Sophie Treadwell and the Centaur of the North :: Sophie Treadwell Essays

Sophie Treadwell and the Centaur of the North In August 1921, an extraordinary meeting took place between two very different people which would result in a brief and unlikely friendship. For four days at an isolated and picturesque ranch called Canutillo near Rosario in northern Mexico, the infamous Mexican revolutionary leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa played host to an intrepid American newspaper correspondent and playwright named Sophie Treadwell. The resulting article that ran on the front page of the New York Tribune on Sunday, August 28, 1921 entitled "A Visit to Villa, A Bad Man Not So Bad" earned Treadwell international notoriety. Recognized for her expertise on the people and politics of Mexico, she would go on to write a series of articles on the topic of Mexican affairs. At that time Mexico was still reeling from a bloody Revolution that saw the ousting of the progressive but tyrannical regime of Porfirio Diaz and three more successive regimes. Treadwell's sympathetic treatment of Mexican affairs allowed her to access people and information that were unavailable to most. As a result, Sophie Treadwell brought to her readership enhanced understanding of important people and events in Mexico; most notably that of Francisco Villa. That an American woman received so much respect and was able to accomplish so much in a country which at the time was generally resentful of Americans as well as totally male dominated attests to the ambitiousness and cultural sensitivity of this noteworthy writer of fact and fiction. Born October 3, 1885 in Stockton California, Sophie Anita Treadwell's ancestry was a mixture of Mexican, English, German, and Scot. The daughter of a judge, she described herself as "a Californian, a mixture of the old 49er and the original Mexican"(Wynn 1). Her family life was marred by the marked absence of her father, of whom she said; "The first thing I remember of my father is that he wasn't there" (Wynn 4). Despite this, it was her father, a theater fan, who introduced Sophie to the theater. Though she would until very recently remain an under-appreciated and unknown playwright, the theater was to become the main focus of her endeavor for much of her life. Upon her graduation from high school in 1901, Treadwell intended to pursue a career in stage acting.