Kahlo addressed her background outright and her beliefs in a straightforward way. Many students at La Esmeralda immediately gravitated towards the vivacious and humorous Kahlo while a few others expressed skepticism since she lacked a teaching specialization. She treated them as equals, and both in her art and in life she allowed them their own special dignity…her approach to her pupils was both that of a child among peers and that of an adult not wanting to ‘spoil’ youthful creativity.” As author Hayden Herrera explains in Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo, “Frida adored children.

For a decade, Kahlo was registered as a teacher there, and in the first three years, she taught in a more formal capacity with 12 hours of teaching for three days a week. Later in 1942 the school La Esmeralda (previously known as the Ministry of Public Education’s School of Painting and Sculpture) opened. Kahlo began teaching young children as early as 1928. However, few are aware of Kahlo’s role as a teacher and her viewpoints on how one learns to be an artist. She is familiar to many in large part due to “Fridamania,” which developed over the last few decades and focuses on her cultural persona, which is intrinsically tied to the large number of self-portraits she produced in her lifetime. Frida Kahlo is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable artists of our time.

Frida kahlo biography hayden herrera