Julio Cárdenas

Who is Julio Cárdenas?

Julio Cárdenas was a captain in Pancho Villa's Villista military organization. He was second-in-command to Villa and the head of his personal bodyguard. The Battle of Columbus, New Mexico, in which 18 Americans were killed, sparked the campaign, led by General John J. Pershing, to eradicate Villa's organization.

One of Pershing's aides-de-camp was Lt. George S. Patton, who had been searching haciendas of known Villa leaders while on a foraging expedition to obtain corn for horses. Cárdenas and two other men where found during a carefully planned search of the San Miguelito Ranchero, after Patton arrived in three cars with ten additional American troopers and two civilian guides. Cárdenas and his two men fled on horseback, were cut off, and then opened fire on the Americans, resulting in a small firefight between the two groups. In the skirmish, Lt. Patton was popularly said to have personally shot Cárdenas with his six-gun. Patton then put a notch in his gun and strapped Cárdenas to the hood of his car. He later took Cárdenas's spurs as a souvenir. These spurs are now in the Museum of WWII, all that remains of Cárdenas' legacy.