Who knows the work of Frida Kahlo he knows that much of the talent he embodied in her came from his own pain. Passionate like few others, the Mexican artist put heart, guts and soul into each of her creations. However, there were three defining moments for her: the three children she lost throughout her life. For this reason, and because of the relevance of these facts, today we pay attention to Frida Kahlo and motherhood: abortions and art.
When Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera they became husband and wife, it was the summer of 1929 and the United States was ravaged by the greatest crisis in its history. At that time, the Mexican woman was 22 years old while Diego Rivera was almost twice her age, 42. It did not take them a year to find the fortune of the fertilization and Frida Kahlo got pregnant just beginning 1930.
Unfortunately for the couple, the fetus was not viable and it was in an impossible position for its extraction at the time. The painful result was a therapeutic abortion and the first setback to the Mexican as a mother, without even having become one.
fateful accident
And it is that, one of the problems that the artist had to give birth, was given by the bus accident that he had suffered in 1925. A tram ran over the bus he was traveling on, completely disintegrating it and leaving it squashed against a wall. The medical part could not be more devastating: three-part fractured spine, two broken ribs, fractured collarbone, and three busted pelvic floor bones.
The thing did not stop there. His right leg shattered, breaking into 11 pieces; his right foot was dislocated; her left shoulder popped out and a rod went through her left hip, exiting through his vagina. After more than 30 operations and years of therapy, Frida Kahlo was able to leave an ordeal of hospitals and therapies. Of course, the doctors assured her that she would find it impossible to have children after such an accident. Unfortunately, at first chance, they were right.
After the setback of the abortion, the couple moved to San Francisco (USA), where Diego Rivera would paint several murals in the city’s Stock Exchange building. A building that was followed by as many audiences, who kept the couple in the city for four years. There, Frida Kahlo coincided with Leo Eloesser, a eminence in surgery, and that he would become a great friend of the artist. To such an extent that Frida Kahlo entrusted all her health issues to him. Custom that he kept until his death.
At that time, the United States was in the midst of Dry Law, so The incredible tricks that were used during Prohibition will leave you speechless. Though most of them got caught.
New York
The logical step of marriage seemed clear: New York. So it was. A retrospective of Diego Rivera’s work took them to The Big Apple, where they were only part of 1931. And the fact is that, the following year, the Detroit Institute of Arts claimed the painter to order a mural. There, Frida Kahlo became pregnant again, and Doctor Eloesser recommended a gynecologist he knew, who convinced Frida to carry her pregnancy to term.
The problem? the risks that this would entail for her and for the fetus. Despite the complications, the Mexican was radiant at the idea of an early motherhood. It could not be. A spontaneous boarding, the American Independence Day (July 4) of 1932a spontaneous abortion left her without a baby for the second time in two years. To top it off, that summer in September, her mother would die during a gallbladder operation.
After several unhappy months in New York, Frida Kahlo wanted to return to Mexico and they do it like that. It was in December 1933, and after overcoming several stages of daily and unnecessary fights.
finally mexico
Upon arrival in Mexico, in search of tranquility, relaxation and the long-awaited baby settled in San Ángel. The area was by no means one of the most popular in Mexico City. Furthermore, this suburb was highly dangerous when the sun went down. Frida didn’t care. She recovered her muse, went back to painting and made up for lost time in the USA, beginning one of her most prolific times.
But again, 1934 arrived, and with it the curse of the even years of Frida Kahlo. She again became pregnant with Diego Ribera and once again the pregnancy was greatly complicated. She had no choice but to perform a third abortion that left her bedridden in the hospital for days. The worst of all is that a few months later, she had complications in her right foot and the doctors amputated four toes. A year to forget, without a doubt.
Faced with such a series of catastrophic misfortunes and knowing the direct and clear character of Frida Kahlo, no one was surprised by her words. «Painting has filled my life. I have lost three children and a series of other things that could have filled my horrible life. Paint has replaced everything. I think there is nothing better than work«. Meridian.
The three abortions she suffered in five years made her give up her maternal desire and focus on painting. These raw experiences, this first-person experience and this continuous suffering, turned Frida Kahlo into the artist we know and admire. More than 200 works, mostly self-portraits. And in the vast majority of him, a true reflection of his unconventional life and his own suffering.
The culmination of his painful life was reflected in the last sentence he wrote down in his diary: «I look forward to leaving and I hope never to return«. A whole declaration of intentions for whom life was the opposite of a bed of roses.
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