We visited Casa Azul, the blue house of painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) in the municipality of Coyoacan, Mexico City. The house is now a museum dedicated to Frida’s life and work, filled with art supplies, favorite objects, photographs and dresses. Museum materials describe Casa Azul as Frida’s “private universe,” which you feel the minute you enter. The space is a sanctuary—specific and personal to the woman whose likeness is arguably one of the most recognizable in modern times, whose paintings are unforgettable.
Close by Casa Azul is the home of Leon Trotsky, personal friend of Frida and Diego Rivera, who was exiled by Stalin from Russia, moved with his wife Natalia to Mexico City, and ultimately assassinated in his study in Coyoacan. After an informative stop there, we lunched on tostadas at the local market and snapped photos of the coyote fountain in the town square. Coyoacan in Nahuatl translates as “place of coyotes.”
