Bob Rockwell

Riding with Villa Bob Rockwell

Bob Lockwood, a cameraman in the early days of Hollywood, takes us on a journey through northern Mexico as he films Pancho Villa. Bob is captivated by the spirit of the revolution and the passion of the Villistas but he's sickened by the wanton slaughter and the tragic waste of young lives he sees on the battlefield. He drops his camera, crosses the river, and heads back to California. On route he learns that he no longer has a wife or job to return to so he starts a new life in the small railroad town of Deming, New Mexico. His fondness and compassion for the young, bedraggled Villistas he met in Chihuahua haunts him when he meets and befriends the seven Mexican prisoners captured during and after Pancho's disastrous raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Bob tells the tragic story of Juan Sánchez, a sixteen-year-old Villista, who was forced into the battle. Juan never fired a shot yet he was captured, held, tried, and hanged for murders he never could have committed.