3 Reasons Porque Yo Amo a Freida Kahlo

by Carolina M. Billings

Frida Kahlo, in my opinion, has become one of the ultmate icons for Powerful Women, her unique personality and multfaceted life in the deeply patriarchal culture that is Latn America then and now. She has become a standard-bearer for women’s inner strength, for courage in the face of adversity. Above all, she was a genuine woman who was faithful to her convictons.

To this day, Freida is considered the best artst Mexico has ever seen. Her paintngs are stll honoured at prestgious museums throughout the world. They have stood and contnue to stand for Diversity and Self-Inclusion. Her art represents women in a way that impacts you forever. I have had the pleasure of seeing many of her original portraits. The majority of her works rest in the very house in which Freida was born and died. La Casa Azul, or The Blue House, serves as a museum for Freida and her paintngs.

Her work can infuence us and make us beter people/artsts/creators. She was confdent, charismatc, and beautful in a way that was unique to her. She was wildly interestng, and I can only imagine her as the queen for all who refuse to maintain the status quo.

3. The “F” in feminism ought to stand for “Freida.” She defed the traditonal art depicton of female beauty and painted raw and painful experiences that many women go through including miscarriage, sexuality, and the social positon of women. Kahlo refused to be a victm of a broken body, mind or spirit. “I sufered two serious accidents in my life, one in which a bus threw me to the ground... The other accident is Diego,” Freida famously said.

The Mexican artst’s life wasn’t easy: Freida contracted polio as a child, had a near-fatal, life-changing accident as a teenager, married a renowned artst who had countless afairs, struggled with infertlity, ailing health, and a lifetme of chronic pain. But Freida Kahlo found her salvaton in the paintbrush and transformed her experiences into beautful and emotonally charged art. She lived by her own rules, trusted her vision and, most of all, she trusted herself.

1. Freida did Freida Unapologetically. Freida was a woman ahead of her tme, questoning gender roles and identty in an era when those weren’t even topics for discussion. She even showed up for her family photo dressed in a men’s suit. Her fashion, an eyecatching blend of European and traditonal Mexican styles, put her on the cover of Vogue Magazine.

2. To me, Freida symbolizes strength in the face of adversity.

She represents the embodiment that pain and hardship do not need to stop us; they can push us and make us think outside the box.