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This is the old introduction. there are a few, not too many, factual errors. I first started putting material on-line in spring 2008, and this introduction was the last one before the big re-organization, which was meant to reduce duplication, and consolidate speculation, but it intentionally made the overall story harder to grasp. So its relatively accurate, probably from late 2009. I will try to re-do it, but at the moment there are other tasks at hand. The timing of Esperanza's accident was always a mystery to me. I initially thought it happened in Switzerland in late 1947, because that is what Traven said in his letter, but it must have been in Mexico in June 1948. Esperanza lived in a house that apparently belonged to her, with Gabriel and Roberto Figueroa. They were her cousins, and Roberto was her legal husband. Esperanza was a trained nurse and the Figueroa brothers apparently both had bone tuberculosis. It was a difficult disease, but in 1943 effective drugs were developed for it. |
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Late 2009 - You cannot really tell from a handful of letters what happened. Here are some preliminary theories. We have it from Traven's own typewriter that in 1946 Henry called him a psychologically disordered bastard who would never do anything for Esperanza. Trotsky dies (Henry was there the day he died, in the room seconds after, but we don't have a real good first person account). Esperanza has Henry more or less thrown out of Mexico. Traven threatens to kill Henry. Henry and Esperanza have a relationship that lasts 10 years, nearly as long as Traven and Esperanza. For Esperanza, it ended in suicide. Traven is a national hero who some people suspect did not write his own books. As Henry once told me, about another subject, if there is going to be a record, it should be straight. Henry was my personal friend. I lived across the street from him at one point, and we had many Sunday morning coffee sessions. He was a great guy, with vitality, wit and humor. He awakened in me an interest in history. He knew every period. He could tell a story and laugh as he told it as if he were there. This project took me over for awhile. Even though Trotsky is the better known historical figure, it was the Traven connection that was so fascinating. I didn't know where it would lead. It touches on the history of Russia, Germany, Mexico. It comes tantalizingly close to the great literary mystery, who was B. Traven? The letters are real, absolutely genuine. I found many where they had lain for over 50 years. Henry's family let me see many others. I have often as possible displayed them with the original envelopes, with postmarks and stamps, sometimes on stationery from Esperanza's employer. You can take it at face value. There may be only one major claim here. Traven convinced Esperanza that he was her father. Some people believe
that Traven and Esperanza convinced Henry that they were father-daughter,
but I cannot figure out why they would bother. Is Traven Esperanza's father?
It is either an astounding fact or an astounding lie. Traven wrote his
last significant book before he met Esperanza. His career was essentially
in the past, although that may not have been obvious. Esperanza was a
young woman of about 30, with a complicated home life. She told Henry
she was adopted, that Elena was not her natural mother. She was married
to her cousin, the brother of Gabriel Figueroa, the famous Mexican filmmaker.
The Figueroa brothers apparently had some health challenge. Esperanza
was a trained nurse. She lived with her cousin and husband. Esperanza
did not read German. She translated into Spanish Traven's English editions,
which had been translated from German. According to the story she told
Henry, she literally saved Traven's life in late 1942. Somehow he convinced
her she was his daughter with the story that he had been in Mexico before
World War I. Her mother, who died in 1946, either never heard of this
development, or didn't know who her father really was, or Traven was her
father. What I think is likely - What I deem unlikely - In 1992, a Traven researcher found out about Henry, and asked him what he knew. Henry wrote a letter that contained a story about Esperanza and Traven that seemed to have little in common with the known facts. It could well be that 50 years had affected his memories, but it seems that the more I dig, the more his details seem to have some basis. Henry wrote about a Spaniard in Oaxaca with a sugar plantation, a friend of Esperanza's mother, where Esperanza was sent to live. This Spaniard appears in large measure in two other accounts, one by Gabriel Figueroa, one by Regina Santiago Nunez, both written and published after Henry's letter. There is new evidence being published in Mexico, a book by Regina Santiago Nunez, that a Spaniard named Gonzalo de Murga, owner of a sugar plantation in Oaxaca, is Esperanza's father. That evidence by itself is not very strong, but Gabriel Figueroa also says this man is Esperanza's father. The two stories, and Henry's account, differ significantly yet have similarities. The Nunez book was written essentially to prove that Esperanza's brother, the president of Mexico 1958-1964, Adolfo Lopez Mateos, is the son of Gonzalo de Murga and Elena Mateos. Figueroa says Esperanza is the daughter of Murga and his first wife, an Englishwoman. Henry's story, he got from Esperanza, is that she was the daughter of Traven and an Englishwoman, who died in childbirth, and she was sent to live with Murga. Its clear there is a mystery. Possible fathers include, Mariano Lopez, Murga, and Traven. Possible mothers include Elena and an Englishwoman. Nobody seems to know what year she was born. Henry knew her birthday - Jan 8. Nunez says that Murga's wife was Belgian but born in Mexico, left Mexico and Murga with her son to Europe in 1906. Nunez says that Figueroa's account contradicts strongly her own research and family stories. Henry and Figueroa both say that Esperanza is not the natural daughter of Elena. Esperanza's parents: Henry - Traven and an Englishwoman who died in childbirth, Elena's husband, a dentist, a doctor in Henry's story, assisted at the birth and took the child on the death of the mother. Figueroa - Murga and his English wife, who divorced and gave Esperanza to Elena to raise. Nunez - Murga and Elena Henry wrote a letter to Esperanza in 1942 saying that though she was adopted, it did not make her indebted for life. In 1963, Esperanza's brother, Adolfo Lopez Mateos, the president of Mexico, named a hospital in her honor, a maternity hospital, "Hospital Materno Infantil Esperanza Lopez Mateos." It is located in Guadalajara, Jalisco, about 300 miles West North West of Mexico City. One of the big mysteries about Traven, besides his national origins, did he really write the books? Traven could mangle phrases pretending to be American, as if he did not know what he was writing, and at the same time tell a brilliant story. There is speculation that he had an American source for many of his stories. When I started this project, my wildest dream would be to find that Esperanza's real father would turn out to be the Erlebnistrager (German for source), and Traven's selection of Esperanza would be a payback to her father. However, I don't think Traven needed an Erlebnistrager. The biographer Guthke has a convincing list of stories that Marut-Traven wrote and published or tried to publish in Germany in the 1910's. The biographer Zogbaum has a credible itinerary and timeline for Traven once he arrived in Mexico. She is very convincing that he writes at a level of understanding it would be entirely possible for him to have gotten from his 3 trips to Chiapas. Traven spent a summer at university in Mexico City taking the subjects he needed. He may have spent a lot more time in libraries and reading pulp magazines than generally thought. He was as the biographer Wyatt said, a paper lion. There is always an element of doubt though, because what we know of him seems not to fit the picture of the man we get from reading the books. Traven had a storytellers mind. In 1951, when he writes Henry and talks about Esperanza's death, Traven is making up a story about Henry. (He may have later partially incorporated that into Aslan Norval, but I haven't read that so can't be sure.) There is some question about his state of mind. He might not always know the inner story is not the outer one. His books seem to be poorly written, as if he has no technique, no polish, but there comes a point where he is just telling the story. He has observations that are timeless and no one's opinion but his own. He is fearless when he denounces. And then he says something stupid, like Stanislav, don't pull my leg over the table, or Dobbs may have broken Leavenworth. Baumann thinks he detects two writers, the storyteller and the sermonizer. Traven's wife said he had a crackup in the bush, fearful imaginings, and after that he could write stories. As Ret Marut he had been a long-winded stream of conscious sermonizer. When the crackup occurred and he also became a storyteller, he became a great and original novelist. In his later years, Traven is no longer a working author. That spark is gone. He still has a knack for sitting down and writing a brilliant but ridiculous letter. He writes Henry 3 letters, one in 1946, and two after Esperanza's death in 1951. One is a decent, honorable letter, and two are classic Traven crazy. Traven acts like he does not know he is talking to the same person. Perhaps he could not remember his previous stance, that he called himself her father, or he knew he must change the story, and the only way was to pretend it never happened. Traven does not have correct information from Esperanza. Esperanza has an accident. Henry always called it a mountain climbing accident. Then she had an unfortunate operation, 3 years of pain, and finally suicide. I know very little more than that. Traven believes Henry was with her during her accident, in Switzerland, but Henry was not there, and Traven does not know where or how it happened. She never told him. In three years of "the most intense and close relationship", she never told him where or how she received the injury that led to her immobilization and suicide. Debunking - What was it about Esperanza that so attracted Traven? Its widely accepted Traven had a daughter in East Germany, but when she tried to make contact, Traven brushed her off rudely. He denied his own daughter, but claimed another man's daughter? Esperanza came from an influential family, but she felt like she could lose it all. One brother became the president of Mexico. One brother (she referred to him as her brother) became the world famous filmmaker. She became business agent for the world famous author B. Traven. Traven seems to be genuinely emotional, protective, jealous, controlling. It seems unlike him, the anarchist - who believed in freedom from all control - trusting and getting involved, getting tangled up, and taking a parental role. What did Esperanza's mother, Elena, really think of Traven? Elena died in 1946, according to Krauze - Mexico, Biography of Power. Esperanza first learned she was Traven's daughter, in December 1942. Somewhere in Gabriel Figueroa's papers or the Traven archive still held in Mexico, there is probably something that will show whether Esperanza lied to Henry, or Traven, the known liar, lied to Esperanza. Esperanza here gets a voice. She gets to come out from behind Traven. She was a woman of adventure. She climbed mountains, slept in craters and caves, translated books. There is a school and a maternity hospital named for her. Henry's path crossed two great men, Trotsky and Traven, but it was Esperanza he never forgot.
Terry Priest |