KPBS On Air
The Long Hard Hunt for Pancho Villa
by Claudia Pearce
Given that they only take an hour or so to watch, television documentaries might strike some viewers as the sort of project one slaps together in a few weeks. But that couldn't be further from the truth, says award-winning producer and longtime KPBS employee Paul Espinosa. Public television's weekly history series, The American Experience, is finally airing The Hunt for Pancho Villa on Wednesday, November 3, at 9 p.m. -- five years to the month after Espinosa first pitched the idea.
In November of 1988 Espinosa and Hector Galan (Hunt's co-producer) approached American Experience (AE) about Funding a documentary on Pancho Villa. AE was interested but turned them down. Espinosa, who over the years has produced The Lemon Grove Incident, Uneasy Neighbors, In the Shadow of the Law and 1492 Revisited, went on to other work. But he didn't give up on Villa.
"Pancho Villa is a very interesting character," Espinosa says. "If Americans know anything about the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa is the name that comes to mind. He conjures up this image of a mustachioed bandit with a sombrero and bandoleras across his chest. He also leads this very notorious raid on Columbus, New Mexico. It's considered to be the only invasion of American territory in the 20th century."
American is the operative word here. Although Villa was an important player in the Mexican Revolution, he certainly wasn't the only one, or even the main one. Espinosa picked Villa because of his notoriety on this side of the border. Hunt covers the American "Punitive Expedition" (which mostly Mexicans regard as an invading force) that President Woodrow Wilson sent to chastise Villa.
Hunt begins in 1916, when Villa's power was on the wane. He and about 600 of his guerrillas raided the border town of Columbus in what many think was a deliberate attempt to embroil the United States in the Mexican Revolution. When Villa withdrew, 19 Americans and 67 Mexicans lay dead. Outraged Americans demanded action. So Wilson, who was up for re-election and had his own "wimp factor" to combat, sent Gen. John "Blackjack" Pershing with 12,000 men and the latest in gee-whiz technology into Mexico to hunt down Villa. Pershing got more than he bargained for.
"You see certain parallels between this war and later American intervention in Third World countries, in terms of the United States not understanding the culture or the logistics of the country they're going into," says Espinosa. After AE turned down Espinosa and Galan's first Pancho Villa proposal, the duo collaborated on a different documentary, Los Mineros, that AE did air in 1991. With Los Mineros's success, AE was open to funding Villa--if the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) would co-fund it. And CPB was interested if AE was. Espinosa and Galan clinched the deal.
With most of the needed $400,000 raised, the hunt was on for the historical Villa.
"It was like a detective story," says Espinosa. "We did a long scouting trip into Mexico where we went to all the places the Punitive Expedition went to. We'd ask, 'Who's the oldest person in town? Does anybody remember Pancho Villa?' We eventually found quite a few people of that generation, some of whom were great finds, others not that great. We're talking about people in their 8Os and 90s, and so they had to have good memories."
Espinosa, 43, is well-qualified for such a mission. As an undergraduate and graduate student, he spent more than two years in Latin America doing field research. His three anthropology degrees include a Ph.D. from Stanford. Perhaps that's why his detailed answers to interview questions sound more like those of an anthropology professor than a populist producer.
Forgetfulness wasn't the only problem Espinosa and Galan encountered when talking to Villa's contemporaries. "There was one gentleman who turned 100 either the day before or the day after we interviewed him," say's Espinosa. "He had been a lieutenant in Villa's army, and he was all dressed up in his uniform. It was really hard to understand him. [He'd speak] about unfamiliar military maneuvers or use archaic Spanish. And he was really hard of hearing. Hector was practically right next to him, shouting [his questions] in his ear."
But other sources turned out to be treasure troves of anecdotes. Like Mexican historian Hector Arras, who told of a young man who was giving a field report to Villa. "The young man had to sneeze," says Arras in the film. "He reached into his back pocket for his handkerchief. And Pancho Villa took his pistol and shot him right there. His assistant asked him, 'What have you done, General?' And Villa said. 'I didn't want to take any chances.' When they looked in his hand, it was only a handkerchief."
After Espinosa and Galan had finished filming, the editing began. Their first "rough cut" was nearly 90 minutes long. They then whittled that down to the 50 minutes or so that AE allowed them. "The final show's length is so brutal on what you have to cut," says Espinosa. But cut they did, and, after 24 drafts, they had their final version.
Right now, Espinosa is in the middle of an even more brutal process, trimming his latest project--his first feature film. Based on Tomas Rivera's novel -- y no se lo trago la tierra, (...and the earth did not swallow him), the film finished location work in fall of 1992 and is currently in postproducdon. Espinosa hopes to have it in theaters next year, and on American Playhouse after the theatrical run. Tierra, which was co-produced with independent filmmaker Severo Perez, is the first feature film KPBS has ever heen involved with, and the biggest project Espinosa has ever undertaken.
And after Tierra?
Espinosa is uncharacteristically brief. "I don't know," he says. "I expect to continue to produce shows I'm interested in." He shrugs his shoulders. With the difficulties of securing funding, nothing is certain. "How that will happen," he adds reluctantly, "I'm not sure."
There is one thing public television viewers can be sure of, however. Whatever Paul Espinosa undertakes next, it will be thoughtful and well-researched. And it won't get thrown together in a few weeks.