To the French poet Robert Desnos, Mexico was facing a historical moment in which the defense of its freedom was linked to its territorial integrity. He believes it is unfair to call what is going on in Mexico nationalism, since the effort to defend the native peoples is based on a social, political, and intellectual platform that is not so much nationalistic as anti-United States. With regard to Rivera, Desnos talks briefly about his stay in Paris and emphasizes the painter’s interest (upon his return to Mexico) in native peoples, the paintings in pulquerías [agave sap saloons,] popular toys, and Mexican folklore, in general. Diego has no interest in high society or any reputation for being a modern painter he could have acquired in the United States. Instead, he prefers to put himself at the service of the native cause, and his frescoes set forth the misery of oppression, which made white people uncomfortable. This was such a problem that the students tried to destroy his work; however, the government protected him. Desnos points out other participants in the same ideological and political movement as Rivera: writers such as Salvador Novo, Xavier Villaurrutia, and Manuel Maples Arce; musicians such as the folk singer Tata Nacho and the composer Carlos Chávez; and artists such as Gerardo Murillo [Dr. Atl] and José Clemente Orozco. Finally, Desnos admits that he obtained this information the day he left Havana en route to Europe. The article omits his reasons for not going to Mexico.

In May 1928, the Surrealist poet Robert Desnos (1900–1945) published a series of articles on Mexico in the French leftist daily newspaper Le Soir. The poet writes an explanatory note to accompany the publication of this article in El Universal Ilustrado. In the note, Desnos presents a country that is strange, picturesque, and weighed down with the intolerable baggage of internal politics. The publication of the article shows how much interest Mexico provoked in Europe. The story it tells about the way Diego Rivera (1886–1957) defended his murals further highlights the exotic nature of the country. Confronted with right-wing students who wanted to destroy his murals due to the motifs that portrayed inhuman exploitation, Diego stood his ground, pistol tucked in his belt. The French writer never did visit Mexico; so he had to compensate for his lack of direct knowledge about the place. According to Luís Mario Schneider (in México y el Surrealismo) based on the secondhand information he obtained, Desnos unintentionally began to create an image of Mexico as a surrealistic country.