390“Cristina brought a big basket”: Campos, private interview.
390“I never lost my spirit”: Bambi, “Un Remedio de Lupe Marín.”
391[Dr. Farill] had founded a hospital: Dr. Armando Navarro, private interview, Mexico City, March 1977.
391Frida called him "chulito”: Eugenia Farill de Pastor, private interview, Mexico City, July 1977.
391she was especially attached to him: Velasco y Polo, private interview.
392She could propel herself in her wheelchair: Elena Martinez, private interview, Mexico City, October 1978.
393Her day began with tea: Ibid.
393"Chaparrita, what are you up to?”: Ibid.
393“María Félix was very intimate”: Ibid.
393Dr. Velasco y Polo would pick her up: Velasco y Polo, private interview.
394“in one moment you would see a multitude”: Judith Ferreto, interviewed by Karen and David Crommie.
394“We’d dance and sing”: Bernice Kolko, interviewed by Karen and David Crommie.
394“I love him for many things”: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
394He would undress her very tenderly: Tibol, private interview.
394“I very much love”: Tibol, Crónica, p. 32.
394“I’m going to be a little old woman”: Rabel, private interview.
395“Because she was immobile”: Rabel, private interview.
395“If one refused to accept a present”: Ríos y Valles, private interview.
396“One day . . . Diego said to me”: Bambi, “Frida Es una Mitád.”
396“I was a member of the Party before I met Diego”: Rosa Castro, “Cartas de Amor: Un Libro de Frida Kahlo.”
396“Many things in this life now bore me”: Robles, “La Personalidad de Frida Kahlo.”
399“The style of her last paintings”: Velasco y Polo, private interview.
399she now got her hands and clothes covered with pigment: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
399“I must paint tomorrow”: Ibid.
399Her house, Frida said, was theirs: The words on Frida’s wall begin: “House of . . .”
399Several among her old friends were put off: Lupe Marín, private interview.
400One friend was so shocked: Private interview with a friend of Frida’s who wishes to remain anonymous.
400Raquel Tibol recalls Frida’s fury: Tibol, private interview.
400she tried to hang herself: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
400Tibol also tells of the suicide of a brain-damaged girl: Tibol, private interview. It has also been said that the girl was not a suicide but was actually killed by Frida, who, in a fit of rage, struck her with her crutch (private interview with a friend of Frida’s and Diego’s who wishes to remain anonymous).
Judith Ferreto told Karen and David Crommie a story that may very well be a third version of the same death. According to Ferreto, a girl died in Frida’s house from contagious encephalitis. “Frida was in a state of crisis and was almost impossible to calm down. We had to leave the house in quarantine and move to my apartment for about a month.”
400Alejandro Gómez Arias remembers [Ferreto]: Gómez Arias, private interview.
400“You are like a fascist”: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
401“I think I have cultivated your feelings”: Ibid.
401“I started working with her”: Ibid.
402“They lived together”: Ibid.
402he had cancer of the penis: Rivera, My Art, My Life, p. 234.
402“he needs someone to take care of him”: Castro, private interview.
402“I love Diego more than ever”: Bambi, “Un Remedio de Lupe Marín,” p. 3.
403Frida herself chose the grouping: Julio García Scherer, “Satira Fina, Nunca En-mohina,” undated newspaper clipping, Isolda Kahlo archive.
403“for pure pleasure”: Ibid.
403there was even talk of changing the pulquería’s name: Monroy, private interview.
404dazzling but grotesque afternoon: Rosa Castro, “Galería del Mundo"— “Recordando a Frida Kahlo,” El Día (Mexico City), July 19, 1966.
CHAPTER 23: HOMAGE TO FRIDA KAHLO
405“They had just performed a bone transplant”: Dolores Alvarez Bravo, Crommie interview.
405folkloric invitations: Arturo García Bustos has an invitation in his personal archive.
406The gallery also printed a brochure: A copy is in the Frida Kahlo archive. The show was called “Primicias para un Homenaje a Frida Kahlo” (Preliminaries for an Homage to Frida Kahlo), because a larger retrospective was being planned by the National Institute of Fine Arts. As things turned out, it was never held. Rodríguez (private interview) said that it was canceled because of the scandal that ensued when Frida’s funeral was turned into a political act. The exhibition was to have taken place in the summer of 1954—the time when Frida died.
406When the night of the opening approached: This account is based on the Crommie interview with Dolores Alvarez Bravo, and Dolores Alvarez Bravo, private interview.
407“There was a traffic jam outside”: Dolores Alvarez Bravo, Crommie interview.
407“The photographers and reporters were so surprised”: Ibid.
407“We asked people to keep walking”: Ibid.
408Carlos Pellicer acted as traffic policeman: Morillo Safa, private interview.
408“Stay with me”: Monroy, private interview.
408Carlos Pellicer had tears in his eyes; Morillo Safa, private interview.
408She asked the writer Andrés Henestrosa to sing La Llorona: Henestrosa, private interview.
408“Anda, hijo”: Velasco y Polo, private interview.
408“All the cripples of Mexico”: Henestrosa, private interview, and Andrés Henestrosa, Una Alacena de Alacenas, pp. 87–89.
409“Frida was very fixed up”: Monroy, private interview.
409“It was . . . a little spectacular”: Tibol, private interview.
409“Everybody and his dog was there”: Morillo Safa, private interview.
409“we received calls”: Dolores Alvarez Bravo, Crommie interview.
410“It is impossible . . . to separate the life and work”: J. Moreno Villa, “La Realidad y el Deseo en Frida Kahlo.”
410Time magazine reported the news: Time, “Mexican Autobiography.”
410“For me, the most thrilling event”: Rivera, My Art, My Life, pp. 283–84.
410some of the images . . . that hung on the walls: According to the press (Excelsior, unsigned review, Apr. 12, 1953), there were some thirty-six paintings, all from private collections and none for sale. The exhibition brochure listed only thirty-one items, one entry being a group of drawings and another, Frida’s diary. Also included in the exhibition were Frida’s 1927 Self-Portrait drawn in pencil, many of Morillo Safa’s Kahlos, and two works belonging to Marte R. Gómez. Several works listed in the brochure are not attributed to specific owners, and some cannot be identified (for example, Mujer de Sarape, lent by the late Frederick Davis; Self-Portrait, lent by Sra. Emilia Moreschi; and Frida in Flames, lent by Teresa Proenza. La Tierra Misma (The Earth Itself) is listed as lent by Dolores del Rio. Perhaps it is Two Nudes in a Forest, identified by another title.
CHAPTER 24: NIGHT IS FALLING IN MY LIFE
412“I had gone to leave a ring”: Zendejas, private interview.
413“Do you know”: Elena Poniatowska, “El Museo Frida Kahlo.”
413“they were saying over and over again”: Bambi, “Un Remedio de Lupe Marín.”
416The circle . . . is a fearful image: Such an image is also seen in a strange, unfinished painting of a body in a rocky landscape that hangs today in Frida’s bedroom in her museum. Though it is unsigned and is not listed in the museum’s catalogue, I believe it is a work from Frida’s last years. Except for the rough painting technique, the landscape is almost identical to the landscape in Roots. A small hill and a ravine are similarly situated in both paintings. The proportion of earth to sky is the same. The painting seems, like Roots
, to depict a sleeping figure, but there the resemblance ends. Instead of a neatly executed self-portrait, we see an amorphous body that appears to merge with, or decompose into, the earth. In one corner of the painting there is a cactus—that hardy symbol of the persistence of life. Next to it, a face or a cast-off mask stares plaintively at the sky.
416she said that she had replaced her motto: Henestrosa, private interview.
416Frida tried to cheer them up: Rodríguez, “Frida Kahlo: El Homenaje,” p. 50, and private interview.
416“The night before the operation”: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
417“Tell them I am sleeping”: Ibid.
417“Following the loss of her leg”: Rivera, My Art, My Life, p. 284.
417“Diego had some person in his studio”: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
418[Diego] was a “wonderful collaborator”: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
419“often during her convalescence”: Rivera, My Art, My Life, p. 284.
419“She sent to have a special boot made”: Velasco y Polo, private interview. It was Dr. Velasco y Polo, not Dr. Farill, who amputated Frida’s leg. Because he was lame, Dr. Farill did not perform amputations.
419Frida said she would “dance her joy”: Flores Guerrero, Cinco Pintores Mexicanos, p. 16.
419she twirled in front of friends: Castro, “Carta a Frida Kahlo.”
419“Frida was very proud”: Tibón, private interview, Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico, July 1977.
419Rosa Castro went to visit: Castro, “Carta a Frida Kahlo.”
420“Frida used to joke”: Morillo Safa, private interview.
421not wanting to ask for help: Martinez, private interview.
421“Yesterday, May 7”: The text reads 1953, but I believe Frida wrote the wrong year, since the entry follows one dated April 1954.
422“sometimes just a word”: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
422Raquel Tibol tells of an occasion: Tibol, private interview.
422“But the moment Diego appeared”: Castro, private interview.
422“Why did I do it?”: Zendejas, private interview.
423Judith Ferreto tried to explain: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
423“Every night he stays up”: Bambi, “Frida Dice Lo Que Sabe,” p. 7.
423“Her relations with Diego”: Loló de la Torriente, “Recuerdos de Frida Kahlo,” p. 9.
423“No one knew how much I love Diego”: Robles, “La Personalidad de Frida Kahlo.”
423she had permission: Tibol, private interview.
424“Once I went to see her”: Ríos y Valles, private interview.
425probably Marx’s Capital: This was a book she treasured. In a list of things she wanted to accomplish, which is displayed in the Frida Kahlo Museum, Frida noted that she wanted Capital sent out to be rebound.
425“For the first time”: Ferreto, Crommie interview. Frida did, in fact, cast aside her crutches at the time she produced Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick, but after walking a few steps, she fell, aggravating her already critical condition (García Bustos, private interview).
425“I cannot”: Ibid.
425“I want my work to be a contribution”: Rodríguez, “Frida Abjura del Surrealismo.”
426One spring day, Dr. Farill: Eugenia Farill, private interview.
426“Haven’t you seen the other?”: Tibol, “Frida Kahlo: En el Segundo Aniversario de su Muerte.” As Tibol described the painting, it was a self-portrait showing Frida wearing tweed pants and a rebozo and standing guard next to a crematorium. Tibol also recalled that Frida painted it on a small piece of wood. Although this description does not entirely coincide with the extant painting entitled The Brick Kilns, it seems likely that the painting Tibol watched Frida paint in 1954 is the same one. The painting of Frida’s face inside a sunflower may be the one (recorded in a photograph) that shows the nude Frida holding in one hand a sunflower that hides her genitals, and, in the other, paintbrushes and a mask that bears her features. Her own face has lost its features and been transformed into four petals that radiate light out onto other flowers, which fill the background. Dolores Olmedo said (private interview) that this painting depicts her body and Frida’s face (as a mask) and that the portrait relates to Rivera’s idea that there was a duality between Dolores Olmedo and Frida—they were opposites that complemented each other.
427“In her last days”: Morillo Safa, private interview.
427“During those days”: Ferreto, Crommie interview.
427“I went and spent most of the day”: Ibid. Because of her own poor health, Ferreto was not working for Frida at this time.
428“What are you going to give me as a prize”: Bambi, “Manuel, el Chófer,” p. 5.
428She even invited Lupe Marín: Radar, “Etcetera,” July 15, 1954.
429She said she wanted to adopt a child: Zendejas, private interview.
429An invitation to Russia: Bambi, “Manuel, el Chófer,” p. 1.
429She was excited about . . . traveling to Poland: Ibid.
429“Traigan mucha raza”: Ibid.
429“Gringos asesinos”: Tibol, Crónica, illustration caption, n.p.
430“I only want three things”: J.O., “Frida Kahlo, Una Vida de Martiro,” July 22, 1954, newspaper clipping, Isolda Kahlo archive.
430she got out of bed: Rivera, My Art, My Life, pp. 284-85.
430“It was not awkward to speak”: González Ramírez, “Frida Kahlo o el Imperativo de Vivir,” p. 25.
430“Let’s start celebrating”: Bambi, “Manuel, el Chófer,” p.1.
431“pulmonary embolism”: El Nacional, July 14, 1954.
431“I sat beside her bed”: Rivera, My Art, My Life, pp. 284–85.
431Bambi published a long report: Bambi, “Manuel, el Chófer,” pp. 1, 5.
432Rivera called Dr. Velasco y Polo: Velasco y Polo, private interview.
432At 11:00 P.M.: Bambi, “Manuel, el Chófer,” p. 5.
432“Señor,” he said: Ibid., p. 1. Dr. Velasco y Polo recalled (private interview) that when he returned to the house after Frida was dead, “Frida was lying in her bed. They told me that Frida had been found dead in the bathtub. Apparently what happened was that her leg was troubling her, and she got up and went into the bathroom. Then she fell and died.”
CHAPTER 25: VIVA LA VIDA
433“He became an old man”: Ella Paresce, letter to Bertram D. Wolfe (July 23, 1954), Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
433“I beg of you”: Wolfe, Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera, p. 400.
433“Diego was completely alone”: Marín, private interview.
434“It was terrible for me”: Campos, private interview.
434“Naturally, when I came there”: Kolko, Crommie interview.
434“Diego went with his chauffeur”: Ibid.
434He had asked . . . for a death certificate: Velasco y Polo, private interview.
434“When she was lying in state”: Castro, private interview.
435“No political banners”: Wolfe, Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera, p. 400. This account of Frida’s funeral comes largely from Wolfe’s Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera, from Press accounts in the Isolda Kahlo archive, and from interviews with Arturo García Bustos and Dr. Velasco y Polo.
435He threatened to take Frida’s body: Foto-Gión, 48, undated clipping from a magazine, Isolda Kahlo archive.
435“If General Cárdenas”: Wolfe, The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera, p. 401.
435“Russophile farce”: Undated newspaper clipping, Isolda Kahlo archive.
436He told one newspaper reporter: Rodolfo Contreras A., “Frida Kahlo, la Artista del Pincel, Dejó de Existir Ayer,” Novedades (Mexico City), July 14, 1954, p. 19.
436“Frida has died”: Iduarte, “Imagen de Frida Kahlo.”
436“You will always be alive”: The Pellicer poem has never been published in English. I have translated the last three lines from the original Spanish; the first line reads, “Si en tu vientre acampo la prodigiosa. "
4
36“iron will to live”: “El Cadáver de la Artista Frida Kahlo, Incinerado en Dolores,” Novedades (Mexico City), July 15, 1954, p. 26.
436At quarter past one: Ibid.
437Rivera wanted to send Frida off with music: Monroy, private interview, and Guillermo Monroy, “Vayan a la Cámara del Horno a Despedir a Frida Kahlo,” Excelsior (Mexico City), July 13, 1975, pp. 1, 5, 8.
438“Rivera stood with his hands in fists”: Monroy, private interview.
438“Everyone was hanging on to Frida’s hands”: Zendejas, private interview.
438Cristina became hysterical: Paresce, letter to Bertram Wolfe.
438when the flames ignited her hair: Tibol, “Frida Kahlo: Segundo Aniversario.”
438A blast of suffocating heat: Monroy, “Vayan a la Cámara del Horno.” See also Novedades, “El Cadáver de la Artista,” p. 17.
438With his face completely absorbed: Estrada, private interview.
438He asked that his ashes be mixed with Frida’s: Some time after Frida’s death, Antonio Peláez asked Rivera to write a few words to accompany Peláez’s portrait of Frida to be published in his 21 Mujeres de Mexico (21 Mexican Women, Editorial Fournier, S.A., 1956, p. 21). One paragraph from Rivera’s contribution said: “Whoever had the matchless luck to be close to Frida, inside her love, can—at the hour when she changed her presence through the fire—fall deeper and deeper into the endless abyss that left worlds, understanding them better each instant, in the hopes of gaining complete happiness by having his own ashes mixed well, molecule against molecule with hers.”
438“July 13, 1954, was the most tragic day of my life”: Rivera, My Art, My Life, pp. 285–86.
439a bag containing her ashes: Juan Soriano, interviewed by Elizabeth Gerhard at the author’s request, Paris, June 1978. Another story has it that Rivera ate some of Frida’s ashes.
439pregnant “because being dead”: Lesley notes.
439paintings by Rivera and others: Frida’s art collection included works by Paul Klee, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, José María, Velasco, and José Clemente Orozco.
439“I made one other stipulation”: Rivera, My Art, My Life, pp. 285–86.
440Eight days before she died: Rodríguez, “Frida Kahlo: El Homenaje,” p. 50.
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