Frida Kahlo is considered to be one of Mexico’s greatest artists. However Kahlo is also very well known in America. She is mainly recognized for her art that speaks to viewers emotionally and physically. Frida was an artist,a communist,an accident survivor,a non-conforming woman and an educator. To this day Frida still holds all of these titles.
Frida was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon on July 6,1907. Frida was born in Mexico City,Mexico to Guillermo Kahlo and Matilde Calderón y González. She was the third born of 4 girls. Kahlo’s life started off hard. At age 6 she got a disease called polio and was bedridden for 9 months. During this time, the disease caused Frida’s right leg and foot to grow thinner than the left. Frida’s classmates called her “peg-leg Frida”. But that didn’t stop her from participating in normal activities such as soccer,swimming and wrestling. These weren’t usual sports for a girl at that time, but Frida was always encouraged to do what she loved.
In 1922,at the age of 15,Kahlo was one of the 35 females enrolled in the renowned National Preparatory School. Frida was known for her very jovial spirit. While attending this school, Frida decided to focus her studies on natural sciences so that she could attend medical school. During her time at this academy, Frida joined a group called “Cachuchas”, led by Alejandro Gómez Arias, who Frida later dated. The group would watch an artist, by the name of Diego Rivera, paint a mural in the school auditorium. One day Frida and Alejandro got in an accident on the bus, and Frida’s pelvis was broken along with several other injuries that caused caused her to spend 9 months in bed recovering. During those 9 months Frida spent her time drawing self-portraits. This was the beginning of Frida’s career as an artist.
After Frida recovered for the most part, she joined the Mexican Communist Party. Through this network she met several prominent communist figures such as Julio Antonio Mella, an exiled Cuban communist, and Diego Rivera. Frida showed Rivera her art work and he encouraged her to keep doing her art. A year after Diego and Frida met, they married. The couple moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico. Soon after moving Diego’s work took the couple to San Francisco, New York, and Detroit. In 1933 the couple went to New York on business and returned to Mexico in 1934. When they returned to Mexico , the couples marriage was hanging on by a thread. Both Diego and Frida took on private lovers even though they weren’t divorced. Frida eventually went to New York and Paris to showcase her work, and when she returned Diego requested a divorce in 1939. The couple remained friends and remarried in 1940 when they were both in San Francisco due to illness.
In Frida’s last few years, her leg was amputated due to gangre. After her leg was amputated, Frida went into depression. On July 13, 1954, at the age of 47, Frida passed away.Frida is still a very well known artist to this day. Frida is recognized as an important figure in the LGBTQ community, a feminists and a part of the Chicano community. Frida is still known and loved by many.
