Diego Rivera married Frida Kahlo on August 21st, 1929. After living together for a few months in Coyoacán—at a house originally owned by Kahlo’s parents and which Rivera gifted to his young bride as a wedding gift—they soon embarked on a trip to California where Diego was commissioned to paint fresco murals. The request would prove immensely successful for Rivera who was soon thereafter invited by director, William R. Valentiner, to paint murals at the Detroit Institute of Art. After a brief stay in New York City, Frida Kahlo found herself living in the American Midwest by mid-1932.
It was in New York in November 1931, where Kahlo met María Luisa Cabrera de Block, a close friend of "Lupe’s" (Guadalupe Marín Preciado), Rivera's former wife with whom he had two daughters. Frida would later confide to one of her sisters that: "despite the past," and María Luisa being so close to Guadalupe; she “behaves very well” and “wants us to be friends.” To her mother, however, she revealed: “it's best if I don't make her an enemy. Come the t.mes , she could be useful to me.”
Despite all of Frida’s suspicions, María Luisa (Malú) organized a lavish farewell and christening themed celebration for her. Disguised as a baby and Rivera as a priest, Frida became a “godchild” to the Blocks, who baptized her with the name of “Carmen.” Friends were invited to the banquet and Harry Block, Malú's husband, became her official godfather. In her letters, Frida described residing in New York for the first t.mes as “a marvel.” She found the city bustling and hilarious, full of contrasts and novelties. Detroit, on the other hand, seemed rather ugly and boring to her, an “old and poor village” where there was nothing to do but wait for Diego evening after evening to return to their apartment at The Wardell. Every night, the muralist painter arrived exhausted after long hours of work. There were no “parties” here.
Before leaving for Detroit in late March, the Riveras traveled by bus to Philadelphia to attend the premiere of the ballet H.P. (Horse Power) with music composed by Carlos Chávez and scenery and cost.mes s designed by Rivera himself. Once at the Walton Hotel, on Broad Street, Frida Kahlo wrote to “Maluchita,” mocking her new friend in a reverential tone: “Oh beautiful lady! […] to think that this letter reached your hands soft and small like two beautiful lilies and that it carries my most pleasant.mes mories of all the future […] to whom you deign to give your precious friendship despite being the worst of a kind”; making sure the “ice was broken” among the two friends. While Frida had initial reservations of Malú intentions, they were now “cuatachas.” In fact, Malú turned out to be an excellent cook. Frida was indeed delighted with her pork stews and that year was invited alongside their common friends, the dancer “Rosita” Rolanda and her husband, artist Miguel Covarrubias, over for a fanciful Christmas dinner adorned with a nativity scene and Christmas tree.
Once settled in Detroit, Frida became used to the idea of being more alone than “a pea in a pot.” After all, Rivera spent most of his t.mes visiting automotive factories and “marvelled” at everything he saw, creating hundreds of sketches and drawings for the murals he would later dedicate to the Detroit industry. In April 1932, Frida wrote to “Malú” again begging her to come and visit as she wanted to hear all the gossip from New York. “You don't know how much I crave spending at least a week together. Diego would also be delighted,” she wrote. In the same letter she mentioned being in contact with painter Georgia O'Keeffe who she wished would also come visit her in Detroit, accompanied by her husband, Alfred Stieglitz.
Late in May, Frida shared with Malú that she had been sick, with stomach pains, and included a cartoon drawing in the letter, dressing herself as a skeleton, noting that she could not gain any weight; perhaps alluding to the fact that she was already in her second month of pregnancy. She begged her friend to take the t.mes to write more often and not try to get rid of her, while her “blondy-blond” husband read Trotsky by the fireplace and the “little monkey” (Miguel Covarrubias) played with his “velvet rat” (Rosa Rolanda). Once again, she implores: “Malú, do write to me, please do.”
By the end of that same month, Frida Kahlo was already wondering how viable it’d be to continue the pregnancy given her poor health, a previous miscarriage in the third month, and the likelihood that Rivera would continue painting in the United States. She confessed to her friend Doctor Eloesser, that even though she had already taken a strong purge of castor oil and a dose of quinine, the pregnancy had endured. Nonetheless, in the early morning hours of July 4th, Diego returned to their apartment to discover Frida in a pool of blood. An ambulance rushed her to the Henry Ford Hospital to try and save her life. Here she was treated by Dr. Jean Paul Pratt and remained in hospital for thirteen days. Once again, she had lost a baby. The second one in her two and a half years of marriage.
Feeling more depressed than ever, Frida failed to see her purpose in Detroit and began to long for Mexico. By now, she was aware that Rivera’s promoter, Frances Flynn Paine, was in negotiations with the Rockefeller family to commission a large mural at Radio City in New York. So, now she knows they won’t return in September as planned. Lacking any enthusiasm, she began to sketch from her hospital bed. On July 10, just six days after the miscarriage, she made a very fine drawing that would later become one of her most disturbings paintings: The Lost Desire, better known as Henry Ford Hospital.
Once discharged, Frida reflected upon her future as an artist and her life with Diego Rivera. Discouraged by an unplanned pregnancy and then unwanted abortion, she took on the task of memorializing her experience. In the company of the painter Lucienne Bloch, who had been Rivera's assistant in New York, Frida was encouraged to attend a workshop where they taught lithography, only a few blocks away from the Henry Ford Hospital. Not even properly knowing the technique, she succeeded in drawing her concerns over the limestone, revealing how she felt at a crossroad in her life.
In the drawing she stands alone, naked, mourning the absence of her unborn child —still tied to her leg by the umbilical cord. One part of her body is depicted in white, this Frida is Rivera's wife, the woman who strived to give her loved one a child and to finally consolidate their relationship. In the other, the color of her skin is dark and a third arm detaches from her body and holds a heart-shaped painter’s palette in its hand. This, second Frida, is a creator. A fluid flows from her body to nurture the earth and become the roots of an organic world. This is Frida Kahlo’s dilemma. She mourns both for her dead son, and for herself as a painter who has abandoned her brushes. Deep down, Kahlo would have preferred to keep the child, which is why she and the painter share the fetus in the same womb. The lithography is therefore an early example of an unresolved duality, and it will be the cornerstone of a famous painting she will only complete in 1939, The Two Fridas.
In September, Frida Kahlo received news her mother had fallen ill and traveled hurriedly to Mexico. After the funeral, she returned to Detroit in October and later accompanied Diego Rivera to New York for the presentation of the mural sketches at Rockefeller Center. Here Frida reunites with Malú and Harry, whom she referred to in her letters as “trusted mules.” Once back in Detroit she suffered the onslaught of the cold winter and the Blocks departure to Mexico to spend Christmas. It was then that Frida gifted Malú the 7th print proof of her lithograph. Later known as Frida and the Miscarriage, it is warmlys dedicated to “Maluchita chula” from Frida.
Professor Luis–Martín Lozano, Art Historian