My Interview with Frida

Recording

Reportor: Good day to my ladies and gentlemen! This is Peak Deng, you are listening to my podcast about Frida Kahlo. An exclusive interview with our famous painter, just before she died. Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon was born in Coyoacan, Mexico July 6th, 1907, one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father, Guillermo Kahlo and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent, Matilde Calderon y Gonzalez. Frida did not originally plan to work as a painter and chose to devote her life to medical sciences. She entered a pre-med program in Mexico City since after surviving polio. Good Morning Mrs Rivera, would you kindly tell us about your struggle through that terrible disease?

Frida: hola! ¡Oh sí! ¡I waz seises entonces cuando cogí la poliomielitis terrible! Es una enfermedad que afecta el braine y la espina dorsal y puede conducir a la parálisis parcial o total Aunque sobreviví, mi recuperación era larga y difícil. Tuve que permanecer en mi sitio por nueve meses y todavía conseguí una pierna derecha marchitada.

Reportor: Er… okay basically she just meant (hello! Oh yes! I was six then when I had the terrible polio! It is a disease that affects the brain and the spine and can lead to partial or total paralysis Although I survived, my recovery was long and difficult. I had to remain in my room for nine months and still I obtained a withered right leg.) and also she wore loads of socks,men’s suits or flambuoyant peasant costumes with long skirts to cover her leg and played boyish sports like football, boxing, swimming & wrestling. ( OK she didn’t say the clothes part but I read about it in a book called Artists in their world—Frida Kahlo) Excuse me Mrs Rivera, but would mind if you speak in English? It did be more easier for us to understand you see.I heard you could read and speak English, Spanish and German?

Frida: Oh! I am terribly sorry! I thought you were recording for ze Spanish as I waz told earlier there waz a Spanish reporter coming.

Reportor: Anyway back to the story. Mrs Rivera I believed you had a hard life but why?

Frida: (crying) That… I suffered two grave accidents in my life…One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was Diego. At the age of 18, I waz seriously injured in a bus accident. I was on my way home with my boyfriend Aljandro Gomez Arias, when we were hit by a large tram. The arms of the seat went through me like a sword into a bull. I spent over a year in bed recovering from fractures to my spine, collarbone and ze ribs, a shattered pelvis, and shoulder and foot injuries. I endured more than 30 operations in my lifetime, and during my convalescence I began to paint. From that time, my obsession was to begin again, painting things just as I saw them with my own eyes and nothing more to combat the boredom and pain. I felt I still had enough energy to do something other than studying to become a doctor. Without giving it any particular thought, I started painting. Thus, as the accident changed my path, many things prevented me from fulfilling my desires which everyone considers normal than to paint what had not been fulfilled. My paintings, mostly self-portraits and still life, were deliberately naïve, and filled with the colors and forms of Mexican folk art. My mother asked a carpenter to make me an easel, if that’s what you can call the special apparatus which could be fixed onto my bed, because th plaster cast didn’t allow me to sit up. In spite of my long illness, I feel immense joy in living.

At 22, I married my Diego, 20 years my senior. Our stormy, passionate relationship survived infidelities, the pressures of careers, divorce, remarriage, my lesbian affairs, my poor health and my inability to have children. *sob* *sob* Never mind that man, he had an affair with another woman. I waz insignificant to him I suppose at that time of betrayal. In that period I dressed like a boy with shaved hair, pants and boots and a leather jacket. But when I went to see Diego I put on Tehuana costume. However he repented and I am so happy to have him back. Anyway, I think you did be interested about my childhood years with my family?


Reporter: Yes! Yes! Go on! Go on! I am sure my listeners did be interested!


Frida: It was with great difficulty that a livelihood was earned in my house. Daddy was commissioned to photograph the country’s most important pre-columbian and colonial architectural sites by the ruler of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz. But in 1910 the Mexican Revolution put an end to Mr Diaz rule and Daddy was stripped of his job. After so, work was difficult to come by and my family struggled to survive. Oh yah! And my schooldays, I missed loads due to polio but thank God I had a photographic memory and only had to read a book once to remember everything. I also found languages easy to learn. After Primary school I went to Escula Nacional Preparatoria, the best secondary school in Mexico. There I was only 1 of 35 girls among 2000 boys. There I decided to become a doctor. Hahas I also remembered Aljandro was the leader of us Cachuchas! Oh! Funny was it when we let of fire crackers and those hilarious pranks hahas.


Reporter: Oh I see…Then would you bother to tell us about your days as a communist?


Frida: The Mexican Revolution occurred just three years after I was born, It was a development that triggered dramatic social and economic change in Mexico. A new sense of nationalism surged throughout Mexico as the people rejected Dictator Porfirio Diaz and his policies, and a renaissance of cultural renewal glorifying Mexico's native roots took place. The Mexican muralist tradition grew out of these changes and proved to be an enduring method of expressing national pride. I was an enthusiastic participant in the social, economic and political landscape that characterized that life. Reporter: What about your days in New York? Frida: (In anger) High society here turns me off and I feel a bit of rage against all these rich guys here , since I have seen thousands of people in the most terrible misery without anything to eat and with no place to sleep. I hated the huge gap between the rich and poor! Don’t remind me of it although it did make sense to go there, because it opened my eyes and I had seen an enormous number of new and beautiful things.


Reporter: All right then would you care to tell us about your paintings?


Frida: Hmm… Let me think…200 paintings, drawings and sketches related to my experiences in life, physical and emotional pain and my turbulent relationship with Diego. I produced 143 paintings, 55 of which are self-portraits. Reporter: But why did you paint so many self-portraits? Frida: Because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best. *sigh* I feel uneasy about my painting. Above all I want to transform it into something useful for the Communist revolutionary movement. The only real reason for living.


Reporter: All right. Thank you very much Mrs Rivera! See You!


Frida: ¡Usted es agradable! ¡Adiós!