Pascual Orozco

Pascual Orozco Vazquez (in contemporary documents, sometimes spelled "Oroszco") (28 January 1882 – 30 August 1915) was a Mexican revolutionary leader who rose up with Francisco I. Madero late 1910 to depose Porfirio Díaz. Sixteen months later he revolted against the Madero government and ultimately sided with the coup d'état that deposed Madero.

Orozco was born to a middle-class family on Santa Ines hacienda near San Isidro, Guerrero, in the state of Chihuahua. He was a businessman in mining, commercialized minerals and became wealthy from investments in mines, particularly gold.

His father was Pascual Orozco Sr. His mother was Amada Orozco y Vázquez (1852–1948). The Vázquez family were second-generation Basque immigrants. Pascual Jr. married Refugio Frías and dedicated his youth to the transport of precious metals between the mining firms of the state. This allowed him to buy his own gold mine. He was also the uncle of Maximiano Márquez Orozco, who participated in the Mexican Revolution as a colonel in the Villista Army. In the first years of the 20th century he was attracted by the ideas of the Flores Magón brothers and, in 1909 he started importing weaponry from the United States in the face of the imminent outbreak of the Mexican Revolution.

He objected to the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship, and first ran into trouble with the law when caught with anti-Díaz literature in 1906. In May 1909 Orozco and José Inés Salazar purchased weapons in the United States and took them to Mexico on behalf of the Flores Magón brothers.

When Francisco I. Madero called for an uprising against Díaz in 1910, Orozco was an enthusiastic supporter and, on 31 October of that year, was placed in command of the revolutionary forces in Guerrero municipality. He led his forces to a series of victories against Díaz loyalists, and by the end of the year most of the state was in the hands of the revolutionaries. At this point, Orozco was a hero in Chihuahua, with over 30,000 people lining the streets upon his return. Madero promoted him to colonel, and in March 1911 to brigadier general, remarkably, these promotions were earned without any kind of military knowledge or military training. On 10 May of that year Orozco and his subordinate colonel Pancho Villa seized Ciudad Juárez, which Madero made the capital of his new provisional government.

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