Nancy Moreno
Professor McCracken
Spanish 120B December 3, 2009
Through the eyes of tradition People express themselves in many different ways throughout their lives. Painters are known for using there past experiences to illustrate their lives and feelings. Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter with a passion to paint. Her paintings portrayed very strong messages throughout her life including the tragic events that helped her shape who she was. In Julie Taymor’s film “Frida”: her private and professional life was depicted through different events. In this film as well as in people’s daily lives ethnicity is a factor, which, influences the actions and practices that construct your character. As Taymor opens the film with a scene of Frida laying on her bed to get to her exhibition, she shows how she never gave up on her commitment to what she started. As a result to a horrific accident that enables Frida from time to time in her life she starts painting portraits of her family and herself. Taymor shows the role of supra-ethnicity through the character of Kahlo using her lifestyle, clothing, and traditions. Taymor draws the viewers into this post-revolutionary era in Mexico by constructing Frida’s style of living in a different time. Through her life Frida dresses and acts out the role that the indigenous women in Mexico live by, but includes her own style to it. By using the traditional clothing of an indigenous woman she shows the beauty and empowerment that the women obtain. The lifestyle that the women lived by in this era in becoming a good wife consisted of cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids, and being loyal to their husbands. These were seen as the traditional ways they were taught to follow. Frida’s rebellious actions to this lifestyle demonstrated to women that they should not be afraid to act on what they believe is right. As I mentioned before, ethnicity comes into play on a very day basis. From who you are to how you act. Taymor shows how Frida’s Mexican culture made her into a strong woman. She was not afraid to express herself. No matter the situations she managed to know her place and how to defend what represented her. Her persona was not that of a traditional Mexican woman. Even though she attempted to hold her culture she was still at heart a defiant person. Frida’s marriage to muralist Diego Rivera was a dysfunctional relationship. She told him from the start that she expected loyalty because being raised this way was one of traditions she held. She knew that he loved her traditional ways of keeping her culture alive. Kahlo would dress up with the long colorful dresses to please her husband. In the scenes where she was learning how to cook, Taymor let’s the audience see what it took for a women to live up to their role. From her view she captures what was expected from married Mexican women. Even though Frida was a rebellious woman and spoke her mind she incorporated that she was still human and still had her down falls. Frida’s life was like a rollercoaster. She had to learn how to deal with different situations while adding what reality was truly about. After her accident from the trolley at the age of eighteen her life experiences shaped her as a person and where exemplified through her paintings. She started to paint what constructed her as a person after her accident. Her early work were portraits of her family and of herself. Her marriage with Diego inspired her to keep painting her paintings after he shared some words he lived by, “ A painter paints because he loves to paint it does not matter how much people criticize them”. Strong messages were delivered through her works. The majority where very graphic and showed her rough life. The biggest inspiration within her life was the love she had for painting. Her mind was set on her work no matter the circumstances. Frida’s determination gave her the will to finish what she started. Like in the scene mentioned before where she goes to her exhibition even after the doctor prohibits her from going. She demands her maids to get her ready and take her on the bed to the event because her solo exhibition was that was what she was waiting for since she started painting. Frida’s inspirations are also brought from New York. She leaves Mexico to go along with her husband to reside in New York where he paints a mural for the Rockefeller Center. Here she learns how murals affect the community and observes how her husband is criticized. Being a communist supporter he is inspired to put up Lenin on his mural. Frida then starts painting portraits of her life while she is in New York. Her inspiration for expressing herself continues to grow with her experiences. As the film continues we learn that Kahlo lives a bisexual life. At her stay in New York she has multiple affairs with both male and female lovers, while at the same time her husband continues with his affairs. She is going against the traditions that one should remain loyal to their husbands but she doesn’t let this stop her. After returning back to Mexico her husband has an affair with Frida’s sister and this was her turning point. After her tragic break down she revives herself and cuts her hair off while she paints a portrait of this as well. As many of the scenes start off as painting and continue with real action from the actors, Taymor unleashes to the viewers how Kalho also disposes of what is seen as a beauty on a Mexican woman. Taymor reveals the sad truth that Frida had to go through to gain herself back. She was driven into the life of an alcoholic and was lost for a while. She also did this because Diego loved this feminine side of her and this act demonstrated her willingness to stand up for herself. Her work in post-revolutionary in Mexico was seen as a revolt to what she had encountered in her life. The color red at this time was a symbol for the communist party. Her portraits used a lot of red especially the ones with herself in it. Kahlo began addressing herself with this color in her portraits to show that she too had some power. She kept her style like that of the indigenous women and just added the color red for the empowerment. Her character showed how women should also be able to stand up and turn out to be successful in life. As the film continues Diego asks his wife if she can welcome and house Leon Trotsky and his wife. By doing so they are supporting the communist party. Frida’s old ways start up once again and she starts an affair with Trotsky. Going against what her traditions are she risks being caught. Loyalty was an important factor to Frida, but her husband wasn’t loyal so she did as she pleased once again. After the Trotsky’s leave the home of Frida father, Kahlo tells her husband about the affair and he can’t take it anymore. As his wife she is supposed to be by his side no matter what, but at this point she puts herself in jeopardy. After Diego and Frida are divorced Frida still continues having relations with both male and female partners. She continues to go against what is the right thing to do. When analyzing Kahlo’s work you step into her life. Her work has such powerful meanings that give you an inside look of how much suffrage she had gone through. There was a scene where she is painting herself with an abundance of nails all over her face and body. This scene is disturbing but the viewer gets to feel what she is feeling at the time. Taymor does a good job as driving the audience to the time and exact place where she is doing her work. Her usage of bright colors captures the attention of viewers as well. Another scene that draws them in is the one where Frida is at the grave yard visiting her mom. She takes the audience to this exact place and let’s them get a sense of how it is at the site. Especially since culture has been altered through time, the viewer can get that glimpse of what it was like in the post- revolutionary in Mexico. Shortly after this Taymor ends the film with Frida’s portrait of herself laying in bed and then lit on fire. She uses this as a symbol of Kahlo’s wish coming true. She wanted to be burned when she died and this was done. Frida was a woman who never gave up even in the hardest time of her life. Kahlo’s character/persona is that of a sturdy well-rounded woman. She does what she believes is right and backs up her ideas. During this time women where not supposed to go against any man they were seen as inferior. Frida proves that everyone deserves to be heard, whatever she does or where ever she was, her traces where left behind. By still including her ethnicity and what it created of her she shows that we will always be who we want no matter what the rest of the world critics. Frida never let her injuries get in the way of whom she was and what she wanted to do. As a Mexican painter who freely worked her way to the top she demonstrated her ambition to strive for more and lived out her dreams. This film does a fine job of presenting Frida’s life and work through the eye of “traditional” Mexican women. Even though it was ironic because Frida tired to live by this but never exactly was the “traditional” Mexican woman. Including the fact that she was a woman who painted her life to communicate with the world her encounters. Kahlo was her own person and let the world know who she was and her reasons behind her paintings.