XicanOsmosis, Gilbert Hernandez and Frida Kahlo

UPDATED: original post, October 23, 2007

One of my favorite chapters to write in Tex[t]-Mex has gotten short shrift in this Galleryblog, Chapter Five, "XicanOsmosis: Frida Kahlo and Mexico in the Eyes of Gilbert Hernandez." This is the place in the book where the focus zoom out OFF of the pathologically mangled figuration of "Mexicans" by U.S. mass culture ONTO Latino 'self' figuration--here, a Chicano illustrator and writer, Gilbert Hernandez conjuring an illustrated biography of Frida.

The original version of this chapter was published by New York University Press in Michelle Habel-Pallan's and Mary Romero's Latino/a Popular Culture. A massive pdf of the original essay, revised and extended for the UT Press book, appears here.

I recently ran across the cool compilation of newsreel and home videos of Kahlo, with Diego as well in some shots (the cad!), and thought I would share them here:



Here, as well, are three illustrated pages from the NYUPress edition of the essay:













POSTSCRIPT

I have not always been kind in these pages to Kahlo biopic that Salma Hayek starred in, based largely on the noteworthy if too earnest Hayden Herrera biography of Frida Kahlo--Diego's Movidas is my alternative title for the movie. But critics can change their tune when they get fish-slapped in the face with new evidence. With that, a behind-the-scenes video on the music in Kahlo that has me rethinking elements of my reading of Julie Taymor's film: