Soledad Seanez Holguin; Pancho Villa’s Widow

Soledad Seanez Holguin, 100, the formally recognized widow of Mexican revolutionary hero Pancho Villa. Over the years, several women claimed to be Villa’s widow. But the Mexican Congress gave Seanez the stamp of recognition in 1946 after confirming that the couple had married in a civil and church wedding May 1, 1919. Villa was assassinated in 1923. The revolutionary leader formed his Northern Division in 1913 in the struggle for control of Mexico after dictator Porfirio Diaz fled to Europe in 1910. After the revolution, Villa led a raid into New Mexico, which triggered the United States to mount a punitive expedition led by Gen. John J. Pershing in 1916. On July 10 in Chihuahua, Mexico, of a brain embolism.