Simón Berthold

Simón Berthold Chacón was born in Nacozari, Sonora, son of a German father and a Mexican mother. He emigrated to the United States. He was a member of the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM) and was second in command of the Liberal Army Division in Baja California.^{[citation needed]}

On January 29, 1911, Berthold and José María Leyva took the town of Mexicali with a group of 30 guerrillas, marking the beginning of the Magonista rebellion of 1911.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of February 1911, Berthold and Leyva informed the press that the objective of the campaign was to create an "independent socialist republic"^[1] or a cooperative commonwealth in Baja California.^[2]

In March 1911, he attacked Tecate on two occasions, but without succeeding in capturing the plaza. Berthold then marched to El Álamo, a town southwest of Tecate, which the PLM managed to capture on March 21. However, on the way back to El Álamo, Berthold was wounded in the leg by a bullet by Alberto Rodríguez (El cachora), a sniper of indigenous origin, to whom the Porfirians had supplied with a photograph of the PLM commander.^[3]

He died of his wounds on April 14, 1911, in El Álamo, Baja California.^[4]