Frida Kahlo

Most people associate Frida Kahlo with her influential works of art, but little people know that she may have played a part in the assassination of Leon Trotsky.

Frida Kahlo was born in Coyoacan, Mexico in 1907. When she was young she had contracted polio, leaving one of her legs badly crippled. In 1925 she was involved in a dangerous bus accident leaving her with numerous injuries including a shattered pelvis, a broken spinal column, collarbone, and a few ribs. (Tibol 5) This left her in overwhelming pain physically and emotionally for the rest of her life. The bus accident destroyed her chances of having children, and she was a victim to a miscarriage out of wedlock. Constant grief fueled Frida as an artist. Therefore, she became one of the most popular artists of this past century.

When Kahlo was eighteen, she began to paint. Following her bus accident she was bedridden for almost a year and during that time she expressed her grave pain through art and poetry. She attended the National Preparatory School, and there, at the age of 21, she met the famous muralist Diego Rivera through the famous photographer and revolutionary Tina Modotti. In 1929 they were married. They shared a rocky relationship and it caused Kahlo to give up her love of painting to dedicate herself to him. Infidelity and Rivera’s projects soon drove a wedge between them. He had an affair with Kahlo’s younger sister, and in return, Kahlo embarked on several affairs with both men and women for the rest of her life. (Tibol 25) One of these affairs was with the Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky when he was offered refuge in Mexico while being hunted by his rival Stalin in 1937. (Edward Lucie-Smith) In 1940 Kahlo and Rivera divorced for unknown reasons. While in exile, Trotsky moved into the home of Kahlo’s parents. There was a quarrel between the two, and Trotsky was assassinated in the same year. His assassin was a friend of Kahlo’s.