Frida Kahlo, 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: The History Chicks – Frida Kahlo, 2025 (September 24, 2025)

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Overview

This episode of The History Chicks revisits the multifaceted life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Originally researched and recorded in 2013 (Episode 42), hosts Beckett and Susan provide an in-depth, witty, and empathetic exploration of Kahlo’s family history, artistic development, tumultuous personal life, and enduring legacy. The episode blends historical context, pop culture, and personal reflections, guiding listeners through Frida’s struggles with physical pain, complex relationships, and her iconic self-expression.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dropping Frida into Historical Context

• Born July 6, 1907, not 1910 as sometimes claimed. As Beckett notes:
  “143 paintings, 41 years of pain. 32 surgeries, 28 corsets, a ribbon around a bomb, and one eyebrow.” (01:50)
• Her mixed German-Mexican heritage is contextually linked to both Oktoberfest and Hispanic Heritage Month (00:07–01:42).

2. Family Background and Early Life

• Frida’s father, Wilhelm (Guillermo) Kahlo, a German immigrant and photographer, suffered from epilepsy after a childhood injury.
• The hosts draw parallels between Wilhelm’s life, his artistic temperament, and Frida’s later focus on self-portraiture:
  “He painted what he saw on the outside and I painted what I saw in my head.” (12:41)
• Early indications of resilience: Survived polio at age six, leading to a shortened leg and childhood ostracization (10:46–11:32).
• Her relationship with her mother Matilda was complex and rooted in expectations for domestic skills.

3. Passion for Academia and Mischief

• Frida attended National Preparatory School, one of only 35 girls among 2,000 students, planning to be a doctor. She broke societal norms and joined a rebellious, intellectual group—the Cachuchas (13:49–15:45).
• First encounters Diego Rivera, at this stage a middle-aged muralist, often targeted by Frida’s mischief (15:49–16:47).
• Teenage love with Alejandro Arias, capturing her rebellious and romantic side.

4. The Defining Accident

• At 18, Frida narrowly survives a catastrophic bus–streetcar collision:
  “She was covered in blood and gold powder... as if in one of her own paintings later, completely naked, covered in blood and gold powder, and everyone is screaming, la Bellarina.” (22:26)
• The graphic details of her injuries—multiple fractures, a metal rod through her pelvis—mark the beginning of her lifelong pain (22:47–24:05).
• Painting begins during her convalescence, inspired in part by the mirror positioned above her bed.

5. Emergence as an Artist

• Frida’s earliest self-portraits arose from boredom and longing during immobility:
  “So there were always two Fridas.” (26:15)
• Her inward focus and unique perspective emerge directly from her isolation and trauma.
• Art becomes her voice, channeling pain, identity, and her environment.

6. Love, Art, and Turbulence: Diego Rivera

• Frida boldly approaches Diego Rivera with her work, demanding honest critique (30:15–31:13).
• Their relationship brims with passion, infidelity, and mutual artistic inspiration.
  “I suffered two great accidents in my life. One of which, a streetcar knocked me down. And the other accident is Diego.” (36:44)
• Frida develops her iconic Tehuana look—a symbol of nationalism and personal branding.

7. Travel, Tragedy, and Artistic Growth in the U.S.

• The couple’s nomadic life supporting Diego’s mural commissions across the U.S.:
  • San Francisco, New York (“She called it Gringoland”), Detroit (43:09–46:41).
• Frida’s miscarriage in Detroit and the resulting paintings, “Henry Ford Hospital” and “Frida and the Abortion,” are discussed as raw, disturbing expressions of loss:
  • “She demanded a medical book… very surreal and very disturbing.” (46:57–47:41)

8. Return to Mexico and Marital Strains

• The return to Mexico sparks further tumult, including Diego’s affair with Frida’s younger sister, Christina—a profound betrayal affecting her identity and appearance:
  • “He cheated on her with her younger sister and told her it was her fault…” (49:27–50:37)
• Frida and Diego engage in affairs; gender, double standards, and political activism intermingle in their open marriage.

9. Artistic Recognition and International Acclaim

• Frida’s first significant sales and exhibitions (54:05–54:59).
• The infamous Dorothy Hale painting:
  • “She paints a picture of her jumping from the building and landing on that car. This is to give to the mother.” (55:14–55:25)
• Travels to Paris; surrealist André Breton calls her work “a ribbon around a bomb.” (58:49)
• Becomes the first 20th-century Mexican artist in the Louvre.

10. Later Years: Pain, Teaching, and Legacy

• Return to Diego; remarrying under new conditions for autonomy (63:57–64:29).
• Frida’s role as an inspiring and unconventional teacher; forms “Los Fridos,” her student group:
  • “I want to be your friend. I've never been a painting teacher and I think I won't ever be. I'm always learning.” (66:43)
• Physical decline: Multiple surgeries, corsets, and morphine dependency—but continued creativity:
  • “During this period… it almost seems like she's getting purified. Like grace is coming out of her or something.” (67:29)
• Final exhibition:
  • “She had herself carried to the sofa and literally sent her bed to the gallery… epic performance art.” (71:29–72:54)
• Amputation, deep depression, and eventual death at age 47:
  • “I hope the exit is joyful, and I hope never to come back. Frida.” (77:50–78:21)

11. Legacy and Cultural Icon

• Posthumous resurgence in the 1980s with Neo Mexicanismo (79:08).
• Frida becomes a global pop culture icon, appearing on postage stamps, currency, and in art exhibitions and film.
• Essential quote highlighting her legacy:
  • “She painted self portraits because she's so often alone. I am the subject I know best.” (80:01)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Her Father’s Influence:
  “He painted what he saw on the outside and I painted what I saw in my head.” (12:41, History Chicks Host 1)

• On Surviving Trauma:
  “She lived while dying. I mean, she's broken, her body is smashed… death dances by my bed.” (24:05, History Chicks Host 1)

• On Diego Rivera:
  “I suffered two great accidents in my life. One of which, a streetcar knocked me down. And the other accident is Diego.” (36:44, History Chicks Host 1)

• On Her Own Art:
  “She had said that she painted death to keep her enemy close.” (26:15, History Chicks Host 1)

• On Paris and Being Labeled Surrealist:
  “I didn't know I was a surrealist until they came and told me I was. They painted dreams and I just painted my reality.” (58:34, History Chicks Host 1)

• On Her Students:
  “I'll be your so-called teacher, though I'm really not any such thing. I want to be your friend… To do that is truly impossible.” (66:43, History Chicks Host 1)

• On Her Final Days:
  “I hope the exit is joyful, and I hope never to come back.” (77:50, Diary quote)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Frida’s Family & Early Life: 02:08–13:49
• School and Teenage Rebellion: 13:49–17:06
• The Accident: 18:08–24:05
• Convalescence & Start of Painting: 24:05–27:39
• Relationship with Diego: 30:11–39:27
• Life in America & Artistic Growth: 42:08–47:41
• Return to Mexico, Affairs & Activism: 48:13–54:05
• Artistic Success & Paris: 58:02–61:02
• Divorce, Illness, Remarriage: 61:02–64:50
• Later Years & Teaching: 65:06–67:38
• Physical Decline & Final Exhibition: 69:39–73:41
• Death and Legacy: 77:38–80:18
• Resources for Further Learning: 80:18–86:51

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Tone and Style

• Conversational, insightful, and humorous while also deeply empathetic.
• Frequent pop culture references (Gilmore Girls, Family Circus, Portlandia).
• Honest reactions to the difficulties in Frida’s life, often marked by a blend of awe, sympathy, and dry humor.
• Keeps the focus on Frida’s interiority and how her pain and passion uniquely fueled her art.

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Additional Resources & Recommendations

• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (1983)
• Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress: Frida’s Wardrobe
• The Museo Frida Kahlo (Casa Azul) in Mexico City
• FridaCahlofans.com, FridaKahlo-Foundation.org, museofridakahlo.org.mx
• PBS’s “The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo”
• The film Frida (2002), starring Salma Hayek

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The Final Word

Frida Kahlo’s art and life story remain potent explorations of suffering, love, cultural identity, and resilience. As the hosts conclude:

“Perhaps that's what Frida means. Don't waste it.” (86:51, History Chicks Host 1)

Transcript

[Beckett]

Welcome to the History Tricks, where any resemblance to a boring old history lesson is purely coincidental.

[Susan]

Sometimes. Sometimes we give you a little peek behind the curtain. We knew we wanted to revisit one of our former subjects. And it is that time of year where the weather is turning crispy and our thoughts turn to Oktoberfest. And Oktoberfest led to the fact that Frida Kahlo's father, Wilhelm is his birth name, was a German immigrant to Mexico. Also simultaneously in the United States. Not in Mexico, but in the United States. It is Hispanic Heritage Month right now. And so these facts swimming around in our brains led us to one subject, Frida Kahlo, who we haven't really seen in a number of years. This episode is from the Way Way Back Machine.

[History Chicks Host 1]

She.

[Susan]

She's episode 42 from 2013.

[History Chicks Host 2]

We were just baby podcasters back then.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I know.

[Susan]

Like, our kids were eight years old.

[Beckett]

I know. I. Yeah, I love that.

[History Chicks Host 2]

So that's how our brains work. Kind of like one of those Family Circus cartoons of Billy going through the neighborhood and a bunch of squiggles. Just get to the mailbox.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Also, I'm going to throw in a.

[Susan]

Gilmore Girls reference right now. The sentence that Lorelai Gilmore says before she says monkey, Monkey underpants. Please Google that. So now, without further ado, and this was too much ado in the first place, let us bring you to Frida Kahlo from 2013. And we will be back next time with a fully new show that we are currently researching.

[History Chicks Host 2]

Now, on with the show.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And here's your 30 second summary.

[Beckett]

143 paintings, 41 years of pain. 32 surgeries, 28 corsets, a ribbon around a bomb, and one eyebrow.

[History Chicks Host 1]

The end. Let's talk about Frida Kahlo.

[Beckett]

But first, let's drop her into history. In 1907, Maria Montessori opened her first school in Rome. US Congress gives himself a raise to $7,500 per year. Finland becomes the first European country to give women the right to vote. New Zealand declares independence from the uk. UPS service began. It was a banner year for births. Katharine Hepburn, Gene Autry, Cab Calloway, Robert heinlein. And on July 6, 1907, Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon was born.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon was born on July 6, 1907. Not. Do not be fooled, regardless of what sign you see. Not 1910. More on that later. The third of the four daughters of Guillermo Kahlo and Matilda Calderon y Gonzalez Papa, whose name used to be Wilhelm Kahlo was the son of Hungarian Jews, or perhaps Lutherans. Many have claimed him. They had moved to Germany and his father was a jeweler, a pretty wealthy man. So Wilhelm was given a great education. He was sent to university. He was just this poor, promising, bright young man. And then kind of all of a sudden, Wilhelm's life kind of fell apart. He got badly injured in a fall and hit his head and got a brain injury which caused epilepsy. That recurred the rest of his life. I did not know that could happen. 5% of epilepsy cases. The things we learn. I know, weird. So he has a brain injury, he has epilepsy. His mother died. This year is not good. And his father immediately remarried a woman that Wilhelm detested. And so rich papa, as many rich papas do, threw money at the problem and handed Wilhelm some money.

[Beckett]

At 19, he heads off on a trip to Mexico. It's I guess, a find yourself re establish your identity trip. I don't know. The guy needs a break. So he heads off to Mexico and.

[History Chicks Host 1]

He stays there was a huge German immigration around the turn of the century. If you listen to polka music and Tejano music, they're very close. The next time you sit there and you're eating your chips and salsa, you listen for that accordion that did not come from the Mayans, that came from German immigrants.

[Beckett]

Roll out the barrel of tequila. That sounds trippy.

[History Chicks Host 1]

There's a big old Oktoberfest in Mexico City even now.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So Wilhelm went not alone. He was with others of his countrymen in great numbers. Right. But he did not come back. He never came back to the Waterland.

[Beckett]

Well, it's warmer in Mexico than it is in Germany.

[History Chicks Host 1]

True. So Wilhelm changed his name to Guillermo the Spanish William. And through the German community, he began working at a jewelry store called La Perla and married a Mexican woman and had two daughters. You know, he's assimilating.

[Beckett]

His wife is pregnant and the night that she's giving birth, she dies. And then later that night, Guillermo proposes to one of his shopmates, Matilda.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Like father, like son. You hated it when your dad did it. And so what did you do the same night your wife died?

[Beckett]

The same night.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So the co worker, Matilda, was a very attractive young lady. And Frida did later say that he was very much in love with her. Maybe he'd been pining after her for four entire years. Thus the haste. I don't really know. Creepy as heck. But he was not a love match on mama's side. Her first and her only other boyfriend in her whole entire life had been a German who had committed suicide in front of her. Holy moly.

[Beckett]

And Guillermo kind of reminded her of this man. So I guess she thought, okay, because she married him.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, no, he was handsome and he was a hard worker. Papa liked him, which was probably the most important thing.

[Beckett]

But Mathilda wasn't really crazy about Guillermo's other two children. And they went off to a monastery.

[History Chicks Host 1]

It was a convent.

[Beckett]

Convent. Thank you.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So. So they were married, for better or for worse. And Guillermo went to work for Papa in law, who was a photographer. He got a very cool job. The dictator Porfirio Diaz was his name. He had come in like we shouldn't be able to run again. And then immediately changed the rules so he could run again or run in quotes a day.

[Beckett]

Well, that's what dictators can do.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I know, they're sly. So he commissioned this kind of. This heritage project. Should we say it's the hundredth year anniversary of Mexican independence from Spain. Who. Hooray. It's a big deal. Kind of this. Hey, there's no budget. Do whatever you want. Go wherever you want. As high end as you can go for your contract, which we would all like to have, I think. Here's unlimited money. And just tell us when you're done. Yeah, that's a good job.

[Beckett]

That's a great job.

[History Chicks Host 1]

He had a very artistic temperament, which he handed down to at least one of his daughters. Mr. Just right. Mr. Perfectionist. He is quoted as saying, I don't take pictures of people because I don't wish to improve what God has made ugly. Which is ironic because he's the dad of an artist who paints portions of.

[Beckett]

Herself that are uglier than she is in real life.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So there you go. Yeah, it all turns around.

[Beckett]

It does.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I think it was a pretty unhappy marriage from all I read. But their four daughters did arrive with great regularity. So now there's six daughters he's got. There's not enough drama inside the house. The Mexican revolution broke out. Now, wait, wouldn't that be. Didn't we just talk about that? Wasn't that 100 years ago? Okay, here's a tiny little lesson. The 100 Years Ago Mexico v. Spain. It's like our American revolution from Britain. Current Mexican revolution that we're talking about right now was kind of more like our civil war. Citizen versus citizen, right?

[Beckett]

Let's end the dictatorship and let's establish a constitutional republic as basically the point of this particular war.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Right?

[Beckett]

And that's the Deepest awards that we've ever gotten.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So the Mexican revolution lasted about 10 years, but 10 days right outside their house. In fact, Frida later wrote that Mama would help wounded fighters by letting them in the window and tending to their wounds and stuff, not feeding them. But she made the little girls hide in this big wardrobe. Not only. I don't know if it would have helped them.

[Beckett]

Narnia.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Correct. I do not think they ever sound Narnia. What the hell can you imagine?

[Beckett]

You're in Mexico and then all of a sudden you're in, like, this ice land.

[History Chicks Host 1]

There were fur coats in the cabinet. It's a big part of the plot line.

[Beckett]

Right.

[History Chicks Host 1]

But I don't think that wardrobe would have saved them from bullets. But what Mamaz thought was, is soldiers are not very trustworthy when it comes to young ladies. So, yeah, we have to hide in the wardrobe. And Frida wrote that she would hear the bullets swing by. I was trying to figure out if you really could hear the bullets weighing by. Because if there's one thing Frida is. She's an embroiderer of stories.

[Beckett]

Yes.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And I definitely think that comes from having painted her memories and her autobiography and everything. So I don't think she could really hear the bullets weighing by at this time. Because Civil War bullets. I asked my husband. You could hear. They're slow mini balls.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And you could hear them go by. But by now they're using the same rifle Teddy Roosevelt is using to hunt things in Africa. I think it's powerful. I think you're not going to hear it until you're dead. Then you won't hear it.

[Beckett]

No. You may hear the shot go off. Boom.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Or maybe you hear ricochets. But, yeah, that was one of her most vivid memories. Constructed or not, that bullets. She could hear them go by. Scary. So scary.

[Beckett]

It is. But she's identifying with this particular age because later she will shave three years off of her life. Some say so that she can say that she began her life when modern Mexico began its life. Others will say she was just trying to make herself younger.

[History Chicks Host 1]

This wasn't really over till Frida was 13. But more immediately, the dictator who gave Papa that job was toppled and exiled. And somehow the demand for luxury coffee table books of awesome photography pretty well falls off the bottom of the charts.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So Mama had married a guy with a lot of promise. This was not like a downward spiral, but it was like that one hill on the roller coaster where you're just. You're at the top and then you're Screaming and you're freaking at the bed.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Papa got more grumpy and distant. Mama got grim and nobody brought in any cash. I mean, at one point, they had to take in Borders. Oh, how far the mighty have fallen. So if it was dysfunctional before, when there was money, imagine how it goes. Small kids do pick up on the tension. Frida got kicked out of kindergarten at one point for punching someone in the face.

[Beckett]

I think she was pretty rough and tumble. When Frida was six, she contracted polio. It was. She was bedridden for about nine months.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Everyone came back together to nurse her, even Papa, who had become a shadow that flitted in and out and hardly ever came home. He was brought back into the family.

[Beckett]

He insisted that she continue to exercise her leg and made sure that she did. Even when she was laying in bed, which was. Showed a lot of forethought on his part.

[History Chicks Host 1]

He allowed her to run. I read Jean King's dad at the time, properly brought up, girls did not run.

[Beckett]

No, no, not at all. After she's finally out of bed with the polio, she's boxing and playing soccer with the boys. But she's wearing longer skirts now. One leg ended up shorter. And her classmates would call her Peg Leg Frieda.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I know. I think it's so sad that she would go home from her little elementary school, which was Collegio Alleman, which was taught in German, K through 12. Still there, if you're interested. If you're in Mexico City and you happen to speak German, that breaks my heart thinking about her little Socks. How she would go home being sad that people called her Peg Leg and put.

[Beckett]

Put on little socks, picking up one leg over the other.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I think she was probably pretty lonesome.

[Beckett]

Probably. I mean, she'd been just. You got to have a little pity party if you've been in bed all that time and you're six. I mean, six is such an active age. You know, you start establishing friendships and learning all that social skills.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So Papa was the artist and the philosopher.

[Beckett]

According to Frida, she was his favorite child. I mean, I don't think he ever made any mystery of that. He said she was the son he never had.

[History Chicks Host 1]

He exposed her to books, expeditions, photography. He taught her how. He would take her on nature walks, and she would be sent off to go get, you know, examples of this kind of leaf or try to find X number of bugs, while he would paint watercolors, still lifes, you know, realistic, though. I mean, he was a realistic painter. Later, Frida said of her Father, that he painted what he saw on the outside and I painted what I saw in my head.

[Beckett]

Dad is exposing her to all the arts and nature and the bigger world. And mom is very concerned about her religious upbringing. She wants her to know how to cook, she wants her to know how to sew, she wants her to know how to clean, because those are the skills that little Frida is going to need in life.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, but you know, from her perspective, what are you going to do? You're going to grow up, you're going to get married. Your husband will want clean socks with no holes, Right? And here are your instructions. And Mama, she called me Jefe, which means the boss of me, sarcastically. Because of the domestic arts and hufflepuffs get no respect. But if there were no hufflepuffs, there would be no food. That's all I'm saying. Poor Mama. So disregarded. So Frida still spelled with an. With an E, incidentally, in the German way. F, R, I, E, D, A, which she referred to herself up until really she started painting. She went away to school. It was a one hour trolley ride each way. It was kind of a big deal.

[Beckett]

It was a very elite school. It was called the National Preparatory School. And she was only one of 35 girls out of a population of 2,000 students.

[History Chicks Host 1]

35 girls, that is good odds for prom, my friend. That's right.

[Beckett]

She wanted to be a doctor. That was her plan. I mean, all right, she'd been sick. She wants that not to happen to other kids. That's cool.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Papa made her promise not to talk to any boys. Oh, Papa.

[Beckett]

Oh, how is that even possible? Dad.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So naive, so nice.

[Beckett]

Not only did she talk to boys, she fell in with a. Like a gang. There was a politically active, literary edgy. You were probably in that gang.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah, I probably. I think I was in that gang.

[Beckett]

You were that. They knew everything. They were smarter than everybody. They were politically active at an age where it might not have been the inclination of the normal student.

[History Chicks Host 1]

That was her group. They were kind of juvenile delinquents, I'm here to tell you. I mean, they were like the mischief patrol. Young ladies are supposed to go to the girls lounge where there is a matron sitting there between classes. But instead she's helping people blow windows out of buildings with firecrackers, which is the polar opposite of what she's supposed to be doing, which is, you know, knitting. Well, the head of the school almost quit because of these people. So this little group was called the Kachuakas. And they would Always like, you know, lay draped on sofas upside down, talking about philosophy. And you know, I had the group of friends in college, that's like very freshman year, sophomore year in college stuff.

[Beckett]

Uh huh.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Let's talk about great things, blah, blah.

[Beckett]

I was never in that group. Yeah, surprise you.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So the president of the school hired painters to do murals and the Kachuaqas would set things on fire underneath the scaffold until the painters literally started coming to school with revolvers in their pockets. Can you imagine either part of this wild west scenario happening? Never.

[Beckett]

No, not at all. And I'm grateful for that, quite honestly, having children in school.

[History Chicks Host 1]

One painter in particular that was up on the scaffold, a fully middle aged Diego Rivera, was Frida's special target. He was fat and sloppy and looked like a frog, but somehow had this series of hot girlfriends that would come be on the scaffold with him. Like 13 year old girls at the skate parks. Bored like crazy, but can't leave their baby who's skating, you know, they were groupies. They were, I don't know, neural groupies, I guess. Hot girlfriends would sit up there.

[Beckett]

Go, Diego, go. No.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, Frida would come in and steal his lunch and eat it while standing behind a column and taunting him. And she would say things like. She would yell up like, watch out, you know, girlfriend A, because girlfriend B's on the way. Diego, you better hide girlfriend A. Ha ha. You know, taunting him. He never saw her face, at least not full on. He saw her slinking away, having eaten his lunch. It's. But despite this obsession, Frida did have a serious boyfriend.

[Beckett]

She did. Alejandro Arias. Sounds like a fake name in a romance novel.

[History Chicks Host 1]

He sounds insufferable to me. He liked to correct people's grammar or their opinions. He would pat them on the head when they. Oh, well, that's just cute that you think that. But everything had to be just so.

[Beckett]

Well, she liked it because they were.

[History Chicks Host 1]

They were a thing.

[Beckett]

They were a thing.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So Frida would lie to her mama and sneak out to meet him. I am not fixing my wooden stairs for this exact reason. And I have a boy. I was so happy when my floor.

[Beckett]

Started to creak in my new house. I'm like, yes.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So Frida got some jobs, mostly to be able to say, I'm going to work, that's legitimate, but also, you know, to help out her family with money. So it wasn't a complete lie. But sometimes she didn't go to work. She went to the land of Alejandro. Oh, little Frida. If you know what I mean? Well, and I don't know why that surprised me exactly. She had a sister that eloped at 15, right? In fact, Frida was the one that led her out the window and then shot it behind and like, I don't know where she went. Mm.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And now, at last, we come to a pivotal day, a fateful small event. Frida left her favorite little parasol at the bus stop. Sounds like nothing. Let's go get the parasol. They sighed.

[Beckett]

Dang it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Got off the bus, walked back off to go get it. They'll just catch the next one, just.

[Beckett]

Like they would have done any day.

[History Chicks Host 1]

No big deal.

[Beckett]

But at 18, she boards that second bus with Alejandro and the bus and a streetcar have a collision.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And when we come back, we will talk about the accident that changed the course of Frida Kahlo's life forever. Hello, history people. You should look at my mom's history board on Pinterest. There's a lot more than chicks there.

[Beckett]

Elephants and fancy dresses and funny old.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Stuff and even Batman. All you have to do is go to pinterest.com.

[History Chicks Host 2]

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[Susan]

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[History Chicks Host 2]

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[Susan]

Whether you're fresh to Pride and Prejudice, which we cannot imagine, or want to revisit a cherished favorite, you're in for a new and delightful listening experience. Listen to the new Pride and [e-mail] JaneAustin I love it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And now I have to say, if you have littles in the room, put on your headphones. Seriously, this is not going to be suitable for about five minutes.

[Beckett]

18 year old Frida Kahlo has just boarded a bus that's going to take her to a place she doesn't really want to go.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So here's the accident again, not suitable for young ears. So they're in a bus and a two car trolley train came around the corner and. And t Bone. Their bus. From the description of someone in the bus, it bent into a sea. Like it bent and bent and bent and bent and bent. And then all of a sudden it snapped into a jillion pieces of shrapnel. And then the train ran over everyone in the bus. So there's the short version. Alejandro was looking for Frida after he climbed out from under the wreckage. And Frida was completely naked. The shrapnel and the dragging had taken all her clothes off. She was covered blood. And more epically, someone had been carrying gilding powder in their bag, which had broken open, flown in the air and stuck all over the blood on her. So here she is, as if in one of her own paintings later, completely naked, covered in blood and gold powder, and everyone is screaming, la Bellarina. La Bell Arena. Which means the ballerina. The worst of it was that an iron bar had gone through her abdomen and had come out between her hips, if you know what I mean. It came out right between her legs, which is where it would, because that's where the bones stop. A passerby thought that bar needed to come out. I think he probably should have left it in for blood loss prevention. He pulled it out by force. And the witnesses say, and they didn't know at the time, it was Frida Kahlo. She is la belorina of the accident. Had screamed so loud that they couldn't hear the ambulance siren. They laid her on a pool table convinced she would be dead. That was just. What was. Next door was a pool table emporium. She's on the green base, lying there bleeding to death. Her spine's broken three times. Her collarbone's broken, many of her ribs are broken. Her right foot is just crushed. Her Pelvis is broken three times. Her right leg is broken 11 times. And obviously everywhere the bar skewered through her is messed up. Every organ it hit, every bone it hit, broken. She is like the most horrible kind of jigsaw puzzle.

[Beckett]

I can't imagine how she stayed conscious through that degree of pain.

[History Chicks Host 1]

She said later that what was going through her mind in the shock was she had bought a little pelota, which is like a cup on a stick, and the ball's attached with a string. And the whole goal of it is to catch the ball. So I wonder where that pilota is. I wonder if I'm going to be able to find my parasol in all this mess. That's what her brain was thinking the whole time.

[Beckett]

This is trauma.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, and I think it protects you. The shock protects You.

[Beckett]

Oh, sure.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Now it also both of her parents, hopefully shock protected them from dealing with it because they didn't come to the hospital because they were too much in shock. Pull it together. But I'm so mad at her family most of the time, by the way. Helpful, Very helpful. So. So you know who did come was Matilda, the sister that had escaped out the window when Frida was seven, who had been not spoken to by the parents since that day. She found out in the newspaper and came to the hospital. So I'm very glad. And she stayed and she nursed her. I mean, it was like 25 patients for one nurse. And so having Matilda there was very valuable. But Frida, according to Matilda, screamed and vomited most of every day for the first month she was in the hospital.

[Beckett]

And her pain would never end in her life.

[History Chicks Host 1]

From now on, she's going to have 32 serious operations. Friends of her said from this point, she lived while dying. I mean, she's broken, her body is smashed. Like she had said that death dances by my bed. So there's that this person who had intended to become a doctor. There's no way she. She's not going to go back to school. And so she accidentally, due to her illness, really started out on the road to becoming a painter. She had said that she was young and didn't realize the extent of the tragedy. She felt she had energies enough to do anything. Instead of studying to become a doctor. And without paying much attention, I began.

[Beckett]

To PA out of boredom. Mom rigs up an easel for her so that she can paint while laying still. Dad gives her some paint and she begins to just paint because her days are very dull. I mean, people can come and visit her, but most of the time she's laying there immobile. She's in a full body cast.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Mama and Papa rigged up a mirror above her head so she could see herself and she began to paint herself. It's the first in a long series of self portraits that she will do. This self portrait, however, was intended to be a present to. To Alejandro.

[Beckett]

Her thinking was, I'm gonna paint him this portrait. He's gonna see this beautiful side of me and he's gonna come back to me.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Because during her convalescence after the accident, Alejandro had started being not a very good boyfriend. He was kissing and telling, if you know what I mean, talking about how she was such a loose woman, not worth a cent. And she said, I am worth much more than is Santavo, because I like myself the way I am. I'll have to be friends with those who like me the way I am.

[Beckett]

And then he leaves. Yeah, I mean, he leaves her. I have an opportunity to go to Europe. I'm taking it. Goodbye.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So her first self portrait was for a very unworthy recipient. Everyone else saw this heroic sufferer joking.

[Beckett]

And she had a very sharp wit.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah.

[Beckett]

She had a very dark sense of humor as well. So being in this traumatic situation, those two combined. Everybody knows somebody like that, they're gonna joke their way through it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah. But inside, you know, she had said that she painted death to keep her enemy close. Wow. Yeah. So it was kind of a mask, really. I read somewhere where it's. That's where it started, because there was a mirror that was showing her a Frida, and she was painting a different Frida. So there were always two Fridas.

[Beckett]

But even women today, we don't see ourselves the way that other people see us.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So she had thought that even inside of her own hen, she had aged instantly. She said that her friends at college learned everything gradually. Knowledge of self, knowledge of the world, knowledge of others. She said, my friends became old slowly, but I did it all at once. It's as if I had learned all about life in mere seconds. So she became introspective in the bed with the two Fridas.

[Beckett]

Well, she would have to be.

[History Chicks Host 1]

She never directly painted her accident, by the way. She just couldn't do it. There are a couple of drawings that she has done that are in a diary that are a little bit more direct with the bar going. Going into her body and stuff, and. But you can. Feelings about it leaked out all over the place. It became part of almost every painting she ever did. There's one called the Broken Column that is really expressive of it, where it's basically her in a supportive corset and her spine is cracked, completely cracked. So after about a year, Frida could get around. She didn't go back to school.

[Beckett]

Exactly.

[History Chicks Host 1]

A friend introduced her into this bohemian, communist, already unconventional circle of friends.

[Beckett]

This woman named Tina Modati. She was a photographer, slash model, slash actress, slash political activist. She and Frida hit it off, let's say. And at a party, she introduces Frida to Diego, who, of course, Frida already knows.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, we saw him before, didn't we? We saw him up on the scaffold. We ate his lunch. Ha. So to say that's the last time you're going to eat his lunch, Frida. Sorry. Here's Diego's background a little back before Pinterest. His dad noting his very small child's artistic talent literally made him a chalkboard room to draw in.

[Beckett]

Okay. That is so cool. I can't even stand it. Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

He was taken to serious art training at about the age of 10. He studied in Europe. He was friends with Picasso. He was friends with Aaron Copland, the composer. I mean, he was friends with Gertrude Stein. He was serious. He was a muralist. And he. His style was very Mexican heritage and just politics and art mixed up.

[Beckett]

Okay. I liken his style to a Where's Waldo painting.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, kind of, because it's.

[Beckett]

It's all these little vignettes that compose one larger mural. Huge.

[History Chicks Host 1]

The peasant is the ideal. Art should reflect the real Mexico. It was called Mexicanidad. And it was a movement that went all through architecture and art and food. Peasant food. Super hot again. Sounds very familiar. Keeping chickens in the yard, you know? Yeah. And if you have not seen that video of Portlandia where they say the dream of the 1890s is alive in Portland, we should link you to that. It's basically the same, but it was genuine. It wasn't ironic at all. They really, really believed that the way to get back to true happiness was to live more simply and from everyone to everyone, let's all live together. They were idealists. And this guy had the max. He was super charming. He was famous. He also liked women for their minds. In an era which that didn't happen, he must have seemed like some kind of alien being. Well, Freda was bold, and sometimes you have to make your own luck. She knew Diego, of course, from the gallery, but he didn't know her at all. And she went there. He was famous. It was obvious where he was painting. She went there and stood under his scaffold and said, hey, look, Diego, come down here. I didn't come to flirt with you. I know all about you. No, I want you to come look at these pictures.

[Beckett]

And he does.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah, well, you know, why not? You never know.

[Beckett]

Maybe he was ready for a break or he lumbers his 300 pound self down off of that scaffolding to take a look at the paintings that she brought him.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And she laid it out. She said, if you say I have talent, I'm gonna keep going. If not, I'm gonna get a job to help support my parents.

[Beckett]

I mean, she's basically saying, mentor me, and if you don't want to, just tell me and I'll go honest. He probably thought that was refreshing. I'm sure a lot of people came to him asking the same question, wanting it to Be sugar coated.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah, well. And though, here's the thing. Because he loved him, he said he loved him, and she goes, look, you. Everyone tells me that if it's some girl, you're just a mess. Now you tell me for real. You tell me. And he outed her during that conversation. He's like, wait a minute. I've heard that voice before. And it made him laugh, laugh, laugh. And I think it made him like her even more. Ms. Eat my lunch. That's right. Ms. Warn my girlfriends.

[Beckett]

That's right. You've been stalking me for years. Oh.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So still. Still good?

[Beckett]

He said.

[History Chicks Host 1]

No, seriously, really, still good. She invited him to her house to see the rest of the paintings, and within a few days, they'd had their first kiss. So it was on.

[Beckett]

It was on.

[History Chicks Host 1]

They started to date. She's 21. He's a lot older.

[Beckett]

He's at least 20 years older than her.

[Guest or Music Performer]

Yay.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So he's established, though.

[Beckett]

He's an established painter. He's got his connections. This is the world that she wants to go into. So it's a good union for both of them.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So she's up on the scaffold now, ladies.

[Beckett]

He paints her into one of his murals.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I know it's the Ministry of Education building, and it's called Ballad of the Proletarian Revolution. She's in a red shirt with a star on it. She, at this point, painted my favorite piece. Almost the only one I like, actually. It's called the Bus, and it's kind of different stereotypes of Mexicans all in a row. It is very reminiscent of a painting by Daumier called Third Class Carriage, which is more my style. Here's the thing. My favorite art is more. How should I say, More straightforward and more photographic, even like Sargent, Tissot, Grimshaw, Waterhouse. I'm more impressed with how they do light and how they do fabric and that kind of thing. And both Diego and Frida have this primitive, even primal, you must say, style bolder, more collage, like. And I myself find Frida's work very upsetting and disturbing.

[Beckett]

Well, I think it was supposed to be.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah, I think that's okay.

[Beckett]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I think that's okay. It's supposed to make you feel something, right?

[Beckett]

It's like the written word, you know, literary. The written word that makes you feel uncomfortable to read. My daughter just read Toni Morrison, the Blue Eyes, and it's a very difficult book to read emotionally.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Right.

[Beckett]

So, yeah, same thing.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I can't imagine with the subject matter that Frida is Expecting you to go by humming the Sunny side of the Street?

[Beckett]

No, and I don't think that's her personality either.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I think feeling repelled is okay. Like anything but indifference.

[Beckett]

Right.

[History Chicks Host 1]

But her art is very biographical, so perhaps give it a glance, be repelled, if that is your first time. Many people aren't, and that's fine, too, you know, whatever. But then once you hear her story, go back in context and look and you'll see elements of what's going on happening. It's clearly biographical art.

[Beckett]

A lot of her art is like a modern day blog. Something happened to her in her life and she put it down. And she might have expanded on it and then added emotion to it so that we would feel it, but she was like a blogger almost.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah. Kind of canvas back to life instead of art. At 17, she said, and at 22, reality says, Diego asked Papa to marry her. And Papa looked at him and said, you know, she's a double, right? That's fine. And Dad's like, all right, well, you've had your warning. And I don't know that he was so awesome about this guy marrying his daughter, but his daughter was very expensive. Her medical bills were very expensive. Diego had a lot of money. He seemed to love his daughter. He couldn't afford the medical bills. Right. I mean, it was very practical for Papa, I think. But he did call Diego an ugly fat Connienist. Well, and Mama had darker things against this marriage. Well, she just.

[Beckett]

Matilda said that it was a marriage between an elephant and a dove, because Diego is 300 pounds, 6:1. He's a big man. But Frida is 5:3, 98 pounds, and she's tiny physically.

[History Chicks Host 1]

When Mama was mad about the atheist thing because she's a devout Catholic and she's very disappointed that her daughter didn't go that way. She didn't even go to the wedding, but Papa did. And he stood up in the middle and said, are we not play acting here? Is this for real? Yes, it's real, dad. Sorry. Sorry to disappoint you. She borrowed clothes from a maid. She does look beautiful, though. Very kind of wistful. He looks proud. But his pants were up to his armpits and this weird little short tie tailored to match where the belt goes, which is like. You, dude. You are hilarious. But whatever. Well, so now let's begin married life. Now, Frida still didn't paint much. She's referred to as the great man's new young wife. She learned to cook as she had not paid proper attention to Mama from From the mother of Diego's children. An ex girlfriend taught her how. Oh, well, here's what he likes the best Already. Already creepy to me. Diego was working morning till night. The official Communist Party voted him because he was working for bourgeois people getting commissions. His politics did not change. But he's like, this is PTA committee crap, and I am going. And he walked in with this revolver and he said, I hereby kick Diego out of the Communist Party. And the revolver's made of clay. And he smashed it.

[Beckett]

Dramatic to find the Clegg revolver in the first place.

[History Chicks Host 1]

To make the clay revolver in the first place. Dude. So they had a weird kind of non honeymoon the first year. It was bad. This Frida had to have the first of three medically necessary abortions. Remember that iron bar? Yeah. There's just been too much.

[Beckett]

She was told back at the accident that she would never be able to carry a child.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Too much scar tissue, too much damage. Too many bones in the wrong place, too. She cried and cried and cried, and. And I get that. I mean, that's a great blow. I think that's when she started to really realize, I am not gonna have children.

[Beckett]

And Diego was cool with that. He didn't want children. She loved kids. She really did.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And Diego, not an animal to change his stripes, was already having affairs within the first year of them having gotten married. It was Diego. Let's see. Frida, summarize did that. I suffered two great accidents in my life. One of which, a streetcar knocked me down. And the other accident is Diego. Tumultuous is the word. Is it?

[Beckett]

Well, yeah, it's a good word.

[History Chicks Host 1]

He.

[Beckett]

She knew what she was getting into. He would brag that he was unfit for monogamy.

[History Chicks Host 1]

But see, you might know what you're getting into, but you might believe you're the one that can make it all stop.

[Beckett]

Right. Because we have this. We're combustible. That he's never had with any other woman. Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

No, I mean, it's weird. It's hate and love and baby talk and pride and cheating and despair and like. And it's hard from the outside. Who's to say? Only people in a marriage can understand it. One of the biographies of Diego Rivera referred to Frida and their relationship as such. He wrote to him, she came first after his art and after his stories of his legendary life. To her, he came first even before her art, which I really do think is true.

[Beckett]

Oh, yeah, I definitely do, too. And unlike her parents, it was a love match. I really think they loved each other deeply. And they connected on a level that neither had ever again.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, he did admire her for her independence that at first I think she was pretending to have more of than she really did. I really do think so. About this time, she began to adopt the clothing style that we all know her for. The long flowing skirt, the peasanty blouse, jewelry, hair with ornamentation in it. It's called a Tejuana look from a certain part of. This is my favorite word in Spanish to say a certain part of Oaxaca. It's a matriarchal society, just very elaborate. In fact, she had gold gold caps made for her incisors that were set with pink diamond elaborate. And Diego approves classic Mexican dress. He said, you're freeing yourself from modern society.

[Beckett]

Oh, yeah. Suited her personality too. I mean, she literally clothing herself and her Mexican heritage.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And I think she looked very beautiful.

[Beckett]

I do too. It was a look that not everybody can pull off.

[History Chicks Host 1]

That outfit became kind of an icon of her. And sometimes in some of her paintings, she painted her outfit to represent herself. So you'll see it in some of her paintings. It's just a Tehuan outfit with no Frida in it. And she's more beautiful in photographs than she ever is in any self portrait. Yes, the brow, that famous eyebrow, not so apparent as in her painting.

[Beckett]

No, in the mustache, all the facial hair. She must have just been really focusing on it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, Diego and Frida did say one thing about each other. She said she really admired his breasts. And he said, well, I really like your mustache. Yes, indeed.

[Susan]

Well, Susan, fall has finally arrived. I actually started watching Gilmore Girls already.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Oh, is it the Gilmore Girls season already?

[History Chicks Host 2]

Oh, I was just finishing up Bridgerton. I guess I know what my next watch is.

[Susan]

I know. And something about the fall makes you want to make your space cozy. And that is why I went to Wayfair to cozify my living room.

[History Chicks Host 2]

I've been shopping at Wayfair for years. As a matter of fact, when I watch my repeat shows that my husband doesn't want to watch, I curl up on a bed that I got at Wayfair years ago. I love this bed.

[Beckett]

It's beautiful. Very cozy.

[Susan]

Well, my decor style is best described as maximalist. I guess that's the one word description. The long description is that Indiana Jones's proper Victorian mother had her house perfectly decorated. And then her husband and son came back from their travels and threw memorabilia everywhere.

[History Chicks Host 1]

That's more like what my house looks like.

[History Chicks Host 2]

My gosh, that's the most perfect description of your house I have ever heard.

[Susan]

But nonetheless, even that specific of a decor style. Wayfair has things that meet my aesthetic. And so imagine if you had a easier aesthetic than I do. They have things that will fit every room of your house, every budget and.

[History Chicks Host 2]

Every style, and they have free delivery, even on the big stuff. Every year I want to add another little season seasonal decor every season. Wayfair is a great place for that. You know, pumpkins and all those warm colors and cozy textures.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah, nice.

[Susan]

Cozify your space with Wayfair's curated collection of easy, affordable fall updates. From comfy recliners to cozy bedding and autumn decor, you can find it all for way [e-mail] that's Wayfair w a.

[History Chicks Host 2]

Y f a I r.com Wayfair every style, every home.

[Beckett]

The life of a muralist at the time is very nomadic. So that's the lifestyle that they had. He would get a commission, they would go to that area, they would live there for as long as it took him to create this piece, and then they'd move on to the next commission. At this point, he gets his first commission outside of Mexico and gets to go to Francisco.

[History Chicks Host 1]

In modern corporate parlance, Frida is the trailing spouse. She has no official duties.

[Beckett]

Well, she brings some lunch. She takes care of his needs so that all he has to focus on is painting and networking, right?

[History Chicks Host 1]

I guess, yes.

[Beckett]

Diego is painting his mural. Frida actually gets hospitalized while she's there. More complications stemming from her accident. And at this point, she meets the doctor who will be her doctor for the rest of her life. She will continue consultant because he's a lot more optimistic than any of the doctors that she's seen before. He tells her that perhaps someday she can carry a child. And I'm sure she was clinging to.

[History Chicks Host 1]

That, so she was painting again. You know, how as a wife and a mother, perhaps your needs are put behind other people's. And so she was Diego's little help meet for quite a while, but then she started painting again, overtly considered herself an amateur. Time to just messing around. And Diego was kind of fondly condescending, you know, the little woman's little thingies that she. Her little hobby that she's messing with. Even in the newspaper, they would describe the attractive wife of the famous painter by saying the wife of the master mural painter gleefully dabbles in little works of art.

[Beckett]

It's not wrong. I mean, Diego's. The thing is huge pieces, and they're juxtaposed with these very small canvases that Frida is painting. So she's painting while Diego's painting. And this is where she paints Frida and Diego Rivera, the wedding portrait. It's one that's pretty famous. And at this point, she is actually shown in. Her first showing is in San Francisco. It's at the sixth Annual exhibition of San Francisco Society of Women Artists. And it's her first public showing. So she's, like, legit now. I know. It's very exciting. Continuing their nomadic style, after San Francisco, they move on to New York, and here Diego is given a show. So here she's immersed even more into the art society of the United States.

[History Chicks Host 1]

It's so funny, though. Frida said she was bored and hated America, mostly New York. By the way, she called it Gringoland. There is a painting that expresses her distaste for America called My Dress hangs there. That's one painting where her dress equals Freda. And she has the toilet on a throne because she says Americans worship the toilet. Just so you know, other people have said the same thing. In Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence, the guy, the plumber, comes to install his new toilet and he goes, look at this. Even an American would be impressed by this toilet. So I think that's a stereotype in other parts of the world that Americans are obsessed with their bathrooms.

[Beckett]

I like my bathroom.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, you're so American. I know.

[Beckett]

Oh, my gosh. While she's in New York, she's meeting some real big names. I mean, Ansel Adams, Georgia o', Keeffe, the Rockefellers. I bet they were drawn to her.

[History Chicks Host 1]

They got her in, and she made quite a few friends. She liked to pretend to be grouchy and grumpy like the Grinch. But in the end, she did make. I mean, she charmed people because, you know what? That mask was on. She was helping Diego. But these things that she wrote dismissive of New York were really written to both her doctor and some friends at home. Culture shocked, I guess, but she didn't feel like New York society was genuine. She would always talk about how. How she saw these people that ate off gold plates. And then she'd go outside and there'd be beggars in the street. How is this happening? It was the Communist. Yeah.

[Beckett]

Politics coming into her life. I mean, she. She lived that. After New York, they continue their tour of the United States. They go on to Philly for a commission, and then to Detroit, where Diego has a commission from. For Ford Motor Company.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah, she's. I Have to say Detroit, she didn't find any silver lining to. She was lonely, pretty lonely there, and sick and bored. There's no more artists to entertain her. There's no more of the people that she felt like, okay, I finally. I can connect with people in Gringoland, I guess. Yeah. She was really sick and bored and pregnant again, and she had a horrible miscarriage.

[Beckett]

Her doctor had told her that perhaps she could carry. So this one, she didn't have the medical abortion on. She went to carry it, and it didn't happen. She spent 13 days in recovery in the Henry Ford Hospital and just kind of spiraled into some depression.

[History Chicks Host 1]

She demanded a medical book so she could see what happened. They're like, no, it's going to be disturbing. I can handle it. Diego's like, she won't make some art. Look at what she wants.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And so she got hold of a medical book, and there are a lot of pencil drawings, again, in her diary that are very surreal and very disturbing. Getting her emotions out or whatever. There are two paintings that are coming of, attributed to this point in her life. One of, of course, is called Henry Ford Hospital, and the other one's called Frida and the Abortion, and they're both literally terrifying. And this is what I mean when I say that her art is repellent to me now, biographical as they are. Yes. And if you look at them after, you know what state of mind she was hearkening back to when she painted them. So there's some dark paintings coming out of what happened right now.

[Beckett]

It was a dark time in her life.

[History Chicks Host 1]

She kept. I don't know where she got this human fetus. I really don't know. But she kept a human fetus in a jar in her bedroom based on this experience. And she got kind of obsessed with dolls.

[Beckett]

Yeah. She collected them.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So that's kind of when all that started.

[Beckett]

So Frida is following the maestro around the United States, and she's had enough. He does not want to go back, and she's ready. She did take a little trip back when her mother died, but she wants to move back.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Diego did not want to go back, even though he had just been in a very publicized fracas with the Rockefellers over an inappropriate painting. He did not want to go back. He wanted to continue on the road to glory in America, which is where he thought his future might be. And she kind of insisted. And they had this big fight that is so emblematic of their relationship. They had a picture of cactuses on the wall. Cactuses equal Mexico. And he got a kitchen knife and cut that painting to shred. Artists are so dramatic, by the way.

[Beckett]

Okay, we've already established that he made a gun out of clay so that he could slam it on a table and break it dramatically. I mean, it's over the top.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So then they did get back, and he had two houses built, one large, one small, connected by a little bridge. Guess whose was whose.

[Beckett]

Oh, we'll definitely post a picture of this. It's Casa, a studio. And his is this big, large pink building, and hers is this small blue building. And there's just this bridge between the two of them, so they could each have their own separate spaces. And it's like a weird duplex.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, Diego sulked in the worst possible kind of way. He had an affair with Ms. Frida's younger sister, Christina.

[Beckett]

Every marriage has a line that can't be crossed, and that was Frida's.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, so Frida cut off her hair, and she laid off the Mexican costume for a while. And she said to her friend in a letter, get this. He believes that everything that's happening is my fault because I made him come to Mexico. And that is the cause of his being the way he is right now. He cheated on her with her younger sister and told her it was her fault for making him move back to Mexico. He is a selfish, egocentric abuser. I'm sorry. Love, Rivera. He admitted it. He wrote, if I loved a woman, the more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her. Frida was only the most obvious victim of this disgusting trait in me. He set up an apartment for Christina and bought Frida the same furniture. But she wrote, I have been murdered. My life. That's what she wrote under this. Her hair's gone. She. She changed her clothes. What a weird dynamic. She would lock her into the bridge, and he'd have to literally come down the stairs and out into the street and knock on her door, and then she wouldn't answer it, and then the fight would have to be held through the door in the street.

[Beckett]

Fiery.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I guess so. But with Christina, it got better. I'm kind of reminded of the Duchess. I don't know if you got the same feeling, too. There was, like, this odd threesome because Christina and her children, quote, lived with Frida and Diego. That's Christina's children remembered living with Frida and Diego. Isolde and Antonio were kind of her substitute children, along with a spider monkey named, hilariously, Fulong Chang, which means any old monkey, which I thought was funny. And a Big fat psycho named Diego Rivera. Who needs more kids than that? Did I say that out loud? So Frida was beautiful and eccentric and fabulous. Was outwardly so popular and charming, but inside I don't. She was known for drinking what she called little cocktailitos. But she drank like seven or eight of them. People said she drank like a mariachi. Now that literally shocked me because I think of them as those sweet guys in the velvet hats that sting. I didn't know they were notorious for being heavy drinkers. Gloriochies. They just came to the table at the restaurant that's still wholesome.

[Beckett]

I mean, the anades are the entree.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Evidently they're not wholesome at all. But. So they were both. Now Diego and Frida in full on affair mode. Diego was all like, hey, little lady, let me show you my frescoes.

[Beckett]

And then she is showing her frescoes and he's getting pissed off.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, now he's fine if she has affairs with women, right? Dolores del Rio, for example, Famu movie star that's just messed around. But let it get out that she is having an affair with a man and he comes over there and waves his pistolero around. Downs. What's good for the gander has to be good for the goose or you need to lay off. And he's not going to lay off.

[Beckett]

Especially in this relationship where they define it themselves. It's not a conventional relationship. So why is he hanging his hat on convention when it comes to her relationships? I don't get it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, I just don't know. But they were bonding a little bit over politics. That was one thing that did bring them together. They. They both raised money for the anti Franco side in the Spanish Civil War. And then Trotsky stayed at their house. Like, let's just. Okay, short version. Enemy of. Enemy of Lenin, Friend of Stalin. Enemy of Stalin, exiled from his country. And he's one of those Snowden type guys nobody's gonna take in. I don't want him. Well, I don't want him. Well, I don't want him. Until Diego Rivera persuaded Mexico this is how famous he is, to give refuge to him. And so he ended up at the Blue House and he ended up in Frida's bed.

[Beckett]

Well, okay. Have you ever seen a picture of him? He's kind of a bad boy of communist.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, this is someone who has assassins on his tail. Again, on the danger level. It's just pink. I guess that's exciting. I don't know. She broke up with him and gave him this self portrait to Keep. Well, here is the only good thing about all this marital turmoil. As far as I'm concerned, she's 30. She began to paint in earnest. I counted about 16 paintings in just two years here, right when this bad behavior was going on. Her themes, of course, Mexican heritage, disappointed, motherhood, her physical pain, her emotional pain, of which Diego was pretty much all of it death and peril. This is the period right here where she started to come out from behind Diego's shadow. It's a big old shadow, figuratively is what I meant. But physically, too, it's a shadow. Yes, she sold a few paintings.

[Beckett]

Her first actual sale was to Edward G. Robinson, the actor. He bought four of her paintings in.

[History Chicks Host 1]

One swoop for $200 a piece, which seems like. Dang it, I wish I had a time machine.

[Beckett]

Yeah. Really?

[History Chicks Host 1]

I have $200 right now.

[Beckett]

Yeah, but you don't like her paintings.

[History Chicks Host 1]

It doesn't matter. It's an economic time machine situation.

[Beckett]

I see. It's an investment.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yes.

[Beckett]

Yes. Got it. Okay. She meets an artist who loves her work and wants to bring her to Paris, so he's starting in on that. But before that happens, she has a show in New York, and she sells half of her paintings at that show. Yeah. And she's starting to get commissions at this point. Not Diego. Frida. She gets a commission from magazine editor Claire Booth Luce, who wants her to paint a painting to give to the mother of a mutual friend, Dorothy Hale, who has just committed suicide.

[History Chicks Host 1]

That's a person. If you've never heard of her, She's. It was quoted in the paper, the most beautiful suicide. And you can see a photo of her, and she is just beautiful. But she has literally crushed the dickens out of the car she landed on. Mm.

[Beckett]

This commissioned portrait that Frieda is supposed to paint. She paints a picture of her jumping from the building and landing on that car. This is to give to the mother.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Has Claire Boothe Luce not seen Frida's paintings? I guess is what I'm wanting to know.

[Beckett]

Maybe she was wanting her skipping through some fields of Mexican flowers. I don't know. The painting is a critical success, but Claire is mortified by it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Paint my name out, and you can have this back. I'm not giving this to her mother. So, no, it wasn't such a good thing.

[Beckett]

So as her career is building now, it's time for her to go to Paris.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And let's take a little break, and when we come back, we'll see how that ends up.

[History Chicks Host 2]

It's officially cozy season. That means Soft sweaters and lots of layers and comfort at every level, including my base layer, which is why I always reach for a Honey Love bra. Honey Love bras don't have underwire, they don't poke, and they don't feel like body armor. They feel like a second skin. And for a limited time, you can get Honey Love on sale. Take 20% off your entire order at honeylove.com historychicks support the show and check them out because your comfort should not be seasonal, right? I always reach my Honey Love crossover bra when I'm flying. There's no wires. The back smoothing material that this bra is made of is so comfortable that I can wear it on transatlantic flights, sleeping in uncomfortable positions on planes, going about my first day in whatever country we're in, which is my preferred method of dealing with jet lag. But I'm wearing this Honeylove bra the whole day and I don't feel like I'm wearing a bra. And Honeylove isn't just about bras. They have shapewear and tank leggings, all that are just as comfortable and supportive as their bras. I recently got my hands on the new mesh sculpt high waisted short from Honeylove. I love it. It's a very lightweight material. It doesn't feel like I'm wearing anything underneath my dresses. Treat yourself to the most comfortable and innovative bras on earth and save 20% off site wide at honeylove.com historycheck use our exclusive link to get 20% [e-mail] historychicks after your purchase, they're going to ask where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you Experience the new standard in bras with Honey Love.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And we are back. Frida has been invited by a group of surrealist painters to come show her work in Paris. Paris.

[Beckett]

They love her.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, she refers to the group in question as cuckoo lunatic Sons of who? Surrealists take themselves too seriously, she said. But you know what? Some of the big guys really liked her. Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali. She called them the big cacas. And they are the big cacas.

[Beckett]

They are the very big cacas.

[History Chicks Host 1]

She also said, kind of plaintively, I didn't know I was a surrealist until they came and told me I was. They painted dreams and I just painted my reality. I'm just telling my own story. But they're all like, so avant garde.

[Beckett]

You're one of us. You're one of us.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Surrealist Andre Breton called her work a Ribbon around a bomb. Those surrealists. Such juxtaposition.

[Beckett]

She sells a painting that hangs in the Louvre. It's called the Frame. It is one of her self portraits of a unibrowed Frida surrounded by an intricate and very Mexican inspired frame of birds and flowers. She's the first artist to hang in the Louvre who was a 20th century Mexican.

[History Chicks Host 1]

That's awesome.

[Beckett]

She is on the COVID of French.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Vogue and Schiaparelli Couturier Deluxe actually created a robe, Madame Rivera. So the art, not so much really, except for the painting, of course, at the Louvre. But what they really loved about her was her Persona, her personality, her magnetisme, her.

[Beckett]

She's exotic to them.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And another exotic member of Parisian society who we have talked about in episode 34 and 35, by the way, Josephine Baker, Another Frida if you ever.

[Beckett]

I know, isn't that funny?

[History Chicks Host 1]

So we've got Frida with an I and Frida with an E. Met up and really hit it off. Pause, if you know what I mean. Yeah, that was a fabulous affair that we actually forgot to cover during the Josie Mako podcast.

[Beckett]

Yeah, we sure did.

[History Chicks Host 1]

We do have a picture of the meeting of the two Fridas. I love that. Really, it was a triumph, at least socially, and it was the beginning of the tipping point, I think, with the art. But Frida, on the other hand, was not so into Paris. She thought it was very fake and very superficial and she was irritated that the artist didn't talk about. She's so used to the Mexican art world, which was so tied into politics and, you know, the Communist party and moving forward with the people and art becomes one society. And she thought that the Parisian artists were more concerned with getting patronage and sitting on their booties in a cafe chair talking about nothing. She was really not into the whole laissez faire languorous attitude of the Parisian social world. So she wanted to get out of there. So she got back to Mexico and we can't have good times for very long because Diego had an announcement. Diego wanted to get a divorce.

[Beckett]

Not just a separation, a divorce. Why did he want to do it? Maybe he wanted to shack up with Claudette Godard, the actress.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah.

[Beckett]

But what he said was, it's the.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Only way to preserve our friendship. Yeah. So they got divorced. And how did Frida feel? All you really have to do is look at her art. There is a famous piece of art called the Two Fridas. And it's like Frida when she is loved, Frida when she is not. Loved. And it is clear how she feels. Las dos. Frida, if you want to know the actual name. But she wrote in her diary, I will love him all my life, even if he wouldn't want me to. But she cut off her hair. The classic movie maneuver. She started to not dress in her Tijuana outfits anymore. She was so, so lonesome. There's another painting called the Wounded Table where she's sitting with Judas in a skeleton. I. I can't. You can't be more clear than that. How she feels. And then Diego. Classic Diego. She did her best work when we were divorced. Like, so admiring. So good for her art. God, dude, you know, he's taking credit for it. Yeah, I divorced her. She became a better artist. Whatever. She had written in her diary, this dictionary of color meanings, which we should put in a special feature. And yellow was considered to be the color of misery and the color of craziness and the color. And there's a lot of yellow in these paintings. A lot. Now on to Trotsky and his fate.

[Beckett]

Trotsky's gonna die.

[History Chicks Host 1]

He was assassinated rather spectacularly. And Frieda. And with an ice pick.

[Beckett]

I mean, they. They shot at the guy several times and missed him. So Stalin sends a guy with an ice pick, and that's what does him in.

[History Chicks Host 1]

That's. I can't even think about that ice pick. Okay, so Frida was hauled in two nights in jail. Christina, her sister, was hauled in two nights in jail, and the police just let the kids stay in the house.

[Beckett]

Just.

[History Chicks Host 1]

There's no food. They have no food. And so Frida and Christina, of course, are the most concerned in jail about, please, can somebody take the children some food in a place where, like, that's not our job. So they finally clear her of assassinating him, and she is horribly, horribly ill. She is.

[Beckett]

Her health is never gonna get. Get much better. Diego has fled to San Francisco. He's not even in the country. Her health is declining, and she thinks she needs to go to her doctor in San Francisco. And, oh, yeah, well, Diego just happens to be there, too. So she does.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And Diego wants to remarry. And her friends are like, don't do it, girl. Are you crazy? He is the exact same. But Frida said, no one will ever know. How I love Diego. I don't want anything to wound him. Nothing should bother him or take away the energy he needs. Needs to live, to live the way he wishes. He can take it all. She said, okay, whatever. The ways of the heart. Mysterioso.

[Beckett]

And she's kind of talking about his art too. If she get went back to him, perhaps his art would improve even more. I just love how they're both taking credit for the other person's art.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, Frida was smarter this time. Fine, yes, let's do get married. But financially, we're going to go back to 50.

[Beckett]

50.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So you have no power over me. And I don't get used to it. It depending on you. And no bedroom action. Finito. She can't handle it that emotional like that way. He's a mess. She's all done. So if you want to get married under those conditions, I mean, good for her. For heart Alec or whatever.

[Beckett]

Yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So he agreed eagerly, like she was his base or whatever. I. I don't really get it. But. So it was. They were remarried and they moved back to the blue house. So no more of the dual existence in the studio with the bridge. They're back in the blue house. One house, one marriage. Yes.

[Beckett]

Pretty. Sound like the name of a tequila.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I wonder if it is. I would not be surprised. It's the house where Frida grew up in. Every day. Frida made the house into a still life for Diego. She said she liked to arrange things just so the house, in fact, at this period of time. Sounds very awesome. It's. It does.

[Beckett]

This sounds like the best. I mean, as a spectator, this sounds like a really good time in her life. She's got plants and animals, she's got monkeys.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And friends will come over and drink out of these rough terracotta cups around this big table. There's lanterns, there's painted tiles. The garden opens up into the. And then the garden comes in and the garden goes out. And people break into song. And there's. It really does seem like that ideal situation. And Diego says, at this point, Frida is a better painter than I am. Well, we always knew that. That I think. But it's really the tipping point of attention to Frida. There's exhibitions, loans to art museums all over the world, articles, government commissions. She gets a job at the School of Painting and Sculpture. She inspired such love among her students.

[Beckett]

I read that she didn't treat them like students, but they. She treated them like esteemed colleagues, which I'm sure goes a long way.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Guillermo Monroy is one of her students, and he wrote she Walked on the Door the first day. Now, keep in mind, you're used to a more strict system of education where the maestra is the maestra and you will button your face. You know, that's how it was and so when this chick walks in looking like she looks, she's back to Tijuana, back to the way she, we know her. She walks in and says, well, kids, let's go to work. I'll be your so called teacher, though I'm really not any such thing. I want to be your friend. I've never been a painting teacher and I think I won't ever be. I'm always learning. I want you to know there does not exist in the whole world a single teacher who's capable of teaching arts. To do that is truly impossible.

[Beckett]

That's a good way to look at it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

The student said, will you pose for us? And she just walked to the front of the room and posed for them. And thus became a beautiful friendship. She got a little baby gang of her own together. These group of students called Los Fridos parties at her house that were half parties and half painting sessions and just people would get all inspired and start dancing in it.

[Beckett]

What a great place to be inspired at the home of Diego and Frida.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Another student just quoted as saying she made poetry around her almost. It seemed during this period. To me this is going to seem really foofy and I don't even know how to say it any differently, but it almost seems like she's getting purified. Like grace is coming out of her or something.

[Beckett]

Oh.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Like she's like, like spreading her benevolence over her area. Her last bit of awesome here.

[Beckett]

That's, that's an interesting way to put it because while she's doing that, she's physically deteriorating at a rapid pace. I mean, she's having spinal taps, she's having corset confinement, she's having several operations on her spine and her leg. And this is physically an extremely excruciating time for her. And yet she's giving all that.

[History Chicks Host 1]

It's almost like the suffering is making it, it concentrate or something, I don't know. But during this next six year period, she has 28 what they call orthopedic corsets. Some were made of steel, some were made of plaster, some had rings in them that she could be hung from the ceiling to stretch her spine. I mean, people would come in and start crying because of the rig she was in. She'd have to be lowered with a pulley system to get back into bed. Bone grafts and metal plates. One doctor put a metal plate in, the next one's like, what the hell is that? Metal plate in there? Took it back out. Bone grafts that didn't take infections from bone grafts. I mean, it just literally this part. Bless them. I don't know anything about medicine, but right now it seems like we're in the court of Henry VIII and people are jacking around with bleeding and leeches and nobody knows what they're doing. And if they had left her alone, just alone. Can we just stop torturing the patient? It may have turned out better, but bless him. I don't know what's going on. After a life of pain, she's still.

[Beckett]

Allowing these operations to happen, though.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah. I don't know. But she began to take copious amounts of morphine just to get by. Copious amounts. She really. It's just shocking situation here. But she's flat on her back most of the time. So she's back to painting that that old way. She's lost so much weight and she's very anemic. She's got. They discover finally, a bone wasting disease called osteomyelitis, where her bones are literally disintegrating and gangrene has led to the removal of a couple of her toes. She's living on flat on her back.

[Beckett]

Yeah. And you can see. I mean, you don't even have to. I don't know a whole lot about art, but you can see a real stark contrast between her paintings from before this period and her paintings at this time. I mean, it's just. You can see that physically her limitations are pretty significant. She starts painting still life for coconuts. Crying.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Well, friends would come and fix her hair with ribbons and put ornaments in her. She's really surrounded by this little group of devoted women and a nurse named Judith Ferretto that used to sing her to sleep and hold her hands.

[Beckett]

Love that.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Which I thought was good. Now I find myself longing for Diego to be the one holding her hand and seeing her to sleep. But we know him by now. That is not in his area of expertise.

[Beckett]

Now he's out with other actresses, creating public scandals. At one point, Christina goes up to the woman that he's having this affair with and says, stop. You can't keep going with him because it hurts Frida. And the woman stops. I gotta give Christina props for that. I mean, that's redemption as far as I'm concerned, for her little dalliance.

[History Chicks Host 1]

But all Frida really said about Diego at this point was kind of very, very sadly. She said, I never had him. He was always only his own. So there's that. Now here along comes the year of 1953. She's 47 years old.

[Beckett]

Frida has a dream at this point in her life. And she has never had a solo exhibition in her home country.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And a gallery owner, gallery of Contemporary art has decided, and I quote, I think honors should be given to people when they're still alive to enjoy them, not when they're dead. And she proposed to Diego. Would this be acceptable? Diego is very excited and said this would be ideal. And he helped a lot to get this to go well.

[Beckett]

Nothing's better for art than a deadline.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Correct? And so the day came. The day came of the exhibition. The buzz was crazy. The buzz was worldwide. I mean, people kept calling, is she going to be there? She. I'm so excited for the thing. Nobody could get their mind back on the ground. Everyone was so excited. The day came, but Frida was too ill to move. The doctors were like, no, you're going to park it. She was not going to miss this. She had herself carried to the sofa and literally sent her bed to the gallery. This huge four poster bed with canopies was made into part of the exhibition. You can always count on a gallery owner right in the middle. They hung a picture on the bottom, like this is meant to be like this. And there's the artist. So then Frida climbs into an ambulance.

[Beckett]

They drive her to the gallery. Now she is hopped up on morphine and who knows what else because the woman is in some serious pain. She gets carried in to the gallery opening and it's kind of subdued. And she arrives and she's like, like, let the party start because I am here.

[History Chicks Host 1]

It is kind of actually the most striking kind of performance art. I mean, here she is carried in. It's a hospital stretcher, but it's like a palanquin of the ancients, you know, she's carried in dun, dun, dun, you know, and placed upon the throne of bed. And everyone had to be like, corralled into a line because everyone starts crowding the bed.

[Beckett]

Oh, yeah.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And the party was great. There was music, there was drinking, there was. She was into the cognac. Heard about now there was cognac there. I mean, just. It was a good spectacle. It was very satisfying. Everyone was appreciative. It went well. And Diego said of this event later, I thought she must have realized at this party that she was saying goodbye to life.

[Susan]

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[History Chicks Host 1]

It is.

[History Chicks Host 2]

It's what I rely on to keep my curls curly. Satin is a synthetic. It's rough on your hair, it's rough on your skin. It's inexpensive for a reason. But Blissey's 100% mulberry silk pillowcases are the premium pillowcase. That's what you need the silk kind.

[Susan]

Silk is naturally hydrating and it keeps your skin and hair moisturized all night. Also antibacterial and hypoallergenic. And in these transitional nights where you're like, is the air conditioner on? It's off. Do we turn it on? What temperature is it going to be? It's very stressful. Well, these silk pillowcases are naturally cooling.

[History Chicks Host 2]

And they feel so luxurious. I just love laying down to them.

[Beckett]

I feel.

[History Chicks Host 2]

I feel like, I don't know, like that would be the bed of a queen or something. Ooh, a little treat yourself or treat anybody's self. There are colors to match any decor, over 99 of them. So go check out Blissey's website. They have so many colors to choose from.

[Susan]

Also, I typically try to buy. As a person who celebrates Christmas, I try to get my stocking stuffers handled in October. And so it is one of the best gifts of 2024. And so I say get everyone a slick pillowcase and put it in the stocking. If you are a stocking assembler.

[History Chicks Host 2]

I gave them last year. My kids all love them and you can try them out too, because you're a listener. Blissy is offering 60 nights wrist risk free, plus an additional 30% off when you [e-mail] historychicks that's B L I.

[Susan]

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[History Chicks Host 1]

Her poor, poor leg. Her poor leg had to be amputated not long after this successful party. And after that, never the same again. She was wildly emotional.

[Beckett]

She. I mean, she had been in and out of depressions, but this was. How could it not? She's had a whole life of this level of pain now. She's been on painkillers for so long, her future is bleak. She can't do the things she loves to do the most.

[History Chicks Host 1]

She's so bad that Diego came back. He would even stop painting. If someone came and said she needed him now, that is how bad? Because we know how he ends. He would never stop working for this kind of situation. But it was so bad and the end was so clearly near that he would stop what he was doing, lay things down and come home. Her last birthday, 100 guests came to her house. It was like a tiny reflection of those golden days with all the artists and the music and the flowing food and, you know, tamales, peasant food. Friends came and went, really did say their goodbyes. She was able to say calm. This wasn't strangers at the gallery. This was old friends that came to her party. She went upstairs at the early hour of 8 o' clock and said goodbye to everyone. Really, that was really the last. That was the curtain call. Yeah, there was a tiny little blaze later, she. She was able to go to a Communist Party rally in her wheelchair. She was so sick, but she really was very proud. Her presence at that rally seemed to galvanize people, and it was like she was a rallying point. And so she had said goodbye to her friends, and this is where she kind of said goodbye to her political life. And it ended satisfactorily, too. She had a good public goodbye, a good friend goodbye. And now this is this quiet, little silent pride, political goodbye. So there. And then, Tuesday, July 13, 1954, Frida Kahlo died of what was officially termed a pulmonary embolism.

[Beckett]

Or it may have been an accidental overdose, or it may have been assisted overdose. There was a few pills that were missing from her medicine, but her body was cremated so quickly, they never did an autopsy.

[History Chicks Host 1]

And, you know, the last drawing she ever did was in her journal. It was a black angel lifting up into the sky. And the last words in her diary are, I hope the exit is joyful, and I hope never to come back. Frida. Frida lay in state at the palace of Fine Arts for just a little while, her coffin covered in a red flag with a hammer and sickle on it. And right after that, Diego had her cremated. Her ashes are still in an urn at the Blue House, which is now a museum.

[Beckett]

Diego only lived three years and one life after. After she died, he died of heart failure in his studio.

[History Chicks Host 1]

So that is the life. Thus ends the turbulent, tortured, really life of Frida Kahlo. Now, her legacy, clearly, is her paintings. 143 paintings, 55 of them of herself. Remember, she says she painted self portraits because she's so often alone. I am the subject I know best. And they're not the same. You know what I mean? They reflect the state of mind as she paints them. I just think it's interesting to put them. I'm sure there's a site, I don't know what it is, where you can put them on order. Yeah, her art after she died, kind of went dormant until there was a movement in the 80s called Neo Mexicanismo. Say that three times fast.

[Beckett]

I don't think I could say it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

One time it was a movement that was kind of going. There was a gallery show of her works in 1982 in London. A famous biography came out in 1983, a movie, 1983. And she came back and now she's a coffee mug. Now she's on a tequila bottle. The tequila is made, ironically, in a town called Jesus Maria. It is $80 for the low end, I believe. But the absurdity of her face on a coffee mug, a bead curtain made out of her face. I think she might think it's kind of funny. She'd probably laugh.

[Beckett]

Probably. We had a museum here in Kansas City. There was a showing of her works recently, and there was a party and people came dressed as her.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Okay, so she is definitely an example of string. Maybe just keep struggling and deal with adversity. And that's what I took away from her.

[Beckett]

The things that she had going against her in life would have spiraled anyone into a very long pity party. And the fact that she could take it out onto her paintbrushes and her canvases, her pain and make people feel her pain that she lived with every day, I think that was her. Her gift to us.

[History Chicks Host 1]

In 2001, she was on a postage stamp, the first Hispanic woman to be featured so on an American postage stamp. In 2010, she was on the 500 peso Mexican banknotes with Diego Rivera. On the obverse side, she's featured with her painting Love Embrace of the universe from 1949. So there's that to get a hold of and frame. So let's talk about websites.

[Beckett]

Oh, yes, there are several. I was actually quite surprised at the amount of Internet options. To learn more about Frida Kahlo, we'll of course link you up on our show notes. But FridaCahlofans.com have done a nice job in putting together a lot of information about her work and her life. There's another one that's also excellent.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Frida kahlo-foundation.org you know, you can also museofridacahlo.org mex. We'll link you up. That's the La Casa Azul museum website. Official museum website, PBS.org actually has a.

[Beckett]

Really nice section on her. It's called the Life and Times of Frida Kahlo. It is super, super cool. There is several of her works of art where you can roll over the images and learn more about the painting based on her life. It's a great little art history lesson for her paintings.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Also biography.com and in that one, there's videos, lots of videos. There is [e-mail], a video of Frida Kahlo and Diego at the Blue House, slightly less than a minute long. I thought that was super cool to see.

[Beckett]

There was a biography video of her from 1983, which is pretty good. You know, those are great because they have a lot of pictures. And then there was a 2002 movie. Salma Hayek as Frida, Alfred Molina as Diego, Ashley Judd as Tina Modati.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I can see it physically, but I didn't know about.

[Beckett]

Yeah, yeah, I didn't hate it. Although I got taken out of the movie so many times because they did this creative thing where they would have this, the painting, and then it would come to light. I can see why they did it because her paintings were her life. And they tried to incorporate the painting as a, you know, still. And then it would come to life. But it kind of took me out of the movie a few times. It was a little odd.

[History Chicks Host 1]

They did make a special point of showing you Josephine Baker in that movie. I'm just saying. Yeah.

[Beckett]

So I. I didn't. I didn't hate it, you know, and ever after watching it, that everything that I was reading, I had Salma Hayek's voice in my head, which, you know, that's not terrible, I guess.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Now, as to books, let me just recommend, like, two. One is, of course, the 1983 Frida Autobiography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. The granddaddy established biography.

[Beckett]

Yeah, there's a lot of meat in that one.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Yeah, it's long. It's long. It's thorough. And then there is a book. You know what I would recommend, especially with this person, is go to your library and get a book. Pretty much any book I know Susan has actually one that I would recommend specifically, but any book that has her life written alongside her pictures, because that is what you're going to need. Yeah, I think that will make it make a lot of sense.

[Beckett]

This was my absolute favorite reference book. It's called Self Portrait and a Velvet Dress. That's Frida's wardrobe. It's fashioned from the Museo Frida Kahlo. And in it, as I open up this coffee table book, are her actual clothes, photographs of her clothes. And then they're. I've used just the clothes, like, three times. They're shown next to the actual paintings. That she was doing at the time. So it's just so fascinating. Just lots of photographs of her, of her painting, of famous photographs of her, and then the actual garment that she was wearing in that photograph. It's a treasure. I would actually like to own that book. That's how much I liked it. The other one that I really liked was Frida Kahlo Beneath the Mirror by Jerry Sutor. Again, another coffee table book filled with her paintings. And like Beckett said, there's the description of her life alongside the paintings. And so that was kind of key. What totally threw me about this particular subject is her paintings were very PG13. But if you go to your library, you will find so many children's books about Frida Kahlo. It blew my mind. I mean, it just blew my mind. The one that I personally, I got a lot of them and I read them with my son. The one that we like best was Me, Frida by Avi Novesti and illustrated by David Diaz. It's just. Illustrations are just really wonderful, and it was a nice story. Talks about her time in San Francisco with Diego. As far as fiction goes, I love this book. It's the Secret book of Frida Kahlo, A novel by F.G. hagenbath. It. It. It's written. He's a Mexican writer, so he. The style is very Latin style of novel. It's not like Philippa Gregory at all. And death is an actual entity that follows her through the story. But factually, this book was terrific. And what made this book even cooler for me was it has recipes in it.

[History Chicks Host 1]

I was.

[Beckett]

There's recipes at the end of every chapter. And I was getting so hungry reading this book that I was complaining about it on Twitter, about how hungry I was getting. One of our longtime listeners, Nani, or I was complaining on Twitter and she was writing me back, and I was saying, oh, I'm reading this book. I can't tell you who it's about, but the recipes are making me so hungry. And she says, well, if you can find me a no sugar, no sweetener, no preservative, gluten and dairy, a free recipe, I'm all in. So, Nani, I found it for you. I will print that recipe on our website just for you or anyone else.

[History Chicks Host 1]

What's it a recipe for?

[Beckett]

It is a recipe for. Hold on. I will tell you exactly. Ribs for the dead. Dr. Leo. It's a rib recipe. So you didn't say anything about meats.

[History Chicks Host 1]

Wow. Yeah. It was like, golly, what's left after all that I know, right? So that will do it for Frida Kahlo. Her last painting, a painting of simple watermelons cut in different ways, one of which, across the bottom, Frida has written, viva la vida. Long live life. And perhaps that's what Frida means. Don't waste it. Thanks for listening.

[Beckett]

Bye.

[History Chicks Host 1]

For show notes, links to the things we talked about today, or to donate, please Visit [e-mail] if you'd like to send real life, please tell a few friends or leave a review for us on itunes. Our music comes courtesy of musicalie.

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Could you send me the link to.

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