Frida as a Saint? As a Martyr?
This is the result of my thoughts on the worship that started about fifteen years ago following an exhibition of her paintings in Berlin and the publishing of her biography by Hayden Herrera.

Living in Coyoacan, I had the chance to meet Frida Kahlo and and Diego Rivera when I was a child, and a few years ago I decided to design a tour which follows the steps of this controversial couple.

People are now standing in a long queue which goes all around the Casa Azul, gathering like a flock to get into this ‘mystic and holy’ place.

Sisal bags bear Frida’s picture embroidered in spangles, and her face is painted on beach pareos - with her dark, thick, bird-like eyebrows flying in the ocean’s wind.
Frida, Frida, everywhere… on scarves, ties, mirrors, and clay figures from Oaxaca. Postcards of her with that erotic shade above her lips have now become icons competing with the images of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Writing books about her recipes and essays about her art, publishing facsimile of her diary, has now become a literary phenomenon.

Despite having been criticized by many Mexicans as a very commercial movie, Salma Hayek’s Frida succeeded in promoting our country at its best, something the previous film of Paul Leduc with Ofelia Medina (what an excellent work of art!) did not manage to achieve.

The theater performance Cada Quien su Frida (Each one’s her own Frida) played by Ofelia Medina takes now place in the house of El Indio Fernandez and is produced by his daughter Adela.

A few years ago the colonial village of Coyoacan was just a southern suburb of Mexico City, almost unknown to tourism. Now it has become a place of pilgrimage, a magnet attracting ‘curious’ visitors.

However, this saint will never be canonized.

by Marlene Ehrenberg (photo by glyph hunter)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 1:09 am and is filed under mexican culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.