Happy Women’s History Month!
To celebrate this amazing month which reminds us of great women throughout history, here’s the first of several historical badasses highlights.
My personal hero was born in 1907 but claimed to be born in 1910, in Mexico City, not to say she was younger, but to say she was born the year of "La Revolucion de Mexico." Neither of her parents were racially Mexican, but she embraced her ethnicity.
Frida’s life, unfortunately, was an extremely painful one, but through her pain, she made history. Frida had polio when she was very young and that left her with a weak and thin leg, which is why she always wore the iconic Mexican traditional long dresses. She popularized her style on Diego’s American tours when she wore them to art shows and exclusive parties.
Frida Kahlo was also told that she could never have kids after a metal rod pierced her hips in a bus crash. She created an imaginary baby boy and even asked for godparents for the pseudo-baby, even though she was an atheist. This is a dark highlight of how tragic and passionate Frida’s life was.
She married Diego Rivera and had a blissful few years of marriage which eventually ended in a heartbreaking separation. Even though they had an open marriage and Diego did not mind her having other partners who were female, he did mind when she had other male partners. She also did mind when Diego had other female partners, especially when one of them was her sister. When she moved out, Diego begged her to come back to him for many nights.
Relatively an outcast because of her political standings, she stood behind her feminist comrades in rallies and in meetings. An attendee of countless protests and rallies, she stayed true to her beliefs despite her status and the time period she lived in.
Obviously, Frida was an artist, who loved to paint her facial features in an exaggerated way, because she loved the way she looked. She painted mostly self-portraits, not because of vanity, but because she wanted to show how she felt with her face and her body. Even her famous unibrow was over-exaggerated. She focused on the “ugly” features to show people that she is beautiful because she thought she was.
Frida Kahlo led an interesting life, which is very well but not entirely accurately portrayed in the "Frida" (2002) movie, directed by Julie Taymor and starring Salma Hayek. I absolutely loved it and would recommend it to anyone who would like to learn more about her.
