The Changing Fortunes of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

Frida is the famous one now

By the end of the Mexican Revolution in the early 1920’s, the educated elite had been overthrown by the mostly uneducated poor. The great muralists of the time like Diego Rivera saw it as their duty to help inform the masses through their art.

“The role of the artist is that of a soldier in the revolution.”  -Diego Rivera

While painting a mural at the Preparatoria Nacional in Mexico City in 1922, 37-year old Diego first encountered 15-year old Frida, one of 35 girls in a student body of 2000. However, their romance did not begin until 1927 when Diego returned from the Soviet Union. They would marry two years later.

Frida’s parents referred to her marriage with Diego as “the elephant and the dove”. This photograph was taken in 1931 during their third year of marriage by Paul A. Juley.

The year is 1936 and in sleepy Coyoacan, just south of Mexico City, Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo are knocking back shots of tequila in La Guadalupana as they deliberate politics with friends.  At th…