[2][3] Born in Lampazos de Naranjo, Nuevo León, Pablo González grew up in the town of Nadadores, Coahuila, where his parents owned a store.

In the early years of the twentieth century he worked in a foundry, on the railroad and for an oil company, in various places in northern Mexico and the southern United States.

[5] In a later interview with Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Carranza stated that "General González commanded the largest forces in the Revolution and he came out of it with the unique honor of having lost every battle in which he was engaged".

[8] He was also in charge of pacification of the Zapatista rebellion in Morelos during the fighting between Emiliano Zapata and Carranza, where he earned a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness.

[2] González's manifesto of July 19, 1916, explicitly stated that Morelos civilians, including women and children, who were perceived as supporters of Zapata, were going to be massacred (though officially counted among those who died in battle).

In his pacification campaigns, González reinstitute the practice of Victoriano Huerta and Porfirio Diaz of shipping captured peasants to Yucatán for heavy forced labor.

[9] To combat González, Zapata provided arms to individual villages, even those not directly under his control, so they could form effective self-defense units.

This policy eventually backfired on Zapata since after González left, villagers used the weapons against Zapatista foraging parties, which in turn led to numerous conflicts between the peasants and rebels.