Memories of Evelia Chacon Caracena: We Came to the United States in the Winter of 1919

My grandfather Jose Librado Chacon had died so his sons took over the family ranch. My uncle Jose Maria ran the family’s wet and dry mills, which ground corn and wheat to make flour. My father managed the family cattle ranch and my other uncle, Tibursio Chacon was the butcher.

Pancho Villa and fifteen or twenty of his bandits came to Camargo looking for guns and money. They naturally went to the village businesses and made their demands. There was neither at the mills; this infurated them because they were sure Jose Maria was lying to them so they killed him, and burned the mills to the ground. Then they took Jose Maria’s corps, as well as several other men they had killed and hung them in the town’s main plaza so everybody could see what would happen to them if they did not give the bandits what they wanted.

When my father Jesus and his brother Tibursio learned of Jose Maria’s murder they decided it was time to leave Mexico. My father planned to move us north to the United States because one of my grandfather’s brothers, Tio Nicolas Chacon, lived in El Paso, Texas. He had married Maria Ochoa, whose family lived in El Paso. The Ochoa’s must have been well off because Tio Nicolas never worked but he always had money. My father said that Tio Nicolas was a Soldier-of-Fortune. Tio Nicolas and Tia Maria had one child, Refugio, who was born to them when both were middle-aged.

I remember it was Tio Nicolas that met us when we finally came across the border to the United States.