Benjamin argumedo biography

Gritaba Francisco Villa: ¿dónde te hallas Argumedo?
ven párate aquí adelante tú que nunca tienes miedo.

Today, looking for someone else, I happened upon Benjamin Argumedo IV — great-grandson of the famed Mexican revolutionary of the same name.

The original Argumedo has a famous corrido written about him and figured also in the classic song, Carabina 30-30, which Los Lobos covered a while back (quoted above). There was also a movie about him, starring ranchero singer Antonio Aguilar: La Persecucion y Muerte de Benjamin Argumedo.

As with most revolutionaries back then, his was a romantic and complicated history. An illiterate saddlemaker who rose to revolutionary fame by leading peasants to claim land they said was theirs, he later switched sides and supported the counter-revolution of Victoriano Huerta. When that failed, the new government of Venustiano Carranza sent troops after him, captured him in Durango, where the Lion of Coahuila and the Tiger of The Laguna, both of which were his nicknames, was shot by a firing squad in 1916.

His great-grandson owns a custom upholstery shop in Highland Park, where he puts life back into old sofas and easy chairs — something he learned from his late father, Benjamin Argumedo III, who started the business, Golden B.A.,  at another location. Golden being for the Golden Gate Bridge.

Ben – as IV is known –  opened his own shop three years ago and called it Golden B.A. IV. (Don’t know about you, but I see a resemblance to his great-grandfather.)

Ben’s father moved the family here in the 1950s, he told me, probably looking for a better life than they were going to find in Coahuila. They landed in  Highland Park (a neighborhood in northeast LA) in the late 1950s, when it was mostly populated by Italians and Jews. “We were the only Hispanic family around,” he told m

Benjamín Argumedo Hernández (San Buenaventura, 31 marzo1874 – Durango, 1º marzo1916) è stato un generalemessicano.

Argumedo inizialmente appoggiò Francisco Madero agli albori della rivoluzione messicana ma nel 1912 si ribellò al presidente e appoggiò il colpo di Stato di Victoriano Huerta. Era chiamato il Leone della Laguna. È considerato l'avversario più testardo di Pancho Villa per i sanguinosi combattimenti che si svolsero tra i loro eserciti nel Durango e Coahuila.

Sebbene non sia uno dei volti più noti, Argumedo fu uno dei leader più carismatici della rivoluzione messicana. Anche se spesso cambiava schieramento e l'opportunismo non gli era certo estraneo, era sempre popolare tra le sue truppe, di cui condivideva sempre le difficoltà. Di lui si disse che non avesse mai mostrato paura.

Biografia

Inizi

Benjamín Argumedo nacque a San Buenaventura, Coahuila, il 31 marzo del 1874, come terzo degli otto figli di Don Albino Argumedo e Donna Tiburcia Hernández. Fu battezzato l'8 maggio a Matamoros, Coahuila.

Poco si sa dei suoi primi anni. Lavorò come sarto e sellaio e, come molti in quella regione (Comarca Lagunera), non possedeva terre. Non si sa con certezza se Argumedo partecipò ad attività prerivoluzionarie. Tuttavia, il popolo di Matamoros simpatizzò sempre con le idee di Francisco Madero e ivi era la sede de "La Lucha", giornale di orientamento maderista. Inoltre, uno dei luoghi in cui si scatenò maggiore violenza, dopo la crisi del 1907, fu la Hacienda de Santa Teresa, dove Argumedo lavorava come sellaio. Probabilmente egli partecipò a questi disordini, poiché poco dopo si sarebbe unito alla rivoluzione del 1910 agli ordini di Sixto Ugalde e più tardi di Enrique Adame Macías, con cui prese Matamoros il 9 febbraio 1911. Si dice anche che Argumedo fu a capo delle guerriglie a Glita e Matamoros.

Maderismo

Tra apri

Jimena Lara Estrada

On September 15, 2010, a crowd of more than 30,000 people assembled in the Zócalo, Mexico City's vast central plaza, to participate in the traditional Grito, an event that marks the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810; every year, people gather to watch the president reenact the call to arms that mobilized the lower classes against Spain. To mark both the bicentennial anniversary of the independence and the centennial of the Mexican Revolution (1910)—which brought about profound political, agrarian, and social changes—the government, led by President Felipe Calderón, organized a massive event, investing 52 million dollars in the celebrations (Ballinas 2010). The crowd watched and cheered as a white male torso was slowly paraded down the emblematic Paseo de la Reforma. The feet, legs, arms, and head followed at a short distance, rolling toward the Zócalo, where they were laid down in front of the audience. The body parts, made of hollow plastic, formed a 70-foot figure of shining white faux-marble—christened El Coloso (The Colossus)—clad in the uniform of a revolutionary soldier. As a closing act, accompanied by a spectacular musical score and elaborate lighting, a crew of construction workers supposedly representing Mexico's working class, assisted by a giant crane, lifted the pieces from the plaza and assembled then in situ on an empty platform. The audience watched the statue rise: first, to an awkward sitting position, then to be suspended in the air while the workers put together its lower half, and, finally, to stand on its own feet. The next morning, the statue was disassembled and discreetly stored in the back lot of a government building.

Who was that man? In 100 years of continuous tradition, the Grito had never included a physical representation such as El Coloso. For the first time, an

Benjamín Argumedo Hernández (1874–1916) was a Mexican Brigadier General. He participated in the anti-reelectionist side at the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, but in 1912 he joined the opposition against Francisco I. Madero and supported the coup d'état of Victoriano Huerta. Also known as the Lion of the Lagoon. He is considered the most tenacious adversary of Francisco Villa in the bloody battles that were carried out for the lands of Durango and Coahuila, because it was said of him that he was never afraid. During the first captured of Torreon that occurred between May 13 and 15 of 1911, Argumedo gave the order to "kill all Chinese", after which they were massacred 303 residing Chinese and Japanese in the city, who were falsely accused of having shot against the Maderista hosts that Argumedo commanded together with Sixto Ugalde, Jesús Agustín Castro and Epitacio Rea, among others.

Early years

Argumedo was born in San Buenaventura, Coahuila on 31 March 1874, being the third of eight children of Don Albino and Dona Argumedo Tiburcia Hernandez; He was baptized on May 8 in Matamoros, Coahuila. Initially, he was a Tailor and saddler and like many in that region, owned no land. It is not known with certainty if Benjamín Argumedo participated in pre-revolutionary activities. However, the people of Matamoros always sympathized with the ideals of Francisco I. Madero and published La Lucha, a newspaper with a Maderista affiliation. In addition, one of the places where the greatest violence was unleashed, after the crisis of 1907 was at the Hacienda de Santa Teresa, where Argumedo worked as a saddler. Argumedo likely participated in these disorders, since shortly after he would join the struggle of 1910, under the command of Sixto Ugalde, and later, of Enrique Adame Macías, with whom he took Matamoros on February 9, 1911. It is also said that Argumedo was at the head of the Gilita and Matamoros guerrillas.

Maderista Rev