting a sketch of Obregon. The song El Limoncito is being
played by a mariachi band, over the house speakers.
Obregon: Mexico has undergone great change in my administration. We have implemented land
redistribution. My Minister of Education, Vasconcelos, began the mural project that has become
an artistic movement with Diego Rivera and his Dieguitos, Roberto Montenegro, Gerardo
Murillo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jose Clemente Orozco. There is fighting between certain
groups and the Chatholics. Recently, there was an incident when the socialists raised their red
and black flag on the tower of the cathedral in Morelia. The Catholic Church is the scourge of
Mexico. The Catholic Church must support the Revolution with its great amount of money now!
Priests must submit to my government and any powers or rights that they had under previous
administrations are gone. Forever! In some cases, priests have been executed, such as Father Pro,
Segura Vilchis, Juan Tirado. Let this be a lesson! We are the new Mexico! We are the
Revolutionaries! The men that I ordered executed were nothing more than militants fighting for
the Catholic Church.
[Artist shoots Obregon in the face. Lights go black.]
Act 5
Scene 6
Setting: Brier is in the same bar as in a previous scene. Enter Guzman.
Guzman: I leave you with two more lines. Here, I write them on your hand. It’s a message to
something poets know well.
Brier: You say such strange things. I don’t want to face your ancient gods. I want to face the
future. Here, let me pour you another drink of whiskey.
[Brier pours the whiskey and the same poison as in the previous scene.]
Guzman: Read it.
Brier: ‘When you get to hell, ask the devil if it is wise to cut the heart of someone who loves
you.’ Why do you write something like that for me? You are not drinking your drink. That is not
like a poet.
Guzman: I will drink in a minute.
63

Brier: I rather that you don’t drink. You are different when you drink. I guess all poets drink a
lot. But now it is okay. This is our goodbye, so drink.
Guzman: I have to sign my poem on your hand. Here.
Brier: Ow! Your cut me with your pen.
Guzman: And you cut my heart, the heart of the poet. Now curl up your hand because I want
you to carry my poem with my signature in your blood to the devil. And when you meet him,
unravel my poem for him.
Brier: Drink your whiskey, you fool. I want to end this and leave.
Guzman: End what?
Brier: End you. End our relationship. And end the Revolution! It’s dead and gone. You are not
worth my time. Oh!
Guzman: What’s the matter? Is it your stomach?
Brier: Oh, Martin, is there no mercy in this world? It hurts.
Guzman: It hurts the same way you knew I was going to Washginton with a letter from General
Villa to the State Department in Havana. If you are trying to be a spy then you are very bad at it.
What saved you this long is my love of you. And I do not love you anymore! You are nothing to
me! You are now dead! You have betrayed the Revolucion and our love! Forever! You are a
Diaz spy trying to kill me!
Brier: Oh, make it stop, Martin! What is it?
Guzman: It is a gift from the Zapatistas in the jungle and from me to you.
Brier: I am unafraid of your pain. I love you!
Guzman: I love you too. I am sorry to see you leave me. I will always love you.
Brier: The pain is awful. Help me! Why are you doing this to me?
Guzman: It is dangerous to cut the heart of a poet, you traitorous bitch.
Brier: I don’t want to die!
Guzman: Goodbye, Susanna.
64

Brier: How can I fix our love back together? Give me the antidote! If you saw that I was not
who I said I was, then why did you continue to hold on to me? Was it torture? Are you that
cruel? You fool! I may die, but it is you who are dead! I lived for love! And the Revolution never
filled my heart with love. The Revolution will die too! Even in Havana, you could not satisfy me
and the Revolution could not fill me with love! I die now, happy in my own love that is in my
soul and it will exist for all eternity!
[Brier dies. Guzman exits. Lights fade to black.]
Act 5
Scene 7
Setting: A machina a deux with the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. Enter Chorus Leader. Quetzalcoatl
wears a mask and a full costume. His voice may be a recording played loudly over a sound
system, in a deep voice with rolling thunder in the background.
Quetzalcoatl: I am Quetzalcoatl, Aztec feather-serpent God. I devour your bones, and eat your
flesh, as if I am ingesting your young children! I eat your pulsating heart and I drink your blood,
and dine on your souls like so many place names in a row at my diner table. The other Gods
sacrifice your hearts to the eternal Gods above, and I remain your advocate, humans! You cannot
know of me, you will never fathom me, for you are merely mortals. And now you have taken my
land, my people, and my country, Mexico. I chew your teeth for pastime and I gnaw on your
carcasses simply because it gives me pleasure. I devour your intestines and eat your stomachs for
fascination. I lick your tounges to stimulate my own tongue. I burn your bodies and then I relish
your death ashes. I wallow in them, for you are dead and I am living, forever! I am heaven and
hell at once, your deepest darkest night of winter and oblivion and the abyss. That is where I
live! I chop your heads off and watch your last death gasp with a flicker of happiness at eternity,
for that is all that you can give me. That is the only thing you humans provide me, that which the
universe has granted you, a simple last gasp for the end of the cosmos. For I am the universe! I
am forever! I am a god and you are nothing more than mere mortals, destined to die! I shall
never die! I live forever, until the sun never sets over this planet! I am a god!
[Lights fade to black. Curtain falls.]
65

66
Abraham Gonzales

Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama
67

68
Bernardo Reyes

Carranza
69

70
Feliz Diaz

Filepe Angeles
71

72
Francisco Leon de la Barra

General Blanquet
73

74
Gustavo Madero

Henry Lane Wilson
75

76
Martin Guzman

Obregon, Villa, Gens Pershing and Patton
77

78
Otilio Montano

Pascual Orozco
79

80
Porfirio Diaz

Gens Fierro and Villa (center)
81

82
Victoriano Huerta

Zapata
83