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Thursday, November 9 at 3:00 PM on Zoom
Trotsky in Tijuana (a novel)
by Dan La Botz

What if Leon Trotsky, the famous Russian Revolutionary had not been assassinated by Stalin's agent Ramón Mercader in August 1940 but had survived? In his novel Trotsky in Tijuana, writer Dan La Botz imagines that Mexican president Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, to protect Trotsky, sends him off to the then tiny town of Tijuana, "the Siberia of Mexico." There Trotsky and his wife Natalia Sedova and their staff attempt to to lead the world revolution that is their goal. What does Trotsky think of his rival Stalin? And of what happening in the Soviet Union, which he helped to create? And of World War II and the Soviet conquest of Eastern Europe. Though Natalia worries about Trotsky's mental health, the "Old Man" as he was known, who had had an affair with artist Frida Kahlo, now has an affair with a Russian Jewish comedienne Rachel Silberstein who is on tour on the West Coat. What will Natalia do? Readers of this book will learn about Joseph Stalin's life, about Ramón Mercader, the assassin, about Leon Trotsky, the indefatigable revolutionary. We meet Rachel's agent Morrie Gold, a gay Jew in love with a Black man.

The book provides sketches of Mexico's history and of the city of Tijuana. The reader will see something of the far left in the 1930s in Europe and the United States. Assassins still puruse Trotsky and others pursue Stalin. To learn more about the book and the author go to trotskyintijuana.com



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