Franz Friedrich letter - Jan 27, 1992

Jan 27, 1992

Dear Hank,


I hope you don't mind my calling you Hank, but Mr. Schnautz sounds so formal, and Amy and Bill Seril always call you Hank.

First, I want to thank you for your prompt and generous, and informative reply to my letter. The story you narrate about Esperanza Lopez Mateos , and her family, and her relation to Traven is fascinating. It reads like high drama. I was so intrigued by your account that I went right out and bought Karl Guthke's recently published biography of Traven subtitled "The Man behind the Legends." I haven't quite finished it but have read all the parts about Travens early life in Germany, and his early years in Mexico.

I can only report this: the man you write about, Esperanza's father, the man who was in Mexico before 1914, the man who returned to Germany to serve in the Navy, and who subsequently returned to Mexico after the war, is not the same man Karl Guthke is writing about. There are too many facts that don't correspond; that are in fact completely contradictory. Guthke's Traven spent his youth as an actor and writer in Germany, and almost the entire war in Munich where he was the writer and editor of a revolutionary anarchist journal "Der Ziegelbrenner"; who served in the Munich revolutionary government of 1919; was captured by 'White Guards', and was facing execution when he managed to escape. He lived underground in Germany for a couple of years, spent time in England, and arrived in Mexico (Tampico) for the first time in 1924. During this whole time in Germany he used the name Ret Marut. When he arrived in Mexico he used the name Traven, or Traven Torsvan. Only on his deathbed Guthke says did he acknowledge that he had been Ret Marut.

Consequently, there is no way this man could have been Esperanza's father. The only way I can think of that the two accounts might be reconciled is if there were in fact two men, both German, who shared a similar political outlook, who agreed to submerge their individual identities, and collaborate in their writing. In fact, although Guthke poopoos the idea of a "second man", he says that when Traven arrived in Mexico he almost immediately struck up a friendship with a German man, identified in his notebooks only as "B." What is more natural than that together they should have become "B. Traven"?

Still there are problems with this. How could two men work together for many years, say 1924 to 1940 or longer, with no one ever knowing about it. Or maybe "B" dropped out early on, so that only Traven (formerly Ret Marut) survived. But how could this Traven have said to Esperanza in the 1940's, "You're lovely, but not so beautiful as your mother."? Or perhaps "B", who in this scenario, would have been Esperanza's father, was Traven's "agent".

According to Guthke, Traven used the name "Hal Croves" after about 1940. Also according to Guthke, Traven's claim to an American background was entirely or at least largely fictitious. However, Marut was registered in Germany during the first war as an American. This was before the U.S. entered the war. And he is known to have filed for a U.S. passport with the U.S. consulate in Munich during that time. Guthke believes that Traven was almost certainly illegitimate, and probably didn't know who his father was. His mother may have been a German actress or even a German-American actress, and may have been born in the U.S. while his mother was on tour. But Guthke says he definitely grew up in Germany.

I don't want to burden you with all the theories (though well documented) that Guthke discusses. Suffice it to say that none of them correspond exactly to the account you give - which I take to be essentially Esperanza's understanding of the facts.

In the broad sweep of history the life of one man and who exactly he may have been is perhaps not important. (though others might argue that history is always the history of individuals.) Still Traven was a leading spokesman, or internationally significant spokesman, for a revolutionary anarchist viewpoint, an opponent of every form of social and economic oppression, who did, and hopefully still does, have great influence in the German-speaking world, and in Latin America. And since you knew his daughter, or the woman who believed herself to be his daughter, you perhaps have a special interest in him. - I gather from your letter that you did not know him personally except through Esperanza.

I would be happy to send you the Guthke biography if you are interested.

Again many thanks for your kind, and informative, and indeed fascinating letter.

With kindest regards,

Franz Friedrich