Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring

Content warning: This section of the guide discusses miscarriage.

The novel is set partly in Casa Azul, the historical home of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who was born in 1907 in Mexico City. Kahlo’s father immigrated to Mexico from Germany where he met Frida’s mother. Though she was born three years before the Mexican Revolution, Kahlo would later claim to be born the same year so that she would be associated with the notion of freedom embraced by the revolutionaries. Kahlo’s life was marred with difficulty at a young age: At six she contracted polio, which left her with a permanent limp; as a teenager she was severely injured when the bus she was riding in collided with a street car. Kahlo was bedridden for several months with a broken spine and pelvis, and she was immobile due to a body cast.

Just prior to this, Kahlo entered the National Preparatory School, where she was one of only a few dozen women. Initially interested in pursuing medicine, it is there that she met painter Diego Rivera when he was painting a mural for the school. Her schoolmates described Kahlo as outspoken, eager, and interested in politics. It was during her convalescence from her injuries that Kahlo began painting, completing her first self-portrait at this time—she would go on to paint 54 more in her lifetime; she painted 132 paintings in total. Her mother had a special easel made so that Kahlo could paint in bed.

In 1928, Kahlo sought out Rivera again, this time to request critiques of her work and guidance in her painting. The two were married in 1929, despite the disapproval of Kahlo’s parents. Rivera, a Communist sympathizer, would undergo criticism when he attempted to incorporate Vladimir Lenin into a mural at New York’s Rockefeller Center. Kahlo and Rivera’s relationship proved a tumultuous one; the couple often lived in separate houses and divorced and remarried in 1940.

Kahlo’s paintings—done in intensely vivid colors—are often described as Surrealist. They are also considered highly personal and at times political. They are filled with symbolism or iconography. She often addressed the physical pain she experienced throughout her life as a result of polio and the bus accident. She also suffered two miscarriages, the result of being unable to bear children due to the bus accident. Near the end of her life, she would have a portion of her leg amputated due to gangrene. Addressing such taboo subjects as birth and miscarriage in her work, Kahlo paved the way for women artists, painting at a time when women were not taken seriously as artists. She is well-known for her many self-portraits, many of which include dogs, monkeys, and birds, all of which Kahlo kept as pets throughout her life. Of her self-portraits, Kahlo explained that she painted herself so often because it was the “subject [she] know[s] best” (“Frida Kahlo.” The Art Story).

Kahlo died at age 47 and since then her work has become even more popular. Casa Azul was opened as a museum in 1958. As the feminist wave of the 1970s ensued, Kahlo was regarded as a model for women’s independence and success. In 2002, a Hollywood feature film was made about her which garnered six Academy Award nominations.