The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

13.07.2015 Views
The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya 28As the sky began to grow lighter in preparation for the coming day, the Villistas began towithdraw south towards the border. Jose was glad to see them go, and he and the other troopers keptfiring at them as best they could for as long as they could. Eventually there was no more that bulletscould do, though, and Jose started walking back to his barracks. He thought about taking El Flaco backto the armory, but then decided that perhaps he should keep it handy in case the Villistas returned toburn more things.Jose passed by the back door of the mess hall on his way back to the barracks. The body of theVillista shot by the cook was still lying in the sand. Over the Villista's shoulders and ruined stump of ahead a towel had been placed. The cook himself was sitting in the doorway off of the kitchen, smokinga cigarette, as Jose passed by. Once again the cook had no words, but only nodded at Jose. To Jose, thecook's eyes seemed like blanks, empty and expressionless. Jose thought what a terrible thing it must beto be a cook in the army, to make one's eyes so blank. The cook flicked his cigarette into the sand, gotup and reentered the kitchen, and pulled the door closed with a thump.Jose expected to hear Grayley start giggling in his mind. Instead, he heard the rising and fallinghum of voices, and as he turned the corner of his barracks building Jose found the other soldiers in histroop mustering in formation. There was talk of war with Mexico, talk of how many prisoners hadbeen taken, talk of how many soldiers and civilians and Villistas had been killed in the battle. It was alot of talk, and Jose was not sure how much of it to believe. The corporal that conducted most of Jose'straining came over and told Jose that with his return, the only soldier from their platoon that had beenkilled or injured was Grayley. Jose did not offer his opinion to the corporal about the chances ofanyone else having been hurt, given that the entire platoon was more or less passed out for most of thebattle. The corporal would not have been interested in Jose's opinion.With all of its troopers accounted for, Jose's platoon now set out on the final mission of thebattle: To collect the Villista dead. Jose knew where two were right around the barracks, of course,

The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya 29and the Villistas were quickly searched and then loaded into a wagon for their final ride. From thecamp the platoon worked its way south, gathering the bodies of the Villistas who had fallen eitherduring the initial stages of the attack or else during their retreat. Jose was glad that his platoon was notdetailed to get the bodies from Columbus itself. Several of the Villistas there would have died as aresult of his pulling the trigger, and he was not sure if those particular bodies would have had eyes thatstared at him accusingly as the bodies were loaded into the wagon.When the wagon was filled it was taken out into the middle of nowhere, guided during the dayby a pillar of smoke. At its destination the Villista bodies were removed from the wagon and tossedonto a pyre. Drums of kerosene had been brought out, and here and there a bucketful was being used tokeep the fire burning hotly. Around the fire, some of the soldiers were working with tears in their eyes.Most wore an expression of grim seriousness and determination. Here and there a man would vomit.Here and there a man would laugh.Jose was surprised by the number of Villista dead that the wagons were bringing in; it was amuch higher number than he might have guessed. As each body hit the fire it dislodged embers andash, and caused a puff of smoke to momentarily eddy upwards independently through the largercolumn of smoke. It reminded Jose of the way that he had seen the spirits of the fallen at Agua Prietaleaving their bodies, and it reminded him that by now these bodies were just discarded packaging.Nonetheless, just to be on the safe side in case any of their spirits were still lingering close by, Josehandled the bodies as respectfully as he could and gave each one its own personal farewell in Spanish:May the winds blow south. That way your ashes will return to Mexico.Events in the next week unfolded more quickly than Jose could ever have imagined. TheAmericans were not going to let Villa's raid on Columbus go unpunished. The Army was going intoMexico after Villa, and soldiers and equipment began to arrive in Camp Furlong almost immediately.

Page 5 and 6: The Long and Storied Life of Jose M











Page 27: The Long and Storied Life of Jose M









































Page 111: The Long and Storied Life of Jose M

jose

montoya

eudora

storied

catrina

rifle

grayley

villista

agua

continued

The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya ... View more The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

Delete template?

Save as template ?

The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya