11 April 2014

Leon Trotsky's Mexico City house

After the Blue House, we wandered over to the house Leon Trotsky lived in during his time in exile in Mexico City (from 1936 until his death in 1940). What an incredible little piece of history I was oblivious to! These Mexicans are so good at turning houses into museums - this place was just amazing. Like Frida's Blue House, this was preserved the way it was when Leon lived there. Kitchen, dining room, study, bedroom, even the bathroom (including a tin of Colgate toothpaste!) were all kept as they were at the time. 

Leon and his wife's bedroom. Every possible entrance to this bedroom had a thick, iron/steel door or window shutter (you can see the window shutter at top left), used in order to protect them at night while they were sleeping. Essentially they locked themselves in as if in a prison. There were bullet holes in the wall from a previous assassination attempt! 

Linocut print of Trotsky (by Frida Kahlo)

Leon's study, where he would spend up to 10 hours a day reading, writing, etc. There was a day bed here - apparently he had high blood pressure and would get awful headaches so he would use this to rest between writings. It was also the place where Leon was assassinated with an ice-pick in 1940.

No comments: