LESSON PLAN  Pershing, Pancho, and Photographs By Keith A. Erekson and Sandra I. Enríquez, University of Texas at El Paso Standards Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS, 1998)

11th grade, US history since Reconstruction: The student understands the emergence of the United States as a world power between 1898 and 1920. The student is expected to analyze significant events such as the battle of Argonne Forest and the impact of significant individuals including John J. Pershing during World War I (§113.32.c.3.C)

Materials

• Video on “The Mexican Revolution” by the Mexican Federal Government (2010), online at http://english.bicentenario.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&Itemid=83

• Photograph of Álvaro Obregón, Pancho Villa, and John J. Pershing, Ft. Bliss, El Paso, TX, August 27, 1914, online at http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexican-revolution/pershing-villa-obregon.jpg

• The textbook in your classroom (ideally with a photograph of Pershing and/or Villa) • Graphic Organizer (below)

Procedure 1. Introduction

• The teacher may refer to local or national media reports of the centennial celebration; alternatively the teacher could introduce the Mexican government’s official website and countdown to the revolution at http://english.bicentenario.gob.mx.

• After discussion of current and/or local commemorative events, ask what the revolution was and why it should be remembered

• Explain that though the past (the Revolution) is over and gone, its impact and memories remain with us. Today students will explore different kinds of sources to find out what the revolution was and why it still matters in the twenty-first century.

2. Inquiry

• Direct students to find references in their textbook about John J. Pershing • Distribute the graphic organizer (below) and have students fill in answers for Source A. • Show the class the Mexican Federal Government’s summary of “The Mexican Revolution” and

direct students to fill in answers for Source B. Discuss the answers with the entire class. • Distribute Source C for students to analyze in groups.

3. Ideas for Discussion

• The problem of Pershing: How, if at all, does the classroom textbook treat Pershing and Villa? Why would the Mexican Government omit a reference to Villa’s raid on an American town

6/2010    

 Teaching Guide www.utep.edu/chtl 

© 2010  

(Columbus, NM) in its 2010 commemorative video? How does the friendly photograph of Pershing and Villa make the story more complicated?

• National histories and the borderlands: What happens when histories are written from only one national perspective? What difference does it make to see the Revolution as an event that occurred in the borderlands of two nations? How was the single event of the Revolution “shared” by two nations?

• Local borderland history: How is Mexico’s Revolution connected to the history of U.S. states along the Mexico border? Is it important that Pershing and Villa knew each other in El Paso?

4. Write

• Direct students to write a caption for the photograph of Pershing and Villa that will help students better understand the relationship between them and their two countries.

Photographs

From Joyce Appleby et al., The American Republic since 1877 (Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003), 449

Álvaro Obregón, Pancho Villa, and John J. Pershing, Ft. Bliss, El Paso, TX, August 27, 1914

Keith A. Erekson is an assistant professor of history at UTEP and director of UTEP’s Center for History 

Teaching & Learning. Sandra I. Enríquez is pursuing an M.A. in US/Mexico border history at UTEP. 

Name _________________________ 

 

Pershing, Pancho, and Photographs 

   Source it! What type of source is this? Do you 

trust the information in it? Why and/or why not? Read it closely! What does this source say (and show) about John J. Pershing? What does this source say (and show) about Pancho Villa? 

 Source A: Your Textbook      

   

 Source B: Video by the Mexican Government (2010)    

   

 Source C: Photograph (1914)        

   

 Write! You have just been hired by the textbook publisher who wants to include the 1914 photo of Villa and Pershing in the next edition. Write a caption for the photograph that will help students understand the relationship between them and their two countries. 

 www.utep.edu/chtl 

© 2010