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The structures destroyed in the raid were never rebuilt. Visitors who take the walking tour today will see plaques describing the buildings, homes, and lives that were formerly located on the now empty lots at the center of Columbus. |
By early 1916, rumors and reports of impending cross-border raids had become so common that commanding officers on the line took them with a grain of salt. Unfortunately for Col. Herbert Slocum, the Thirteenth Cavalry, and the people of Columbus, on 9 March such rumors became reality. Villa led 485 men across the border and into town at about 4:00 am. The ensuing conflict lasted for about six hours. Fighting in town ended just after 6:00 am, but Col. Frank Tompkins led troops into Chihuahua in pursuit of the raiders and continued in pursuit for almost four additional hours. Although the attack was a symbolic victory for Villa, it was a staggering tactical defeat. Nearly 100 villistas lost their lives with little to show for their efforts. Eighteen Americans, eight soldiers and ten civilians, were killed. |
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Despite many claims to the contrary, all people of Mexican heritage who lived in the vicinity of Columbus faced intense discrimination and hostility in the months and years following the raid. Many captured villistas were summarily executed; seven others were tried in Deming and subsequently hanged. The charred bodies of fallen villistas littered the desert just outside of town. In this photo, Virgil Williamson of the Twentieth Infantry points a gun at the head of a villista corpse while posing with other servicemen and some women from town. |
By 1917, the Mexican Government created a special consular agency for the small town of Columbus. Antonio Landin was named as consular agent. He faced the difficult task of aiding Mexican nationals who had been "deported" to Columbus from Bisbee, Arizona, in the summer of 1917. He also faced intense opposition when he raised the Mexican flag at the consulate on 16 September 1917, and then on 4 July 1918. By mid-1918, however, most Columbus townsfolk came to the realization that Mexican-heritage people formed a key part of their community. In 1919, Landin was able to reinstitute bi-national celebrations of Mexican Independence, and he created a thriving Colonia Mexicana organization in town. In 1920, he successfully led efforts to end racially restrictive housing covenants in the village. His efforts were monumental in terms of healing rifts between Mexicans and Americans that had been exacerbated by Villa's raid in the Columbus-Palomas border region.
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