He was the terror of northern Mexico, a revolutionary par excellence, the man who led the last foreign incursion onto U.S. soil. And now Pancho Villa is being honored with that unique American tribute–a look-alike contest. It’s to take place in a Pilsen restaurant.
Contest organizer Jose Gonzalez is ready to greet people as they enter. Gonzalez, a short, stocky man with a wrinkled face and salt-and-pepper mustache, is clad in jeans, a poncho, and a ranchero hat similar to the one Cortez has on. Gonzalez has been organizing artistic and cultural events in Chicago for years. A colorful poster–a montage of revolutionaries, including Villa–for sale at a side table recalls one of his successes, a show of photography from the Mexican revolution held a few years ago at the Field Museum.
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“Aren’t you entering the Pancho Villa contest next door?”
“No, not really,” he says, “but I’m gonna try. Jose said he needed contestants. And if no one else enters the contest, I win a trip to Mexico.” He turns to his companion. “Do you want another tequila sunshine?”
That doesn’t stop a Tribune reporter from interviewing him. When she asks about his background, he tells her, “I am an artist and a Wobbly.”
“We were going to have a jury selection, but instead we’ve decided to have the audience choose the winner. Make your choices based on appearance, costume, sex appeal, whatever,” he says. “Think of Pancho Villa, born in 1878 and assassinated in 1923. He did not smoke, he did not drink, but he was a ladies’ man. He was a true Robin Hood who made fools of the West Point generals. Once he snuck into a foe’s stable and put the horses’ shoes on backwards.”
