I woke up today thinking that I haven’t seen a gringo yet on this trip, eight days in. Where are you guys? No chance for me to practice my English. It’s a peculiar and sometimes cowboy lonesome (not lonely, that would be pathetic) life on the road. It’s part of the romance that comes with this project.
I guess they are all at the beach or in San Miguel. It seems like gringos don’t explore Mexico, and I don’t see many Mexican tourists either. When I am in cities, the response I get when I tell them what I’m doing is that they don’t do it, as it’s too dangerous.
On my Parral scouting trip, I found a “Monumento a Elisa Griensen Zambrano”: a bronze woman holding a flag, surrounded by bronze school kids. I visited it at night, and it was a little spooky. Kids marching behind a flag-waving woman who looks pretty damned serious. What does it all mean?
The story is that American troops were on an appropriately named “Punitive Expedition” in Parral looking for Pancho Villa in response to Villa’s 1916 raid in Columbus, New Mexico. On April 12th 1916 28-year-old Elisa Griensen was a local studying in the U.S. and was home on vacation. The townspeople were protesting the Americans’ presence, but nobody from the government or military supported them. So Elisa sprang into action, asked the people in the plaza for help, went to the Escuela 99 (the elementary school), took the national flag, and returned. She rallied the crowd, kids included, then chased the American cavalry out of town. As with most Mexican historical tales worth telling, this one comes in several flavors; just know that this tale comes in many flavors. “I can only imagine the shit the troop leader caught back home: chased outta town by kids and a young woman.
In 2025, the city had to reinstall and bolt down three of the bronze children. It seems some of them had run away to the smelter.
Villa met his end years later when he was ambushed and killed here on July 20, 1923. The building the killers used is now the Museo Francisco Villa.
Villa was traveling through town in his Dodge when the ambushers attacked after a pumpkin seed vendor/accomplice signaled them by yelling, “Long live Villa!” Very creative. Accounts generally report seven gunmen and more than 40 rounds fired into the car. Villa was hit repeatedly—from nine to sixteen wounds depending on the source.
Villa was buried in Parral’s Panteón de Dolores, and in 1926, three years after the assassination, someone dug him up and stole his head. It has never been found. However, the rest of his remains were moved to Mexico City. Officially, they’re in the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City; however, his wife insisted on digging up the remaining bones and replacing them with someone else’s so Pancho’s bones wouldn’t be stolen.
A young woman leading school kids forced the U.S. military unit that was hunting for Villa out of town; Villa gets assassinated, and somebody stole his head, all right here in Parral. See why I like this place
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Okay, after piling on the historical drama in this town, we gotta get to the final monument of this story.
I had decided on Hotel Boutique El Viejo Mundo for my accommodations. It’s a casona over 200 years old with a well-rated restaurant and a famous tequila museum. They claim it’s Chihuahua's first boutique hotel. Sounded like my kinda place. And it was. Each room is named after a local hero, with their photo and bio. Period furniture. It’s historic, cultural, and exudes character.
The owner, Edmundo Chacón, made his money by founding a major construction company. He’s now 86 and a rabid tequila collector. My guide said 3,600 unique bottles, but he’s still collecting like mad. A tequila curator, curiously in the middle of Sotol country.
Adriana Guerrero, my personal tour leader pointed out a unique specimen. Cuervo was the first maker to package its tequila in individual bottles, and the museum had one from 1905. Cuervo’s early bottles were called damajuanas, hand-blown, round, and wrapped in agave fiber
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It was given to Chacón by former Chihuahua governor Fernando Baeza. A senior Cuervo executive traveled to Parral to confirm the bottle existed and admitted that Cuervo doesn’t have one in its own archive. She claimed it was worth 400,000 pesos, but I think that’s collector’s dream pricing. There is no well-developed collector’s marketplace like there is for bourbon. People, with the exception of Don Edmundo, drink their tequila rather than shelve it. What would be the point of just looking at it.
When I first heard about the tequila museum, I was dubious. Was it just a few hundred bottles of tequila randomly displayed around the property or an exercise in half-assery? No, it is the real deal, obviously an effort of passion. I like those types of projects
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There are bottles commemorating musicians, actors, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Teslas, cartel leaders, Bitcoin, and hundreds of other vanity projects. Bottles keep rolling in.
What will my passion be at 86? It’s got me thinking… for the next 16 years.