Comrades: from left to right, MP Antonio Villalobos, Leon Trotsky, Frida Kahlo, Jean van Heijenoort and Colonel José Escudero Andrade in 1937
In the summer of 1938 the French surrealist writer André Breton visited Mexico City. During his visit he spent much time with Leon Trotsky, then living in exile and in constant fear of assassination by Stalinists. On his return to Paris, Breton gave a glowing description of Trotsky and his small circle of followers, assistants and protectors, singling out for particular praise a man he called “Comrade Van,” who worked as both Trotsky’s secretary and his bodyguard. “Anyone who has anything to do with him,” Breton said, “is aware of his extraordinary intelligence and sensitivity and the quickness and clarity of his judgment… I hope he will pardon me for speaking about how moving his life is.” He went on to give a brief account of Comrade Van’s life, emphasising the moment when, at the age of 18, though he had been admitted to the École normale supérieure, he gave up everything and “spontaneously offered his services to Trotsky.” “At present, he is very poor,” Breton told his listeners, “because Trotsky does not have the means to give anything to his secretaries except room and board. He continues to live without having the least little thing in the way of personal possessions.” He ended by describing Comrad Van as “everything Trotsky could want in a man… here is a real man, a friend in every sense of the word.”