Frida Kahol

Frida Kahol

Frida Kahlo was born in July 6, 1907 to two Jewish immigrants. Frida had three sisters, and though her status as daddy's favorite set her apart from the others, her run in with polio at the age of six in 1913 would forever make her different. After time, Frida was left with a permanently smaller, withered right leg, and with her father's help, she built up her strength and became one of thirty- five girls out of 2,000 students to be accepted as a pre-medical student at the prestigious National Preparatory School. Frida was somewhat a tomboy, and occasionally dressed like a man to torment her parents. One time she showed up for family portrait wearing a suit.

On a rainy day in September 1925 at the age of eighteen, Frida Kahlo and her boyfriend Alejandro GÐ"Ñ-mez Arias were in Mexico City waiting for a bus that would take them to her home in CoyocÐ"ÐŽn, Mexico. The bus came, and they climbed on. As Frida and Alejandro talked about her plans for medical school, the driver approached a risky intersection and decided to take his chances. Seconds later, an electric trolley rammed into the bus, destroying it and launching bodies everywhere. Frida disappeared in this confusion, and Alejandro, also injured, discovered her covered with blood with a metal pole coming through her left hip and exiting through her womb. After someone pulled the pole out, an ambulance rushed her to the hospital, where doctors treated a fractured pelvis, a dislocated shoulder, two broken ribs, and eleven shattered bones in her right leg and a crushed foot. This accident was the beginning of an unbearably painful series of physical problems that would continue for the rest of her short life. Only two things would offer solace: painting and muralist Diego Rivera.

In 1929, when Kahlo was 22 and Rivera 42, the two were married in the CoyocÐ"ÐŽn courthouse, though Kahlo's mother did not attend the wedding because she hoped her daughter would find a more attractive match. Her mother said their marriage was " like an elephant marrying a dove" due to the age and size difference. Kahlo officially retained her own name, Later that same year, Frida became pregnant, though she had an abortion because her damaged body could not handle the pregnancy without putting her own life at risk. Her repeated inability to have children was a source of pain for her, and she expressed this frustration in her paintings through the major themes of childbirth, blood and fertility. Throughout their marriage Diego had countless affairs with many women, including one with Frida's sister, Christina. Frida was so hurt that she too had affairs, but with men and women