From Chavela to Frida: Loving from the Margins

Abstract

This article analyzes the portrayal of lesbian desire in the case of two of the most renowned icons of contemporary Mexican and Latino popular culture: singer Chavela Vargas (1919–2012) and painter Frida Kahlo (1910–1954). This article explores the intertextual dialogue between two texts that deal with the construction of Kahlo's persona and sexuality: Chavela's memoir, titled Y si quieres saber de mi pasado (2002), and the film Frida (2001), directed by Julie Taymor. Fundamental to this study is Chavela Vargas' lesbian subject position in both texts and the consequences and implications her location has in representing lesbian homoerotics and desire.

Keywords:

• lesbian homoerotics
• lesbian desire
• lesbian subject position
• Chavela Vargas
• Frida Kahlo
• Y si quieres saber de mi pasado
• Frida

Notes

1. Since its U.S. premiere Frida (2001) has earned more than $25 million in domestic box office sales and more than $16 million elsewhere, becoming Taymor's most profitable cinematic directorial project yet as well as actor Salma Hayek's most acclaimed cinematic role to date.

2. Besides Salma Hayek's nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Frida was nominated in the following categories: Best Makeup, Best Music (Original Score), Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Music (Original Song).

3. Chavela's transgressions included breaking many social taboos in Mexico of the 1940s and 1950s: cross-dressing, smoking cigars, carrying guns, riding motorcycles and horses, and even seducing women in the audience while singing her famous song Macorina.

4. All translations from Chavela's book in this article are mine.

5. Diego Rivera, who as a character becomes coprotagonist in Taymor's text and in the traditional (and heterosexual) love story and passion of Frida's life, appears in a secondary role in the chapter and through Chavela's words and eyes. She does not deny Rivera's important role in the painter's life, but he is not presented as the main source of Frida's sorrow since Chavela does not connect Frida's constant grief about life to Rivera's recurrent infidelities. On the contrary, in many of the anecdotes Chavela recounts about her stay in the couple's residence, Casa Azul, Rivera is portrayed as a fun, extravagant man, and never as a rival.

6. For excellent books on Mexican women in the postrevolutionary era, see Hershfield (2008) and Olcott, Vaughan, and Cano (2006).

7. See Ankori (2002, pp. 180–186) and also Lindauer (1999, pp. 38–41).

8. For more on how the Latina body is constructed and consumed in Hollywood and the U.S. media “as an exotic object of imperial and sexual desire” (8), What does “(8)” refer to here? Is this a page number? Please provide complete source if so.see Mendible (2007, pp. 1–28).

9. Laura Mulvey's (1975, 1981) groundbreaking articles on feminine spectatorship written decades ago, paved the way for problematizing Hollywood's dominant and normative discursive practices.

10. For a historical overview on the female gaze in feminist film criticism, see Thornham (1999, pp. 109–111, 112–157).