Henry Schnautz went to Mexico City from Indiana in June 1940 to be a bodyguard for Leon Trotsky. He was there when Trotsky was killed. He stayed on as guard, chauffeur and handyman for Natalia Trotsky. The following summer he met, fell for, and began dating Esperanza Lopez Mateos. Esperanza had just published her first Traven translation, "Puente en la Selva" ("Bridge in the Jungle"). Henry wrote a letter home Aug 1941 saying she had just been paid for two books she translated for Traven from English to Spanish.

Esperanza was married to her cousin, Roberto Figueroa, and lived with Roberto and his soon to be famous film-maker brother, Gabriel Figueroa, at 1106 Coyoacan, Mexico City. Esperanza was a trained nurse. At the time Henry first meets her, she is a secretary in the Dept of Education. Henry writes to Esperanza, during one of their many arguments the first two years,"you never told me why you were married in law but not in fact". The Figueroa brothers have some kind of health challenge, which Henry describes as bone tuberculosis. Henry writes home and says that Esperanza gives them a transfusion every 3 months from her own blood. Gabriel Figueroa hints in his book "Memorias" that after an accident, a nurse was about to give him a medicine that would have killed him, and Esperanza stopped it. Effective drugs for tuberculosis were not developed until 1944.

Esperanza's birth and the identity of her parents is a mystery. Officially, her father and mother are Mariano Lopez, who died in 1915, and Elena Mateos. Her brother, Adolfo Lopez Mateos, was the President of Mexico 1958-1964. Henry Schnautz believed she was adopted. He wrote to her, trying to pull her away from her life, "just because you were adopted, does not mean you are indebted for life." Gabriel Figueroa also says she was adopted. Henry says Elena was overwhelmed when her husband died and sent Esperanza, the adopted daughter, to live with a Spaniard who owned a sugar plantation in Oaxaca. Gabriel Figueroa says Esperanza's father is Gonzalo de Murga, a Spaniard with a sugar plantation in Oaxaca. Gabriel says the mother was Murga's wife, who divorced him soon after Esperanza's birth, and left the baby girl with Murga, who gave her to Elena. Another author, Regina Santiago Nunez, a granddaughter of Murga, says that Esperanza is the daughter of Murga and Elena Mateos, born of a long affair which also gave birth to Adolfo. Nobody seems to know the year of Esperanza's birth. However a researcher in Mexico recently told me he uncovered her baptism certificate and that her birth year is 1907. He also confirms her birthday of Jan 8, which Henry noted several times. Adolfo is quoted as saying she was a year older than he. His own mysterious birth is described as either 1909 or 1910. Gabriel says he does not know how old she was. Henry Schnautz seemed to know her birthday, and in one letter said she was born in 1913, but never again mentioned her age. I accept Jan 8, 1907 as probable.

Esperanza told Henry Schnautz a different story about her parents. Prior to December 1942, Henry seems to believe that Esperanza was adopted, and does not say anything about her parents. Esperanza writes Henry a short letter in English in Nov. 1942, says the "sxxxxxn" is sick, and she needs to go to Oaxaca to nurse him. Much later in 1992, Henry writes a Traven researcher. He says, Esperanza showed him a note from Traven in English where he uses the German word for you -"sie". Henry knows German. He and Esperanza decide together, she apparently for the first time, that the "American agent" is the German Traven. In none of the later letters between Esperanza and Henry, is there ever any doubt that "the old one", almost never named, is Traven. In Henry's tiny little pocket notebook, on the same day he received the letter from Esperanza, he writes, "Esp to Oaxaca - schwein sick".

Esperanza tells Henry that Traven lives in a hut so far from civilization that it was 17 hours by horseback off the nearest railroad track in Oaxaca near the Pacific. Traven lives in Acapulco, which is in Oaxaca, but in a settled area close to railroad and highway. This is the "Traven lived in a primitive jungle hut" story that pervades the mystery he spun about himself. Murga's plantation is in Oaxaca, much further down the coast, not far from the Pacific, but much closer to the railroad than 17 hours. Of course this sounds like a lie. Because Traven was such a mysterious figure at the time, we don't know if he could have been pretending to live in a hut, or if Esperanza knew at the time his Acapulco address. He seems to have lived with a woman, but no one knows if she was his wife.

In 1992, Henry writes that Esperanza came back from that trip with the story that she was Traven's daughter. Esperanza tells Henry it's all over between them in Dec 1942. Henry writes a letter in Jan 1943, "when you found your father, I paid the price." Henry and Esperanza would remain close, seeing each other in 1946, 1947 and 1948. They would write each other often. Esperanza would never change the story that she was the daughter of Traven, and neither did Henry Schnautz ever doubt that she was his daughter.

Two years after the Trotsky assassination, Henry cannot stay in Mexico. He is not really needed at the Trotsky compound, and he is not able to work. America is at war. Esperanza is flush with new possibilities. She is the translator and business agent for the internationally famous author B. Traven. She has a Traven book with her name on the title page. Her cousin and brother-in-law Gabriel Figueroa, who lives in her house, is making movies and talking to the world's top producers and directors. Henry won't let go but Esperanza insists. She writes a letter threatening to call the police, and she copies Henry's boss at the compound. This accelerates his already planned exit in a dramatic way. Henry does not spend another night in the compound. Henry returns to America, is inducted into the Army and serves in Europe until he is discharged in 1946.

Henry returns to Mexico in 1946 to spend a week or two with Esperanza. Afterwards, Esperanza evidently tells Traven the relationship is serious. Traven writes Henry a letter. Traven claims to be Esperanza's father. Henry by this time has concluded that Traven is not a good father, and he has told him so. Traven refers to Henry as "my dear son", perhaps sarcastically tipping his hand.

Esperanza and Henry write between Mexico and New York. Esperanza goes to New York in Jan 1947, and stays a month in Henry's apartment. Later near the end of her life she writes letters lovingly remembering that visit.

In November 1947, Esperanza goes to New York, where she sees Henry, then goes on to Europe, Switzerland, Rome, Prague, Paris, then returns to New York. I believe she is probably in New York during the premiere of the movie in January 1948 of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", but there is no mention of this. Gabriel Figueroa tells a story of her raising money for the Exodus ship and receiving the gratitude of the Jewish community in Mexico, who named a school for her. This is the last time Henry and Esperanza see each other.

Esperanza injures herself. Henry always said it was a mountain climbing accident. In a letter in 1992, he said it was on Popocatepetl, a horse she was riding stumbled, she was thrown over its head, and she hurt her back on the rocks. Croves, presumably Traven, writes a letter after her death in 1951, thinks she hurt herself skiing in the company of Henry in Switzerland. Henry was not in Switzerland with her. Esperanza writes Henry a letter that says she began dying on June 23, 1948, presumably the date of her accident. Gabriel Figueroa said she hurt herself on Popo in the company of her husband Roberto. It appears that Croves has the date wrong by six months, has her in the company of the wrong man, and is on the wrong continent. But its not definitive.

The Mexican journalist Elena Poniatowska interviewed Gabriel Figueroa, his wife, and three children in 1996 for the book, "La Mirada Que Limpia". After Esperanza's accident, doctors could not determine the nature of the problem, concluded it was psychological, committed her to a sanitarium. Gabriel and Roberto forcefully remove her in time to get an operation to save her leg. After the operation, she seemed to be recovering, with difficulty. On September 16th or 17th, 1951, she shot herself. The family doctor, who had helped get her out of the sanitarium, said it was not suicide (in the Poniatowska book), shot in the back of the head. He thought it was due to her union activism.

Gabriel's son, Gabriel Jr., introduced a letter in the book, to refute the murder charge, from Esperanza, mailed and addressed to Roberto and Gabriel. The letter was signed by Esperanza. The address where it was written, 453 W. Nineteen Street, New York, was Henry Schnautz's apartment. It is not a suicide letter, but more of a last will and testament, probably written the last time she was in the apartment, January 1948, more than 3 and a half years before her death.

The subject of Esperanza's political affiliation and activism has caused some disagreement between myself and another researcher. I am just reacting to what I have. Gabriel Figueroa says Esperanza was a close friend of Vicente Lombardo Toledano, a huge figure in Mexican Marxist politics, and a sworn enemy of Trotsky. Gabriel says she transcribed his lengthy speeches, but he does not say when she did this. All the other references Figueroa makes to Esperanza's union activism come very late in life. Henry makes a note in 1942 that he has extracted a promise from Esperanza that if Mexico enters the war, she will "join the party." Henry expects this to mean the Trotskyites, but they are virtually gone with Trotsky's death. Henry Schnautz does concede (or maybe it is I that am conceding) in a letter to his sister in late 1942 when the relationship is coming apart, "she is practically a Stalinist." Before this time the letters seem to show a young idealist trying to convert his chosen girl to Marx and away from the arts, which would have taken a different turn if she were openly an associate of Toledano. It rasises the question, was Esperanza's attraction to Henry natural or was she acting on Toledano's behalf? Its clear that Henry's emotional exit from Mexico was just as emotional for Esperanza. Perhaps it was her association with Henry and the endless political arguments that was a trigger for her openly political life. Her brother is a rising political star, on the other side of the spectrum, at this time also, being named to the Senate in 1946.

Gabriel Figueroa was very close to Esperanza. Her death was the most painful episode of his life. All his life Gabriel believed that Traven's real name was Mauricio Rathenau. He learned this either from Esperanza or from Traven himself. He never doubted it, and in 1990 he finally revealed the truth. Apparently Esperanza also believed it. Henry Schnautz always believed that Esperanza was Traven's daughter.