In the mountainous region of Chihuahua, "the outstanding leader in 1910-11 was Pascual Orozco, a tall, powerful, taciturn young man." He quickly rose to prominence once he had been recruited by Abraham González to the cause of Francisco I. Madero. Orozco was not so much a hard-line opponent of Porfirio Díaz, but rather the local strong man Joaquín Chávez, a client of the major power holder in Chihuahua, the Creel-Terrazas Family. One of his first actions after an early battle was to ransack Chávez's house.