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Introduction by Carlos Fuentes

• Author Carlos Fuentes recalls one time that he saw artist Frida Kahlo in the flesh at a concert in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

• Fuentes briefly describes the building's history, in part as a way to describe how Frida was able to command the attention of those at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, even in the most interesting of surroundings.

• Fuentes writes is a "broken Cleopatra," hiding her shriveled body and numerous physical maladies under spectacular layers of jewels and petticoats. Fuentes wonders if Kahlo should be compared to an Aztec goddess, a Christmas tree, or a pinata.

• Fuentes establishes the historical context that Kahlo existed in. Prior to her birth in 1913, there was the great "Pax Porfiriana" or a period of of peace that lasted for thirty years under Porfirio Diaz. Then in 1910 came the Mexican Revolution.

• Fuentes compares Mexico's "wounds" (principally inflicted...

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