Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 31 - Frida Kahlo - Disabled, Queer and Fantastic

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31 - Frida Kahlo - Disabled, Queer and Fantastic · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to an Airwave media podcast. Hi everybody, I'm
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Speaker 1: welcome back to Who Did What Now? The history podcast
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Speaker 1: that is not your history class with me, your recovered
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Speaker 1: host Katie Charlwood, tap fixer and reader of books. Ha
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Speaker 1: take that brother who is a plumber. Basically, there's a
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Speaker 1: tap that has been dripping in my Oh no, it
0:41
Speaker 1: started again. Never mind made his tap and it was dripping,
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Speaker 1: and then I thought I fixed it, but clearly, clearly
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Speaker 1: I haven't. That was I have to apologize to my brother.
0:52
Speaker 1: He doesn't listen, but if he did listen, sorry. As
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Speaker 1: you can tell, this week, I'm feeling much much better,
1:01
Speaker 1: much much better. I've just not been well. But yes
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Speaker 1: to everyone who was reaching out, I am feeling much
1:08
Speaker 1: much better. Thank you so much. I am over the infection.
1:12
Speaker 1: I took all my antibiotics. I am doing great, and
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Speaker 1: I want to thank I want to thank everyone for
1:20
Speaker 1: their their iTunes Apple podcasts. That's why Apple podcast review.
1:26
Speaker 1: I got an amazing one this week. Okay, Cliff Nod's version.
1:30
Speaker 1: Family are traveling to see six the musical, and it's
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Speaker 1: like a three year car journame and I'm traveling away
1:36
Speaker 1: and they're listening to me talk about the Six Wives
1:39
Speaker 1: of Henry act, which is like, honestly, I think one
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Speaker 1: of my better things I've ever done. I'm so proud
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Speaker 1: of it. Thank you. And they're family are traveling at
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Speaker 1: two girls I think, one's like fourteen and one's eleven,
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Speaker 1: I think, and they're listening to me.
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Speaker 2: Swear and call Henry the eight's a lot of bad
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Speaker 2: words because I do. I do call him many mean
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Speaker 2: things consecutively, one after another in a row. And they said,
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Speaker 2: they said.
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Speaker 3: In the review, it's it's marked as explicit, which it is.
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Speaker 3: All I can think of in my head is like
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Speaker 3: she does say the word fuck a lot.
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Speaker 1: But the kids liked it. It was fine. And these
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Speaker 1: and these kids, their parents were quizzing them afterwards, and
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Speaker 1: they had retained like a ton of information that I
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Speaker 1: had obviously, you know, said during the podcast. I got
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Speaker 1: a lot of positive reviews as well. When I had
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Speaker 1: my daughter, my five year old is my ghost and
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Speaker 1: I will be bringing her back for bonus episodes because
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Speaker 1: people really seem to enjoy her telling me off. So
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Speaker 1: that's that's fun. If we're lucky, my boy might join
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Speaker 1: us sometime. I mean, the reviews are great anyway, because
3:02
Speaker 1: every time you get a five star review and someone
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Speaker 1: comments on it and someone leaves you know, some words
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Speaker 1: there and actually helps boost you up a sort of.
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Speaker 1: The Apple Charts ridiculously amazing for me because I'm just
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Speaker 1: one week person over here in Ireland, you know, just
3:17
Speaker 1: trying to like share history and stuff that I find
3:21
Speaker 1: like fascinating and interesting. But when you get reviews that
3:25
Speaker 1: are so full of joy and they are delightful, it
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Speaker 1: really just makes me feel good. I'm not gonna lie.
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Speaker 1: It makes me feel amazing and that people are learning
3:35
Speaker 1: and they're enjoying learning history. So if you do want
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Speaker 1: to leave a review, please do. I love to hear
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Speaker 1: your stuff and not just to you know, stroke my ego,
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Speaker 1: although that is nice. I'm not gonna lie. I do
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Speaker 1: like I do like compliments, and I know what you're
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Speaker 1: thinking about. Now quit your chibber jabber woman and fact
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Speaker 1: me in fact you I will, but first we have
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Speaker 1: good to get our source on first thing. Okay, So
4:01
Speaker 1: I'm actually I don't usually do this. I'm gonna mention
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Speaker 1: the Frida Calo movie starring Salma Hayek. It was a
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Speaker 1: two thousand and two film which I watched just as
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Speaker 1: an excuse. I'll be honest with you, because I like it.
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Speaker 1: So I did that. But we also have Frida, a
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Speaker 1: biography of Frida Calo by Haiden Herrera, Frida Calo, The
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Speaker 1: Last Interview and Other Conversations by Frida Calo, and The
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Speaker 1: Diary of Frida Calo, an Intimate self Portrait, which is
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Speaker 1: a book by Frida cal And of course we have
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Speaker 1: our old favorites Biography dot com, Smithsonian dot com, and
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Speaker 1: Britannica dot Com. If I pronounce anything wrong, feel free
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Speaker 1: to just tell me, because you know I'm probably gonna
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Speaker 1: fuck it up. So Magdalena Carma Frido Carlo Is Calderon
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Speaker 1: was born on the sex of the Lining, you know, seven,
5:00
Speaker 1: in Goyogan, which was like the little village on the
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Speaker 1: outskirts of Mexico City. Her dad was Guermo Carlo, who
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Speaker 1: was originally from Germany. Although I'll be honest with you,
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Speaker 1: German is not the first thing that comes to mind
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Speaker 1: when I see the name Guermo. Although the first thing
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Speaker 1: that comes to mind when I see the name Guermo
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Speaker 1: is what we did in the Shadows. Yeah. Anyway, he's
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Speaker 1: originally from Germany and then immigrated to like Mexico, and
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Speaker 1: her mum was Mathilde Calderon I Gonzalez was Mestiza, meaning
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Speaker 1: she was so Mistiso Mestiza. They're people who were of
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Speaker 1: mixed European and indigenous sort of ancestry and heritage. Matild's
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Speaker 1: father was indigenous and her mother was of Spanish descent,
5:51
Speaker 1: because you know, Spain invaded Mexico and was like, hey,
5:56
Speaker 1: we're taking this now. So Frida, she is the third
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Speaker 1: of four girls, so there's Mathild, Adriana, and Christina, and
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Speaker 1: then she's also got like two half sisters because Girmo
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Speaker 1: was married before that. But those two sisters were raised
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Speaker 1: in a convent. So that's that's not okay. Well, listen,
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Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but near enough every nun
6:19
Speaker 1: I've ever met have been terrifying. And this is from
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Speaker 1: someone whose godmother is a nun. So according to Frieda,
6:27
Speaker 1: like both her parents are sick when she's growing up,
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Speaker 1: and like her relationship with her mother is I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: say tense because like, for as much as her mother
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Speaker 1: was like kind and loving and considerate, she was also
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Speaker 1: a religious fanatic. In between like the civil war and
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Speaker 1: the government being overthrown. It's just not an easy place
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Speaker 1: to live. And you think this is a tough enough childhood.
6:54
Speaker 1: But when she's six, she contracts polio, a disease which
6:58
Speaker 1: you rarely see nowadays, is because you know, we created
7:01
Speaker 1: a vaccine for it. I'm just saying, So she's six,
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Speaker 1: she's got polio. One of her legs ends up shorter
7:08
Speaker 1: than the other. She's isolated away from everybody. Like, that's
7:13
Speaker 1: tough as fuck for a kid.
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Speaker 4: I mean.
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Speaker 1: On the plus side, though, it meant that she got
7:18
Speaker 1: to spend like more time with her dad, who had epilepsy,
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Speaker 1: and so they had this little shared like bond because
7:25
Speaker 1: they're both disabled. And because of this, she ends up
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Speaker 1: with this greater understanding and appreciation for like nature, philosophy, literature,
7:35
Speaker 1: and art. Because she's been set. She ended up starting
7:39
Speaker 1: school like a year later and ended up going at
7:42
Speaker 1: the same time as her younger sister Christina. They go
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Speaker 1: to like this local primary school, and then they go
7:49
Speaker 1: from the local primary school, and then the girls got
7:52
Speaker 1: homeschooled for a bit. But then so like the other
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Speaker 1: three sisters, they get sent to like a convent schoo
8:00
Speaker 1: but Frida gets sent to a German school because you know,
8:04
Speaker 1: she's her dad's favorite. But Freda, being the rebel that
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Speaker 1: she is, she gets expelled for being disobedient. So she
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Speaker 1: gets expelled from the German school because you know, and
8:16
Speaker 1: she ends up with this vocational school, which she ends
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Speaker 1: up leaving because she's sexually abused by one of the teachers,
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Speaker 1: a female teacher by the way. She gets accepted into
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Speaker 1: this national Preparatory school because like it had only just
8:34
Speaker 1: started letting women in and I mean like very recently,
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Speaker 1: because out of two thousand students, like thirty five where
8:44
Speaker 1: you know women, Well, she's there. She's very you know,
8:49
Speaker 1: she's really leaning into this whole college experience. She like
8:53
Speaker 1: immerses herself in Mexican culture, social justice, political activism, and
9:01
Speaker 1: the school itself is promoting in the Genesemo, which is
9:06
Speaker 1: like the whole thing about a Mexican identity because because
9:09
Speaker 1: like the Mexican Revolution happened in nineteen ten, and because
9:13
Speaker 1: it's you know, postcolonial, it's really trying to like create,
9:18
Speaker 1: not create, but like help blossom and help grow and
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Speaker 1: blossom this sort of Mexican identity and you know, indigenous
9:30
Speaker 1: heritage and speaking of the Mexican Revolution, like so she
9:34
Speaker 1: starts telling people she was born in nineteen ten, making
9:36
Speaker 1: her a couple years younger, but more importantly to her
9:40
Speaker 1: that this is the year of the Mexican Revolution, and
9:43
Speaker 1: this is something we're going to find here and there.
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Speaker 1: Like Frida Calo, she has a habit of embellishing the truth,
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Speaker 1: Like when it comes to her father, Guermo, she tries
9:55
Speaker 1: to say her father's family, they're like her dad and
9:58
Speaker 1: like that they're of Jewish descent, but they're actually Lutheran.
10:01
Speaker 1: But anyway, she's at school. She's studying to be a doctor.
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Speaker 1: You know, you know, her life has finally come together.
10:08
Speaker 1: She's got some drive, years and years recovering from a
10:13
Speaker 1: childhood full of illness and pain. So in nineteen twenty
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Speaker 1: five's she's really into it. She's studying to be a doctor,
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Speaker 1: and she's on a car journey is fucking unlucky as
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Speaker 1: they come, her and her boyfriend Arias Arias Arias. So,
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Speaker 1: her and her boyfriend Arias, they're coming home from school
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Speaker 1: one day and they got off one bus because they're
10:36
Speaker 1: lost an umbrella or some shit, and they get on
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Speaker 1: a second bus and this second bus it tries to
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Speaker 1: overtake this electric street car and fucking hits it, so
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Speaker 1: it kills a bunch of passengers. Arias has some minor injuries.
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Speaker 3: And.
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Speaker 1: Frida is skewed scured by this iron handrail which goes
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Speaker 1: to ru her pelvis, so arid ask and a few
11:03
Speaker 1: of the people physically pull it out of her, which,
11:06
Speaker 1: by the way, you should not pull a giant piece
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Speaker 1: of metal out of anybody without you know, proper medical
11:13
Speaker 1: people nearby, because that's just a recipe for disaster. So
11:18
Speaker 1: this fucking rail punctures her abdomen and her uterus, Her
11:24
Speaker 1: pelvic bone is fractured, her right side is basically fucked,
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Speaker 1: her right leg is broken in eleven places, her right
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Speaker 1: foot is dislocated and crushed, her shoulders dislocated, her collar
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Speaker 1: bone is broken, and three vertebrae in her spine are displaced.
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Speaker 1: So this accident completely destroys the life that she was
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Speaker 1: planning to have, Like everything that she had been working
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Speaker 1: towards is just gone. So because of the accident, she
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Speaker 1: ends up having to wear this I want to call
12:01
Speaker 1: it like a plastic corset thing. It's basically like a cast.
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Speaker 1: But I don't know if you've ever seen orthodic boots
12:11
Speaker 1: it's like that but for a body. So she basically
12:14
Speaker 1: ends up in this body brace, this like plastic corset thing,
12:17
Speaker 1: which means that she's confined to bed dressed for like
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Speaker 1: three months. And unfortunately for Freda, the accident didn't just
12:27
Speaker 1: tarnish what was already there. Yeah, there she is confined
12:30
Speaker 1: to bed dressed, her dreams of being a doctor shattered,
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Speaker 1: and spoiler warning, now she spends the rest of her
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Speaker 1: life in chronic pain. Like it is excruciating and it
12:45
Speaker 1: is constant, and that is something we need to remember
12:48
Speaker 1: throughout her life. And because she's stuck in bed with
12:52
Speaker 1: nothing to do, so she ends up with this easel
12:54
Speaker 1: which is like designed to fit over her bed, and
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Speaker 1: she just starts like doing like med cool illustrations is
13:01
Speaker 1: probably the easiest way to put it. By the time
13:03
Speaker 1: she's actually free of the bed, a lot of her
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Speaker 1: friends they're now at UNI and they're all involved in politics,
13:10
Speaker 1: and so Freda she just slides right in there, or
13:15
Speaker 1: you know, as well as one can, you know what
13:17
Speaker 1: I mean. So she starts hanging out with their mates again,
13:20
Speaker 1: which leads her to join the Mexican Communist Party. So
13:24
Speaker 1: as she's bouncing around her way social circle. She meets
13:28
Speaker 1: Diego Rivera, who was twenty years older than her and
13:33
Speaker 1: had two common law wives, which is always fun. But
13:38
Speaker 1: Freda and Diego so they end up getting married in
13:41
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty nine, and her parents called it a marriage
13:45
Speaker 1: between an elephant and a dove because Diego was like,
13:48
Speaker 1: was like tall and overweight and Freda is like this
13:52
Speaker 1: wee skinny like thing. But you know, they did a
13:56
Speaker 1: prayer for the marriage because Diego was you know, fucking loaded,
14:01
Speaker 1: which went that Freda was actually able to have the
14:04
Speaker 1: medical treatment that she required because it was fucking expensive.
14:08
Speaker 1: But yees. So they get married and it's like the
14:12
Speaker 1: big thing in Mexico. People are obsessed with this. So
14:16
Speaker 1: basically she marries him, they move away off somewhere and
14:19
Speaker 1: they move out to this like rural bit because he's
14:22
Speaker 1: gonna paint some mural or whatever. Yeah, so he's going
14:25
Speaker 1: to do some murals for the Palace of Gordees. And
14:29
Speaker 1: because he supports some like leftist group, he gets kicked
14:33
Speaker 1: out of the Mexican Communist Party and out of like
14:37
Speaker 1: solidarity and shit, She's like, fuck this for a game
14:40
Speaker 1: of soldiers. She resigns her membership.
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Speaker 2: She leads too.
14:44
Speaker 1: She's like, Nah, we're good, We're gonna go now. And okay,
14:48
Speaker 1: this is where Frida gets a wee bit dodgy. So
14:51
Speaker 1: like during this time, like a lot of Mexican women,
14:56
Speaker 1: a lot of artists, intellectuals, that whole jazz, they start
15:00
Speaker 1: wearing these lots of traditional indigenous Mexican clothing, the long,
15:07
Speaker 1: colorful scots, the hopi lea's, the lubothos, the headdresses, the jewelry,
15:14
Speaker 1: and she specifically chose she appropriated, for lack of a
15:19
Speaker 1: better word, she chose a style known by people of
15:26
Speaker 1: Touanta pick I'm so sorry, the tejuana tejuana. So she
15:32
Speaker 1: had the Tijuana style. I have tried to pronounce this, Okay,
15:37
Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell you how many times I've
15:38
Speaker 1: tried to pronounce this Tijuana tichlante pick. No, I'm not
15:43
Speaker 1: even close. Somebody just pronounce it for me and be like,
15:47
Speaker 1: this is it. So she's wearing this Tijuana outfit, but she,
15:52
Speaker 1: by her own admission, has no connection to the place
15:58
Speaker 1: like heritage or ancestry. Wise, she just felt a connection
16:02
Speaker 1: to the people amusing air quotes, felt a connection to
16:06
Speaker 1: the people. She preferred that style, and apparently the Tehjuana
16:12
Speaker 1: people supposedly allegedly possibly Tehrana people were originally like a
16:19
Speaker 1: matriarchal society, which is why she leaned towards that. And well,
16:24
Speaker 1: I can understand her electing to connect to that. I mean, obviously,
16:31
Speaker 1: as an outsider looking in and without reading into this,
16:35
Speaker 1: I would have assumed that she had a connection, that
16:37
Speaker 1: this was part of her heritage, or that you know,
16:41
Speaker 1: this was more appreciation than appropriation. But granted, now we
16:47
Speaker 1: know better. And as much as I love Freda Calo
16:51
Speaker 1: and everything she did, everything especially with you know, everything
16:57
Speaker 1: she went through, because fuck it, I live with chronic
17:00
Speaker 1: every single day. My spine is wrong, the bones on
17:04
Speaker 1: my feet are wrong, like they're shit wrong with me.
17:08
Speaker 1: And here's the thing, like my I deal with chronic
17:11
Speaker 1: pain every day. My back is, for lack of a
17:14
Speaker 1: better word, fucked. So, like, you know, some things are
17:18
Speaker 1: just fucking tough because it's not just the physical shit
17:21
Speaker 1: you had to deal with. There's an emotional drain to
17:23
Speaker 1: all of this. And I'm getting really deep into this,
17:26
Speaker 1: but when it comes to people, we have to give
17:29
Speaker 1: a three hundred and sixty degree view. I can't just
17:32
Speaker 1: be like, I fucking love her art. I love you know,
17:36
Speaker 1: the fact that she was an activist and a feminist
17:38
Speaker 1: and all this. And although I might assume that it's appreciation,
17:42
Speaker 1: the Tehuana people, people who are descendants of the Tehuana
17:47
Speaker 1: people feel that this is appropriation. And if that's what
17:50
Speaker 1: they feel, because it's their fucking heritage and I have
17:54
Speaker 1: no right to speak on it, then absolutely that is
17:58
Speaker 1: my ignorance. Where's the Teijuana people were supposedly, possibly allegedly
18:04
Speaker 1: a matriarchal society. She felt like their particular style of
18:11
Speaker 1: dress was a great way for her to express her
18:14
Speaker 1: feminist values and her pro Mexican anti colonialist ideals.
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Speaker 4: And in a sense, this is great. You know, we
18:26
Speaker 4: love to see people promote their heritage. Unfortunately, for Freuda,
18:32
Speaker 4: she didn't have any link to that.
18:36
Speaker 1: I'm going to pronounce this wrong. I've tried several times,
18:38
Speaker 1: but I keep sucking it up. But I'm so sorry.
18:40
Speaker 1: Someone tell me how to pronounce it.
18:42
Speaker 4: Brob Blake is Google. It helped me here that techlan
18:45
Speaker 4: to beek people.
18:48
Speaker 1: She's got no connection to them. She basically said that, So, yeah,
18:53
Speaker 1: people think that Diego Rivera is the absolute shit. He
18:57
Speaker 1: is the cat's pajamas, the BEA's news. And so, because
19:02
Speaker 1: you know, his whole thing is murals, he gets invited
19:05
Speaker 1: to the US to well paint a bunch of fucking murals,
19:10
Speaker 1: and naturally he takes his wife. They are very well
19:14
Speaker 1: received in the US. You know, they're in San Francisco,
19:19
Speaker 1: they're in Detroit. The first time they head to the US,
19:22
Speaker 1: she starts an affair. She starts this like love affair
19:25
Speaker 1: with this Hungarian American photographer, Nicholas Murray. So so okay, So,
19:32
Speaker 1: like this is a bit of a sticky wicket because
19:34
Speaker 1: it's never implicitly stated whether or not this is an
19:37
Speaker 1: it's an open marriage, so it's kind of based on
19:40
Speaker 1: our interpretation. So either they both had affairs or they
19:47
Speaker 1: were in an open marriage and they were being polyamorous
19:51
Speaker 1: and hopefully practicing ethical non monogamy. But we can all
19:56
Speaker 1: live in hope. They had been sort of bopping between
20:01
Speaker 1: like Mexico and the States because he was just getting
20:04
Speaker 1: commissioned to paint a bunch of fucking murals, you know,
20:07
Speaker 1: because it was the end thing or whatever. So he
20:09
Speaker 1: was a well known artist. He was revered probably in
20:13
Speaker 1: a sense Diego, he ends up opening, he ends up
20:17
Speaker 1: having a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. By
20:21
Speaker 1: thirty two, they're in Detroit because Diego's out painting murals
20:25
Speaker 1: again and Calo Freda, Calo, she fucking despises it there.
20:31
Speaker 1: She is a staunch anti capitalist and she absolutely resents
20:35
Speaker 1: having to hobnob with the likes of Henry and Ed
20:38
Speaker 1: zel Ford, partially because again anti capitalist and anti colonial,
20:46
Speaker 1: but also they were anti Semitic. And granted, I don't
20:51
Speaker 1: know whether she believed that her father's family were Jewish
20:54
Speaker 1: or whether she just had or whether she just wasn't
20:56
Speaker 1: a complete deck who believed that we're God. This of
21:00
Speaker 1: your race or your creed or whatever, you deserve to
21:04
Speaker 1: be respected, unless that creed involves you hurting other people.
21:07
Speaker 1: Obviously that's not cool. I mean, like in general, you
21:11
Speaker 1: know what I mean. We don't just hate people because
21:14
Speaker 1: they're Christian or Jewish or Muslim, you know what I mean.
21:19
Speaker 1: Like anyway, Also, in addition, furthermore, Freda is really fucking
21:23
Speaker 1: pissed that a lot of these hotels in Detroit don't
21:26
Speaker 1: allow Jewish guests. And not only that, the disparity, the
21:31
Speaker 1: difference between rich and power of that divide. She cannot
21:34
Speaker 1: fucking about it. She hates it, like ragefully hates it.
21:41
Speaker 1: And it doesn't rain, but it pours. When she's in Detroit,
21:45
Speaker 1: Freda realizes she's pregnant and she's like, no, this is
21:50
Speaker 1: a no grol zone. I get to get rid of this.
21:53
Speaker 1: She tries to have a medical, a medicinal abortion, but
21:57
Speaker 1: the meds don't work, so she's like, fuck, guess having
22:00
Speaker 1: a baby then, But then she ends up suffering a miscarriage.
22:04
Speaker 1: People think that miscarriages are easy, they're simple, and they're
22:08
Speaker 1: not genuinely horrific and excruciating, but they are and they're
22:13
Speaker 1: also really fucking dangerous. So this miscarriage causes a serious hemorrhage,
22:19
Speaker 1: Like it's really fucking dodgy. She is hospitalized for two weeks,
22:24
Speaker 1: you know, just to make sure she doesn't die, and
22:27
Speaker 1: like I said, when it rains poors. So while she
22:30
Speaker 1: is recovering and she's still in the States, her mother dies.
22:35
Speaker 1: In regardless of how complicated a relationship you have with
22:38
Speaker 1: a parent, when they exit this mortal coil, it's gonna
22:42
Speaker 1: affect you. See, her mom died basically, how mummy did
22:46
Speaker 1: surgery in those complications that happened because of the surgery,
22:49
Speaker 1: and she passed away and forget it couldn't be there
22:53
Speaker 1: and it just all built up, you know. So while
22:57
Speaker 1: she's stuck in the States, she you know, her English
23:01
Speaker 1: gets better, she becomes more fluent, and she starts chatting
23:04
Speaker 1: to you know, the American press, and she's getting more
23:08
Speaker 1: confident and more boisterous, and she's like, yeah, this fella
23:13
Speaker 1: right here, he is it right for a wee boy,
23:15
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm the real artist here. She's basically
23:18
Speaker 1: like declaring the out of the two of them, she's
23:21
Speaker 1: the better artist, and frankly, I kindot have to agree.
23:26
Speaker 1: So she's in New York. She's fucking bored. Diego he's
23:30
Speaker 1: paying murals for the Rockerfeller Center Oo cool, which she
23:34
Speaker 1: then gets fired from am my ad and then goes
23:37
Speaker 1: and paints amural for somebody else. But while she's stuck
23:40
Speaker 1: in New York, Freda ends up creating this painting called
23:44
Speaker 1: My Dress Hangs There. It's basically an anti capitalist statement
23:50
Speaker 1: piece and it's fantastic. So another year or two goes
23:54
Speaker 1: by and Frida just wants to go home. She doesn't
23:58
Speaker 1: want to stay in the States. She wants to go
24:00
Speaker 1: back to Mexico. She wants to go back to her roots.
24:02
Speaker 1: And eventually Diego's like, fine, off we go, you know,
24:06
Speaker 1: once he's finished whatever mural he's done, and he gets
24:09
Speaker 1: unveiled and he gets he's applause and his praise and
24:14
Speaker 1: his compliments. They head off back to Mexico City, and
24:20
Speaker 1: naturally they end up in like the wealthy neighborhood because
24:22
Speaker 1: they're cool and rich now. So they're in San Anrel.
24:26
Speaker 1: It's two houses, so like they live in these two houses.
24:29
Speaker 1: Frida has a blue house, Diego has a pink house.
24:32
Speaker 1: And there's like a little bridge that joins them, so
24:35
Speaker 1: like they own. They both have their own space. They
24:38
Speaker 1: can connect when they want to, which is really really handy,
24:41
Speaker 1: you know, considering they're all banging everybody we know, at
24:45
Speaker 1: least Diego dipping his wick in somebody's wax, you know
24:48
Speaker 1: what I mean. And here's the thing, you think, Oh,
24:51
Speaker 1: they have a house with a bridge. Clearly things are
24:54
Speaker 1: going well for them relationship wise. No, not even a
25:00
Speaker 1: little bit, not at all. So they are fighting and
25:04
Speaker 1: he is discontent and he blames Frieda for them being
25:08
Speaker 1: in Mexico because he doesn't want to be in Mexico City.
25:11
Speaker 1: He wants to be the big I am up in
25:14
Speaker 1: the fucking States. But nah, he's in Mexico City and
25:16
Speaker 1: he's mad. So he does the completely reasonable thing for
25:21
Speaker 1: any scummy husband to do, and I think, okay, So, like,
25:26
Speaker 1: whatever your roles and boundaries are regarding ethical non monogamy,
25:30
Speaker 1: I think family members in general, family members and close
25:33
Speaker 1: friends are off the table. That being said, Diego decided
25:38
Speaker 1: that he was going to start shagging Christina, Freda's younger sister.
25:42
Speaker 1: So she finds out about this, and she's like, fuck
25:45
Speaker 1: this for a game as soldiers and off she pops. No,
25:49
Speaker 1: she moves out because I don't care how open your
25:51
Speaker 1: marriage is, don't shag their sibling. Nah, So she leaves him.
25:56
Speaker 1: She's living in Mexico City all by herself. She's loving
25:59
Speaker 1: her best life, and she is saying American artist is
26:02
Speaker 1: Samu Nagucci, which I've probably pronounced incorrectly. So like, later
26:07
Speaker 1: that year, she manages to reconcile with her sister Christina
26:12
Speaker 1: and her husband Diego, even though they're fucking each other.
26:17
Speaker 1: And I assume at this point the affairs stopped, because
26:19
Speaker 1: that would be that would be weird, and that takes
26:22
Speaker 1: sister Arrives up to a whole new level that I
26:24
Speaker 1: can't nah, that's nah. And when she's in Mexico City,
26:28
Speaker 1: Freeda just can't catch a fucking break. Her health is
26:32
Speaker 1: just declining rapidly. Her appendix bursts and she has to
26:37
Speaker 1: have it removed. She has two more abortions which are
26:40
Speaker 1: fucking toping her body anyway, and they have to amputate
26:43
Speaker 1: her toes because of Gangreen. So the couple get back together,
26:48
Speaker 1: and this is the point where this is very much
26:50
Speaker 1: an open relationship because they're both together, but they're both
26:54
Speaker 1: very aware that each other was having affairs. But again,
26:59
Speaker 1: I really hope he's still Jack and the sister, because
27:01
Speaker 1: that's that's just wrong. So Freda she gets back into
27:04
Speaker 1: her activism. She joined the Fourth International and she becomes
27:08
Speaker 1: a founding member of a solidarity committee which provides aid
27:13
Speaker 1: the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Because you know,
27:16
Speaker 1: she's not super inter monarchy. I'm sure we can guess why.
27:21
Speaker 1: And this is where things get even more interesting because
27:24
Speaker 1: Frida Calo and Diego Rivera, they petition the Mexican government
27:29
Speaker 1: to grant asylum to Leon Trotsky. That's right, the former
27:34
Speaker 1: Soviet leader Leon Trotsky, and they succeed, with Trotsky and
27:40
Speaker 1: his wife Nataliasdova moving into La Casa Azul. Anyway, back
27:46
Speaker 1: to painting, Frida Calo has her first hour solo art
27:50
Speaker 1: show and it's in New York and she gets really
27:54
Speaker 1: positive feedback, and it's so positive that she ends up
27:57
Speaker 1: going to France in having another so exhibition in Paris,
28:01
Speaker 1: but like, it doesn't go as well as you know,
28:04
Speaker 1: the New York one does. And here's the thing. Even
28:06
Speaker 1: though it wasn't going well, the Louver, the fucking Louve
28:10
Speaker 1: purchases one of her paintings. It's called the Frame. And
28:14
Speaker 1: by doing this, Freda Calo becomes the first Mexican artist
28:20
Speaker 1: to be featured in the gallery at the Louver. And
28:24
Speaker 1: while she's in Paris, she's you know, hanging out with
28:26
Speaker 1: like Bohos and the Cream of the Crop and everything
28:29
Speaker 1: and like, and she's hanging out with Picasso and shit,
28:31
Speaker 1: having a great time. But at one point while she's
28:34
Speaker 1: out there, you know, doing her stuff, Diego wants a divorce.
28:40
Speaker 1: So they get divorced anyway, and that's fine. So back
28:43
Speaker 1: in Mexico, Freda is having an affair with Leon Trotzky,
28:49
Speaker 1: as you do, so Trotzky, you know, he was in
28:52
Speaker 1: La Casa Azul, but he actually moves out and having
28:54
Speaker 1: the wife, they move into like this fortress. Because there
28:58
Speaker 1: are just so many attempts on his life. People are
29:01
Speaker 1: constantly trying to kill this bastard. Eventually, one really fucking
29:06
Speaker 1: determined assassin manages to you know, scale the wall or
29:11
Speaker 1: whatever he has to do, and assassinates Leon Trotsky. So
29:16
Speaker 1: because Frida Calo was having an affair with Trotzky and
29:21
Speaker 1: both she and her sister knew the assassin, both Frida
29:26
Speaker 1: and Christina were arrested because they thought they had something
29:30
Speaker 1: to do with this, like they were in Khuitz with
29:33
Speaker 1: the culprit. Luckily enough, people use their brains and realized
29:36
Speaker 1: this wasn't the case. And then at some point, because
29:42
Speaker 1: moth to a flame or some shit, Diego and Frida
29:46
Speaker 1: get remarried in nineteen forty, and by all accounts, their
29:51
Speaker 1: second marriage was a lot easier than the first, a
29:55
Speaker 1: lot smoother. Like when their first marriage was crazy golf,
29:58
Speaker 1: their second marriage was Chimpa. I mean, it probably helped
30:02
Speaker 1: that you know, it was definitely absolutely in open marriage
30:05
Speaker 1: at this point, and they were you know, doing who
30:08
Speaker 1: they wanted when they wanted. And for Freda this meant
30:12
Speaker 1: so that she could have love affairs with people regardless
30:14
Speaker 1: of gender. Because I don't know if I mentioned that
30:17
Speaker 1: Frida Calo was bisexual, because she was, we don't have
30:20
Speaker 1: too much information on her relationships with women. It's almost
30:24
Speaker 1: as if, you know, society deemed it less important and
30:28
Speaker 1: therefore and if we did not really you know, share
30:30
Speaker 1: the information too much. But that's okay. But like history
30:33
Speaker 1: book seemed to be more interested in talking about all
30:35
Speaker 1: of Freda's male lovers as opposed to any of her
30:38
Speaker 1: lesbian affairs. But like whatever, it's fine, we'll get over it.
30:42
Speaker 1: Well we know, no, we won't. So at this point,
30:45
Speaker 1: Freda's health is getting worse and worse. So like all
30:50
Speaker 1: the all through the nineteen forties, you know, shits just
30:53
Speaker 1: going downhill. She's in constant pain and because of her
30:57
Speaker 1: spinal problems and issues, all the surgery she's had, Like
31:02
Speaker 1: this is how severe it was. Between nineteen forty and
31:05
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four, she wore twenty eight separate different support
31:11
Speaker 1: of corsets some were plaster, some were leather, some were steel.
31:16
Speaker 1: She's dealing with spinal pain, muscle pain, her legs get worse,
31:22
Speaker 1: she has an infection on her hand which becomes chronic,
31:25
Speaker 1: and in a move that she should surprise absolutely no one,
31:28
Speaker 1: she contracts syphilis. In nineteen forty one, tragedy strikes and
31:33
Speaker 1: Gerrimo her father passes away, and this grief knocks her
31:39
Speaker 1: into this massive depression just makes her health situation so
31:43
Speaker 1: much worse, and by like the mid nineteen forties, her
31:47
Speaker 1: back pain is so excruciating she can neither set nor
31:54
Speaker 1: stand for any long period of time, like she cannot
31:58
Speaker 1: hold a position. And you know, luckily Diego's rich as fuck.
32:03
Speaker 1: So she ends up traveling to New York for an
32:06
Speaker 1: operation for a bone graft and the stale support which
32:10
Speaker 1: are to be fused to her spine to straighten it. Unfortunately,
32:15
Speaker 1: the operation is a failure, because of course it is.
32:19
Speaker 1: And one of the issues is is although Freda is suffering,
32:22
Speaker 1: she's really not doing herself any favors because she doesn't rest,
32:27
Speaker 1: she doesn't allow herself time to heal and eat, and
32:30
Speaker 1: gets so angry that she opens up her own wounds
32:35
Speaker 1: in a fit of rage when it comes to her health.
32:39
Speaker 1: You can really see this in her artwork, so things
32:42
Speaker 1: like the broken column without Hope, Tree of Hope, stand Fast,
32:46
Speaker 1: the Wounded Deer all relates to her deteriorating state. In
32:51
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty, Frida spends most of the year in hospital,
32:56
Speaker 1: where she ends up having a fuck ton of surgeries
32:59
Speaker 1: on her spine because there's a bone graft, and then
33:02
Speaker 1: a bunch of other follow up surgeries because it was
33:06
Speaker 1: such a difficult thing to do at the time. I mean,
33:09
Speaker 1: it's probably still fucking difficult to do now, but think
33:11
Speaker 1: about it. This is nineteen fifty and when she's finally
33:13
Speaker 1: discharged from the hospital, she's basically stuck at home all
33:16
Speaker 1: the time, and in order for her to do anything,
33:20
Speaker 1: she has to use either crutches or a wheelchair. But
33:24
Speaker 1: just because her condition deteriorated and her disability was becoming
33:30
Speaker 1: more severe, it didn't stop Freda. Oh No. She rejoined
33:34
Speaker 1: the Mexican Communist Party and just campaigning for peace, and
33:38
Speaker 1: she dedicated as much of her time as she is
33:40
Speaker 1: physically able to for political causes, doing as much as
33:44
Speaker 1: she can in the manner that she can. In fifty three,
33:47
Speaker 1: her right leg is gangrenous and they have to amputate
33:51
Speaker 1: it at the knee because of the gangreen like. They
33:54
Speaker 1: have to just chop it off. And you know, having
33:57
Speaker 1: one leg longer than the other, she could handle that
34:00
Speaker 1: a couple of toes, she can handle that. But losing
34:03
Speaker 1: this massive part of her this chunk of her leg,
34:06
Speaker 1: it triggered a really severe depression. So she is dealing
34:10
Speaker 1: with the loss of the lamb, the excruciating pain. She's
34:13
Speaker 1: in the fact that her husband is having yet another affair,
34:17
Speaker 1: which wheneverything else is going on, maybe pay attention to
34:20
Speaker 1: your disabled wife who needs your help. All I'm saying.
34:24
Speaker 1: She ends up with a dependency on painkillers and tries
34:28
Speaker 1: to end her own life. She tries to overdose for
34:30
Speaker 1: whatever reason, it doesn't take, and the iron and the
34:34
Speaker 1: tragedy is like before her amputation, Mexico was really starting
34:39
Speaker 1: to appreciate her art. She had her first solo exhibition
34:43
Speaker 1: and people are really starting to see the artist frieda Killo.
34:47
Speaker 1: But then this happens and it all just kind of
34:49
Speaker 1: goes downhill. So in fifty four, Frida is bedridden and
34:55
Speaker 1: even though she's suffering and she's going through all of this,
34:59
Speaker 1: she has this public appearance with Diego. They go to
35:01
Speaker 1: this and they're this public demonstration against the CIA for
35:06
Speaker 1: the invasion of Guatemala. Bear in mind, for most of
35:09
Speaker 1: this year she is bedridden because she's really fucking out.
35:14
Speaker 1: She ends up contracting broncho pneumonia, which is like a
35:19
Speaker 1: just basically like a version of pneumonia. So ten days
35:23
Speaker 1: after attending this demonstration, Frida is sick. Freda is on
35:28
Speaker 1: her way out. She has this, she's got a fever,
35:32
Speaker 1: she's in pain, she's and she's got a nurse looking
35:35
Speaker 1: after her. And on the thirteenth of July nineteen fifty four,
35:40
Speaker 1: at about six am, the nurse comes into checker and
35:43
Speaker 1: finds her unresponsive. How she died is complicated. Her passing
35:49
Speaker 1: is another one of those sticky wickets because the official
35:54
Speaker 1: cause of death is stated to be a pulmonary embolism,
35:58
Speaker 1: but there wasn't, not topsy, so there's no way of
36:00
Speaker 1: confirming that the nurser was caring for Freda. She was
36:05
Speaker 1: monitoring like the painkillers and stuff. She believes that Freda
36:09
Speaker 1: overdosed by taking four more pills than she was supposed to.
36:13
Speaker 1: So the assumption is that Freda took her own life
36:15
Speaker 1: and knew that she was going to do so because
36:18
Speaker 1: she had given Diego a wedding anniversary present that night,
36:23
Speaker 1: the night before, which is like a month before their
36:26
Speaker 1: actual anniversary. But you know, maybe she was confused and
36:30
Speaker 1: thought it was the anniversary. Maybe she did take her
36:33
Speaker 1: own life. We don't know. Freda Calo, at the age
36:36
Speaker 1: of forty seven, has an informal funeral ceremony and is cremated,
36:42
Speaker 1: and to this day, Frida CALO's ashes are displayed in
36:46
Speaker 1: a pre Columbian urn at La Casa Azul, which got
36:51
Speaker 1: turned into a museum. Her husband Diego stated that, you know,
36:55
Speaker 1: the loss of Freda was the most tragic day of
36:57
Speaker 1: his life, and he even dies like three years later.
37:00
Speaker 1: So Frida Calo and like for a long time, Frida
37:05
Speaker 1: Calo was actually forgotten about, and it was only really
37:09
Speaker 1: like and for a long time, Freda Calo was like
37:12
Speaker 1: forgotten about, and it was only and it was only
37:15
Speaker 1: in the early eighties the world really started that Frida
37:20
Speaker 1: CALO's work and Freda Calo is a person, her art,
37:24
Speaker 1: her political activism, Freda as a person, and here's the thing,
37:30
Speaker 1: because of her recognition as an artist. Mexico declared Freda
37:34
Speaker 1: CALO's works part of the natural cultural part of the
37:38
Speaker 1: national cultural Heritage, meaning that her art is not allowed
37:45
Speaker 1: to be exported from Mexico, and Freda CALO's appeal continues
37:50
Speaker 1: to grow. And one of the things that really captures
37:55
Speaker 1: the public consciousness is the fact that Freda Calo was openlyled.
38:00
Speaker 1: She lived in chronic pain, and she never head away
38:03
Speaker 1: from it, she never denied it. And if it's doctor
38:05
Speaker 1: being who she was, life tougher for her abs of
38:08
Speaker 1: fucking litly it. Disabled people are not your inspiration for them.
38:12
Speaker 1: But also that doesn't mean you have to act like
38:15
Speaker 1: your disability doesn't exist. Like don't tell people you don't
38:18
Speaker 1: see color and you don't see disability, because fuck you,
38:23
Speaker 1: you should see it. You should see race, you should
38:27
Speaker 1: see neurodivergence and disability and everything else. If you don't
38:33
Speaker 1: look and see and acknowledge and are aware, how are
38:36
Speaker 1: you ever gonna understand because you're just living on a
38:39
Speaker 1: fucking bubble. Then no, I'm ranting, I'm gonna but anyway,
38:45
Speaker 1: And so that is the story of Frida Calo. So
38:50
Speaker 1: what did we learned today? We learned that Diego Rivera
38:55
Speaker 1: must have been a very charming man, because he certainly
38:58
Speaker 1: wasn't a pretty one. We learned that that ignoring someone's
39:02
Speaker 1: disability is not a good thing. We learned that Freda
39:05
Speaker 1: Calo was anti capitalist and anti consumerism, so maybe book
39:11
Speaker 1: plastering her, so maybe making a barbie of her is
39:15
Speaker 1: probably not the best idea. But anyway, if you liked
39:19
Speaker 1: my retelling of Today's story of the Life of Frida Callo,
39:23
Speaker 1: like in review five stars, say something nice about me,
39:27
Speaker 1: or don't say an ending nice about Ray. It's fine,
39:29
Speaker 1: I'll I'll be fine. It's okay. I don't need compliments.
39:35
Speaker 1: And that's not the only place you can support me.
39:37
Speaker 1: I have a Patreon so Patreon dot com. I've got
39:40
Speaker 1: coffee Patreon dot com sas should have whatnwpod. Also, we've
39:43
Speaker 1: got Facebook, TikTok who did what now? Pod? And Twitter?
39:48
Speaker 1: Who did what? Noipedie? Oh oh and that's right, that's right.
39:54
Speaker 1: I forgot about this because it's it's November and it's
39:57
Speaker 1: my birthday month. I decided that the next three Patreon,
40:00
Speaker 1: my next three patrons, and my next three Coffee patrons,
40:05
Speaker 1: you'll get to choose the next episode any tier that
40:09
Speaker 1: isn't keeping the lights on. You get to choose an
40:12
Speaker 1: episode topic. Hazza. Oh and of course I can't forget recommendations.
40:19
Speaker 1: So reading, I'm reading a fantastic book called Damnable Tales,
40:24
Speaker 1: Damnable Tales, Damnable Tales. One of those is it's all
40:28
Speaker 1: about folklore. It's fantastic. I have been watching what we
40:32
Speaker 1: Do in the Shadows and we have rewatched it. I
40:36
Speaker 1: like it. It brings me joy. Naja, I love Naja.
40:39
Speaker 1: I don't care. It's fantastic. I'll rewatch it. It's great.
40:43
Speaker 1: It's a tiger, It's Jerny the Tiger. It's good. And
40:49
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of true crime like me, you
40:53
Speaker 1: should be listening to Men's Reamy ns Space r e A.
40:58
Speaker 1: It is a true crime podcast hosted by the lovely
41:02
Speaker 1: Shenade and you should absolutely give it a lesson, because
41:05
Speaker 1: you know you want to go on. Anyhow, I am
41:09
Speaker 1: going to bed you adieu and say good night, and
41:12
Speaker 1: I will see you all on the perisode. So Arios
41:16
Speaker 1: or Revoir of Waiters are my friends. By bye.