Máximo García

When Secretario de Gobierno Antonio Gaxiola met with Villa in Torreón in March 1915 he had also discussed with Villa an issue which the state was about to launch, but it seems to have taken until September.

On 26 August 1915 in response to an urgent request Escudero told Saravia that to issue 25c and 50c notes would take time and a multiplicity of issues was divisive. He was sending $50,000 in 50c notes (these will have been Estado de Chihuahua notes, either the original dos caritas or the simpler notes that date from this time) and asked if this would be enough^{ADUR, Fondo Secretaría General de Gobierno, Sección Siglo XIX, Serie Correspondencia, Subserie Revolución, gaveta 7, nombre 25}.The next day Saravia replied that it was not, and that he could print an issue within four or five days^{ADUR, Fondo Secretaría General de Gobierno, Sección Siglo XIX, Serie Correspondencia, Subserie Revolución, gaveta 7, nombre 26}.

Máximo García was the last Villista governor, from August to October 1915. On 3 September García told Villa in Torreón that the Secretaría de Hacienda had previously authorised his government to print $150,000 in fractional currency (this will have been Carranza's authorisation) and this he would do, unless Villa ordered him otherwise. Villa gave his consent^{ADUR, Fondo Secretaría General de Gobierno, Sección Siglo XIX, Serie Correspondencia, Subserie Revolución, gaveta 7, nombre 29}.

Thus García's signature appears on a series of notes, similar to the Saravia issue, together with the Oficial Mayor L. Parra Durán (in the absence of the secretary) and Mariano Varela as Director General de Rentas.

Máximo García was born in Ciudad Lerdo, Durango. He joined the revolutionary movement with his brother and both fought against the federal forces in the Comarca Lagunera. When the Huertistas recaptured Torreón Villa, from Ciudad Juárez, ordered García to retake it. García then commanded the Brigada Madero of 400 men and took part in the capture of Zacatecas on 23 June 1914. He was fighting at Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, when Villa was decisively defeated by Obregón at Celaya in April 1915. In August 1915 Villa's forces took the city of Durango and García was appointed Governor and Military Commander. During Obregón’s presidency García returned to the army and as a general commanded forces against the Escorbarista rebellion in 1929. He was a senator for Durango from 1940 to 1946 and died in 1964.
Lorenzo Parra Durán was a newpaperman who supported the Villistas. His signature appears on these notes because, for some reason, the Secretario, Antonio Dovalí, was absent. Curiously, every year, on 15 September, the governor of Durango reenacts the Grito de Dolores (Hidalgo's call for independence) from the Palacio de Zambrano. In 1915 matters were so insecure that Máximo García was guarding the city from possible Carrancista attacks, Antonio Dovalí should have replaced him but was ill with laryngitis, and so Parra Durán stepped in. In 1930 Parra Durán, wrote his memoirs of the revolution in DurangoLorenzo Parra Durán, Cómo empezó la Revolución en Durango hace veinte años, Mérida, Yucatán, 1930.
Mariano Varela

These were also printed by M. Gómez and complement Saravia’s 50c and $1 notes. All are dated September 1915 (the 50c with the text September 1915, the others with the date 9-915) and have a range of codes. In September Garcia also declared that alongside the Chihuahua issues, notes issued by Pastor Rouaix were still of forced circulation.

The amount authorised was originally given as $100,000^{ADUR, Libro Copiador 304, Hacienda 20 May 1915 - 1 March 1916, p454} but the next day given as $150,000, in notes of 25c and 50c^{ADUR, Libro Copiador 304, Hacienda 20 May 1915 - 1 March 1916, p455}. The Ofical Mayor of the Sección de Hacienda made the following consignments to the Dirección General de Rentas

On 17 October García published details of the amounts that his government had issued through the Dirección General de Rentas between 17 September and 13 October (so not the total ever issued). These were:

and García also issued $13,800 in notes signed by Saravia, and $8,880 in 5c,10c and 20c notes of Saravia during the same period^{Periódico Oficial, Durango, Tomo XL, Núm. 12, 17 October 1915. In a undated (and certainly incomplete or inexact) note about government issues (Nota que manifiesta las cantidades emitidas por el Gobierno de Durango, en bonos de dos pesos, cincuenta y veinticinco cvos respectivamente, con los comprobantes respectivos, de las personas que intervinieron en la emisión y la que los recibió) it is recorded that the 10c and 20c cartones of Saravia were $8,880 (ADUR, Fondo Secretaria General de Gobierno (Siglo XX), Sección 6 Gobierno, Serie 6.7 Correspondencia, caja 7, nombre 57). Not only is the typed note inexact but it is also covered with other handwritten sums}.

In a undated (and certainly incomplete or inexact) note about government issues (Nota que manifiesta las cantidades emitidas por el Gobierno de Durango, en bonos de dos pesos, cincuenta y veinticinco cvos respectivamente, con los comprobantes respectivos, de las personas que intervinieron en la emisión y la que los recibió) it is recorded that the 25c Series A issue was $42,250,50c series F  $76,750 and $2 $182^{ADUR, Fondo Secretaria General de Gobierno (Siglo XX), Sección 6 Gobierno, Serie 6.7 Correspondencia, caja 7, nombre 57. Not only is the typed note inexact but it is also covered with other handwritten sums}.

To summarise

This cartoon from the humourist Xavier Gómez, commenting on the indiscrimate issue of notes, illustrates an incidence in May 1915 (not 1916) when Villistas forces under the command of his good friend, Lorenzo Parra Durán, arrested him.

The Carrancistas were back in Durango by early November.