Frida Kahlo Ancestry Bloodline Essay

Frida Kahlo: Ancestry Bloodline

Frida Kahlo was a famous Mexican painter who transported her feelings to her audience through her art. One of her most famous painting is My grandparents, My parents, and I. In this wonderful art piece, she presents her family to her viewer in an authentic family tree. She, like many Mexicans, is a proud inheritor of the mestisaje bloodline. Since the colonization era, when the Europeans and Spanish came to the Americas in 1493, many new biological crossings occurred (Flyover History 26). In Kahlo’s painting, we can appreciate the impact that the Colombian exchange had on genealogical history.

Artist, Frida Kahlo enlights her audience with a unique painting of her family tree. In the center of this masterpiece, she carefully places herself as a child holding a red lace. This lace directs the viewers to focus their attention on both, maternal and paternal grandparents. Falling to the lower center of them, her parents are placed. As to signal the unity of two cultures. Below Kahlo’s parents, the view falls back to her child portrait, giving the audience the result of a unity, herself, a meztisaje.

In this meztisaje painting, Kahlo proudly presents her origins to her audience.

In the center of the painting is her as a child. To the right is her father, a “German-born Jewish and a photographer” (moma.org p1 ). Above him are her grandparents drawn above the water. With this she symbolizes that her paternal origins are from overseas, European and Jewish heritage. Her mother Matilde at the left is “half Amerindian and half Spanish” (FK.org). Above Matilde are Kahlo’s grandparents which are located above land. Cactus and mountains symbolize that the origins of her maternal grandparents have inhabited Mexican land for generations. These cultural points are very important to Kahlo although an important part of her heritage is left out of this

painting.
Kahlo has a very clear view of her family decendency. This, she has transmitted to her viewers through her paintings and the clothing she gives her protagonist. In this masterpiece she focused so much on her family that she didn’t proclaim her religious cultural. The viewers are not clear if Frida Kahlo had a religious inclement or if she even had a religious belief.
Frida Kahlo painted her family tree because she was proud of her origins. As a viewer, I feel a connection between her heritage and mine. Just as she has a meztisaje heritage, so do I, and many of those who have viewed this painting. America is composed of an ethnicity exchange that still and will forever reflect our generations. For this reason and the respect I have of our culture, I can affirm that the content of My Grandparents, My parents and I, is a piece of history placed into art.