Sexual revolutionary
Juan Carlos Caballero Vega said that social inequality and injustice in contemporary Mexico might justify taking up arms once more against the government.
“If that happens… if there is a necessity (for a new Revolution) I’ll be there. If God grants me life,” said Pancho Villa’s former chauffer, at celebrations making his 109th birthday. By all means, “I hope that God allows me to arrive at the centenary of the Mexican Revolution”, which begins 20 November 2010.
Caballero, born 24 June 1900 in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, joined Villas Division de la Norte at the age of 14, bringing himself to the Centaur of the North’s attention with his honesty. Asked why he wanted to join the army, young Juan Carlos said, “to meet girls.” It must have worked… he attributes his longevity to an active sex life.
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He’s been at it a long, long time now. Horny teenagers aren’t rare at any time, but a horny teenager with a car was practically unheard of in 1914. While Villa accepted Cabellero’s claim that he knew how to use a rifle, the Centaur of the North was a bit skeptical of the boy’s claims that he knew how to drive. Bemused by the kid’s moxie, arranged a driver’s test. Juan Carlos passed … and Villa, always one to make use of the talent around him, had a new staff chauffeur.
Cabellero did more than drive and cruise for girls. He had that rifle for a reason; taking part in the raid on Columbus New Mexico (16-March 1916) which he claims was retribution for being sold bad ammunition by Columbus merchants.
Photo: EFE
By late 1916, even Cabellero recognized the Villa’s revolution was a lost cause. Villa had turned on the Constitutionalists (his theoretical allies) which had turned the Revolution into a civil war by this point.. Leaving with the legitimate excuse that his mother needed him (he told Villa he’d dreamed she’d died), he was given a few gold Centarios and returned to Chihuahua to give the money to his family, and made his way north to Pennsylvania, where he found work in an auto body shop and taught gymnastics. He was long out of it by the time Villa (along with the chauffer and several others) were gunned down in the retired revolutionary’s Dodge Sedan leaving Hidalgo de Parral in June 1923.
After the Revolution, Juan Carlos returned to Mexico, settled down somewhat — married and raised six children. He outlived his first wife, and his second, a slip of a girl of 60 he met at the Monterrey Lion’s Club facility where he still lives when he was a spry 99 year old widower.
Given the old boy’s readiness to return to the battle, perhaps its just as well he – like Villa himself – has been pensioned off. He is one of the last recipients of a 1600 peso monthly stipend for Revolutionary veterans.
On his 107th birthday, he was asked about the pension. “It helps me eat, which keeps me alive. And, being alive, I can love, which is what keeps me alive.”
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