The Lacuna

To reassure the members of the household, Kahlo tasks Shepherd with only writing in his notebook reports for her on household events. The following chapter is a series of those reports written for Kahlo. On January 11, 1937, Communist leader Leon Trotsky (“Lev”), his wife Natalya, and his secretary Jean van Heijenoor (“Van”) arrive at the house. Trotsky has been living in exile since he was expelled by Stalin from the USSR in 1929. They have to enact many security measures to keep Lev safe because the GPU wants him assassinated, and the newspapers frequently report on how he is a “villain.” Lev is convicted of “crimes against the Soviet Union” in absentia (202). Shepherd develops an infatuation with Van, a handsome Dutchman.

On April 6, Professor John Dewey arrives to spearhead the Dewey Commission in defense of Trotsky. Shepherd assists in translating questions from Spanish to English, and he is thrilled and terrified when his translations are published in the Washington Post. While they await the committee’s verdict, Lev works on the Fourth International, an “alternative to Stalin’s Comintern” (218), to promote the international permanent revolution.

On June 12, Kahlo, Lev, Van, and Shepherd go to a Venice-like market village called Xochimilco. It is clear Kahlo and Lev are having an affair. Kahlo publicly humiliates Shepherd for his infatuation with Van, who has a wife and several mistresses. On June 14, the affair is discovered, and Lev moves out of the house for a few months, returning on September 8. On September 16, Shepherd catches Kahlo with Van. On November 7, Lev is acquitted of all charges by the Dewey Commission, and Shepherd ends his reports for Kahlo.

On April 25, 1938, Shepherd writes in his notebook that his mother died in a car crash. He reports in his entry from April 26 that Lev could not attend the Mass with him because they had to be especially cautious following the “murder” of Lev’s son Lyova in Paris that February. On August 11, Kahlo invites Shepherd to go with her to visit the ancient Aztec pyramid of Teotihuacán. On the way, Shepherd takes over driving because Kahlo is an erratic driver. They are shown around by her friend, Dr. Gamio, who has discovered a mass grave in one of the temples. While there, Shepherd tells Kahlo his dream of writing a novel about the Aztecs, but instead of making them heroic, they are ordinary, everyday people. She encourages him. Shepherd finds an ancient stone figurine of a howling man on the site, which he keeps.

On April 15, 1939, Rivera publishes an article in The New York Times explaining that he and Lev had a personal argument that led to Rivera quitting the Fourth International, even though he still respects and supports Trotsky. (The actual article is reproduced in full in The Lacuna.)

Lev and Natalya move out of the Rivera-Kahlo household following the argument with Trotsky while Kahlo is in Paris for her solo show organized by surrealist leader André Breton. Shepherd feels guilty about the rift because he was the one who left the letter Rivera wrote complaining about Lev out on the desk where Lev found it. Shepherd goes with Lev, Natalya, and Van to a house a few blocks away. There, they raise chickens and rabbits in the yard; Lev is very fond of the animals. A new guard, Alejandro, arrives. In the evenings, he goes into Shepherd’s room, and they have sex.

One day, Lev sees Shepherd working late into the night on the office typewriter. Shepherd tells Lev about his dream of writing a novel. Lev encourages him and gives him a typewriter to keep in his room.

Kahlo returns from France and tells Shepherd that Rivera wants a divorce. Van gets married to an American named Bunny. Stalin begins his purges of yeoman farmers and continues hunting Trotsky and his allies around the world. Britain joins World War II. Seva, Lev and Natalya’s teenage grandson, arrives from Paris to stay with them.

Van leaves for New York with his wife, Bunny. Before he leaves, Shepherd tries to give him a touching goodbye note expressing his “praise” of Van, but, saying he is done with Party business and not realizing the contents of the envelope are more personal, Van puts it in the trash.

Lev is invited to testify before the Dies Committee (known as the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC) about the dangers of Stalin, but the State Department revokes his visa before he can go. A Belgian man named Jacson, who seemingly fell in love with Kahlo in Paris, has been hanging around the house and driving them around. The Trotsky family, Jacson, Shepherd, and other friends go on a picnic and a drive along Cuernacava near some volcanos. They have a wonderful time.

Shepherd receives a letter from his father saying he had been ill and that he had bought a car, and he hoped for “a closer rapport” with his son (310).

On May 24, 1940, a group of men led by the Stalinist artist Alfaro Siqueiros ambush the house and attempt to assassinate Lev. Miraculously, despite gunshots and a fire, only Seva, Lev’s grandson, is injured. Afterward, the atmosphere becomes even more tense in the house, and security measures are strengthened. By June 25, Siqueiros and 30 other collaborators are arrested. The newspapers remain convinced it is a “false flag” or “simulated attack” to make Trotsky seem more sympathetic.

Sometime later, Natalya invites Jacson and his girlfriend, Sylvia, to tea. Lev avoids them by feeding the chickens in the yard because Jacson wants Lev’s opinion on his writing, which Lev finds “a tedious mess” (317). While in the yard, Shepherd asks Lev about history’s “accident” that led Stalin to become leader of the Comintern instead of himself. Lev explains that he was very sick with pneumonia when Vladimir Lenin died in 1924 of a stroke. At that time, he had been planning on going to the Caucasus on a vacation to recover. Stalin wrote, assuring Lev there would be no state funeral and to go on his vacation as planned. It was a trick to keep Lev away. Three days later, at the “large state funeral” (319), Stalin spoke and ensured his leadership position in the party.

In his journal entry from August 22, Shepherd recounts Trotsky’s assassination. On August 20, Jacson arrived with some of his writings to show Lev. When they are alone, Jacson stabbed Lev in the head. Everyone rushed in at his cries and found Lev collapsed on the floor, bleeding. Lev told his security not to kill Jacson because “There is no hope they will […] tell the truth about this. Unless. You keep that man alive” (324). Lev died in the hospital the next day. Jacson admitted that he had been a spy for years.

Shepherd writes an entry while on a train to the United States from Mexico at the end of August describing what happened after Lev’s murder. The police seized everything he owned, including his notebooks and the manuscript for his novel. Kahlo arranged for Shepherd to accompany her paintings for a show in New York on the train to get him out of the country. She gave him a suitcase, his documents, one of her paintings, and a rare book of Rivera’s that is a copy of an ancient Aztec codex that recounts their history. Shepherd decides not to keep another notebook.