On September 23, 1965, a small group of campesinos, teachers, and students attacked the army base in Madera, Chihuahua. In Mexico, this attack is widely considered to be the first of the socialist armed movements of the late 1960s and‘70s, inspiring the 23rd of September League and others. Nearly all the existing literature focuses on the group’s turn to armed struggle - but is this what we should remember them for? The attack was preceded by five years of public mobilizations in support of the agrarian struggle and broader demands, involving vast numbers throughout the state, in a movement that transcended political parties and engaged in direct action. It was this broad social movement that nourished and gave birth to the armed movement; it was as innovative as Arturo Gámiz’s application of Che’s Guerra de Guerrillas to the sierra. I further argue that the armed struggle itself, which developed in the remote backlands, derived as much from a long tradition of armed self-defense endemic to the region as it did to the Cuban example. I also look at the participation of women, both voluntary and involuntary, in these events and the uses to which the assault on the base has been put in recent times.