Exiled in Mexico City, Trotsky and his wife, Natalia, loved to picnic. It was one means of enjoying a sense of freedom, though he was guarded even them.
James T. Farrell writes, “At the picnic, Trotsky and Natalia went off to walk in the woods in opposite directions. This was undoubtedly a solace to him. He lived a guarded life of confinement with little freedom of movement. His secretaries constantly guarded him, with guns on holsters at their side. A contingent of Mexican police stood outside the Rivera home to protect him. He fretted and balked in this confinement, and he was fatalistic about the danger of his being assassinated.”
Alexander Buchman.Leon Trotsky, Diego Rivera, and Jacqueline Lambda.
Besides Farrell, among Trotsky’s picnic guests were Diego Rivera, Freda Kahlo, Andre Breton, Jacquelin Lamba. Alexander Buchman documented the picnic in 1938.
*Alexander Buchman was an American working as a bodyguard for Trotsky in Mexico City.
See James T. Farrell. “Memoir on Leon Trotsky.” An On-Line Resource Center for the Study of the International Trotskyist Movement