A Biography of Frida Kahlo (101-201)

Summary: The narrator begins to go into depths on Frida and Diego's marriage, from the observers point of view it was like a union of lions,their loves, battles, separations, and sufferings. To explain why their love would be described as wild relates to all the times Diego cheated on Frida, yet Frida said she could careless and was actually amused by his affairs. She had begun to be like a mother mother figure to Diego. Mostly Frida just wanted to be a supporting wife to Diego. At some point in their marriage, Diego has to go to New York for an opening of his art museum. Frida hated New York, she hated the high society and the "gringos" as she called the Americans. She thought they lacked sensibility and good taste. Even with her dislike of the people she liked all the industrial and mechanical development of the United States. In "Gringolandia", Frida was not introduced by her real name because it was German, and there had been a rise in Nazism. Therefore, Diego would introduce her as Carmen. Later on, Diego and Frida go to Detroit, the hotel in which they had been staying, there was a logo which read, "The best home address Detroit" (Herrera 134). They then find out it meant the hotel did not take in Jews. Diego decides to shout him and Frida are Jews, and that they will have to leave. However, due to their importance the hotel decides to lower the rent to $100 so that they would stay, and they try to say their sign did not really mean that.
         During the time Frida spent in the U.S. she met plenty of wealthy people, including Henry Ford. She assisted to one of his parties, and she danced with him a couple of times. He was very pleased with Frida and when she was ready to leave a car awaited for her with a chauffeur, and he said it was all paid. However, Frida did not accept it and to her excuse she said it was because of her communist view. Ford did not take it offensively and instead the next day he gave her a cheaper car, a Ford in which she then accepted. This is what happened, but Frida tell it differently, she says Henry happened to have a party, and her lame self was there, and he asked Diego if he could offer Frida a present to which then she could accept. As time passed, Frida became pregnant with her first child, but due to her condition she was too weak to keep the child. She went to her doctor to abort and he gave her quinine, but apparently that did not help for she just bled and was still pregnant. The doctor told her to just keep the child, but Frida was afraid she would get much more sick, and that the baby would as well have problems. Also, she had no one to care for her because Diego was working all the time and her family was in Mexico, and a child came in fourth place as a priority. Either way she chose to keep and the child and soon, she was rushed to the emergency room as huge clots of blood were lost. She was in the hospital for thirteen days bleeding, and then she had a missed carriage. To express her feeling Frida decided to paint a self portrait with a swollen face from tears.

Quote: "I have a cat's luck" (Herrera 143).
This quote refers to the time when Frida had recently experienced a missed carriage. She states the above line in a letter to her Doctor. By having a cat's luck she means that plenty of things happen to her, but she does not die easily, like a cat which has nine lives. She begins to think that in the end there are thousands of things that always remain incomplete, and that she will just have to put up with them.

Reaction: My reaction to some of the reading I have done relates to Frida's insights and how anywhere she went she had some sort of way to act, she did not care where she was at she would swear and act like she knew the people. From the first time in which I chose the book, and began to read I thought about what is so interesting about Frida Kahlo that has made her so famous, she can just be any other painter. Then as I read more about her life she has gone through plenty of harsh moments. The author has the style to give an insight into something about Frida and then use Frida's own words on the event. Which gives a better understanding to her character, and how she was a strong humble woman.