to study history in general, and why this history in particular? About Villa, for example?”
“Well, Natalie, that’s an important question to end our discussion with. I think the broad answer is that we study history to study how people and societies work, but even more importantly, how they change. History, in a way, is a laboratory of facts, what actually happened to determine our present, and these happenings are complex, with no easy answers, and a lot of missed opportunities. This particular history we are studying in a way explains Mexico and the government formed after 1917. For example, if Villa had appreciated Obregón’s defensive postures at Celaya early, if El General had used his cavalry to outmaneuver Obregón, instead of the frontal attacks that so decimated the División del Norte…if Villa had used reserve forces to counteract Obregón’s maneuvers during the second battle in April of 1915… or if Villa had retreated to engage Obregón at a more favorable spot, where the Constitutionalists would not be so defensively entrenched… the course of the Revolution would have been different. Would Villa have eventually defeated the Constitutionalists if he had avoided the disasters of Celaya? Maybe, maybe not. But if he had avoided Celaya by adapting to and learning from the modern warfare of Obregón, then Mexico could be very different today. Perhaps a country implementing more of the Revolution, rather than paying only lip-service to it.” Carlos was in full lecture mode for a few seconds, as his over-subscribed seminar of twenty-two students listened attentively. He rarely turned away any junior or senior who wanted to take his seminar, and lately even his lecture course on Latin American social movements had been packed. The chairman of his department had just asked him if he wanted to be Director of Undergraduate Studies for the next three years.
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