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=== 1925β1930: Bus accident and marriage to Diego Rivera === [[File:Frida Kahlo, by Guillermo Kahlo 2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Kahlo photographed by her father in 1926]]On 17 September 1925, Kahlo and her boyfriend, Arias, were on their way home from school. They boarded one bus, but they got off the bus to look for an umbrella that Kahlo had left behind. They then boarded a second bus, which was crowded, and they sat in the back. The driver attempted to pass an oncoming electric [[Tram|streetcar]]. The streetcar crashed into the side of the wooden bus, dragging it a few feet. Several passengers were killed in the accident. While Arias only suffered minor injuries, Frida was impaled by an iron handrail that went through her pelvis. She later described the injury as "the way a sword pierces a bull". The handrail was removed by Arias and others, which was incredibly painful for Kahlo.<ref name=":2" />{{sfn|Kettenmann|2003|pp=17β18}}{{sfnm|1a1=Herrera|1y=2002|1pp=57β60|2a1=Burrus|2y=2005|2p=201|3a1=Ankori|3y=2002|3pp=20β21}} Kahlo suffered many injuries: her [[Hip bone|pelvic bone]] had been fractured, her [[abdomen]] and [[uterus]] had been punctured by the rail, her [[Vertebral column|spine]] was broken in three places, her right leg was broken in eleven places, her right foot was crushed and dislocated, her [[Clavicle|collarbone]] was broken, and her shoulder was dislocated.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=The accident that changed Frida's life forever: "Life begins tomorrow" |url=http://www.fridakahlostory.com/1/post/2014/09/the-accident-that-changed-fridas-life-forever-life-begins-tomorrow.html |access-date=6 July 2020 |website=Frida Kahlo in Baden-Baden β Ihr Gesamtwerk |language=de}}</ref> She spent a month in hospital and two months recovering at home before being able to return to work.{{sfn|Kettenmann|2003|pp=17β18}}{{sfnm|1a1=Herrera|1y=2002|1pp=57β60|2a1=Burrus|2y=2005|2p=201|3a1=Ankori|3y=2002|3pp=20β21}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Frida Kahlo Facts |url=http://www.uky.edu/~lbarr2/gws201fall10_files/Page1034.htm |access-date=6 July 2020 |website=www.uky.edu |archive-date=24 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224202654/http://www.uky.edu/~lbarr2/gws201fall10_files/Page1034.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> As she continued to experience fatigue and back pain, her doctors ordered X-rays, which revealed that the accident had also displaced three [[vertebrae]].{{sfnm|1a1=Kettenmann|1y=2003|1pp=17β18|2a1=Herrera|2y=2002|2pp=62β63}} As treatment she had to wear a plaster corset which confined her to bed rest for the better part of three months.{{sfnm|1a1=Kettenmann|1y=2003|1pp=17β18|2a1=Herrera|2y=2002|2pp=62β63}} The accident ended Kahlo's dreams of becoming a physician and caused her pain and illness for the rest of her life; her friend [[AndrΓ©s Henestrosa]] stated that Kahlo "lived dying".{{sfnm|1a1=Ankori|1y=2002|1p=101|2a1=Ankori|2y=2013|2p=51}} Kahlo's bed rest was over by late 1927, and she began socializing with her old schoolfriends, who were now at university and involved in student politics. She joined the [[Mexican Communist Party]] (PCM) and was introduced to a circle of political activists and artists, including the exiled Cuban communist [[Julio Antonio Mella]] and the Italian-American photographer [[Tina Modotti]].{{sfnm|1a1=Kettenmann|1y=2003|1pp=20β22|2a1=Herrera|2y=2002|2pp=78β81|3a1=Burrus|3y=2005|3p=201|4a1=Zamora|4y=1990|4p=31}} At one of Modotti's parties in June 1928, Kahlo was introduced to [[Diego Rivera]].{{sfnm|1a1=Marnham|1y=1998|1p=220|2a1=Zamora|2y=1990|2pp=33β34|3a1=Ankori|3y=2002|3p=20, 139}} They had met briefly in 1922 when he was painting a mural at her school.{{sfnm|1a1=Marnham|1y=1998|1p=220|2a1=Zamora|2y=1990|2pp=33β34|3a1=Ankori|3y=2002|3p=20}} Shortly after their introduction in 1928, Kahlo asked him to judge whether her paintings showed enough talent for her to pursue a career as an artist.{{sfnm|1a1=Zamora|1y=1990|1pp=33β35|2a1=Burrus|2y=2005|2p=201|3a1=Ankori|3y=2002|3p=20}} Rivera recalled being impressed by her works, stating that they showed "an unusual energy of expression, precise delineation of character, and true severity ... They had a fundamental plastic honesty, and an artistic personality of their own ... It was obvious to me that this girl was an authentic artist".{{sfn|Herrera|2002|pp=86β87}} [[File: Frida Kahlo Diego Rivera 1932.jpg|thumb|upright|Kahlo with husband [[Diego Rivera]] in 1932]] Kahlo soon began a relationship with Rivera, who was 21 years her senior and had two common-law wives.{{sfnm|1a1=Herrera|1y=2002|1pp=79β80, 87β93|2a1=Ankori|2y=2002|2pp=20β21|3a1=Zamora|3y=1990|3p=37}} Kahlo and Rivera were married in a civil ceremony at the town hall of CoyoacΓ‘n on 21 August 1929.{{sfn|Zamora|1990|p=35}} Her mother opposed the marriage, and both parents referred to it as a "marriage between an elephant and a dove", referring to the couple's differences in size; Rivera was tall and overweight while Kahlo was petite and fragile.{{sfnm|1a1=Herrera|1y=2002|1pp=93β100|2a1=Ankori|2y=2013|2pp=70β73}} Regardless, her father approved of Rivera, who was wealthy and therefore able to support Kahlo, who could not work and had to receive expensive medical treatment.{{sfn|Herrera|2002|pp=93β100}} The wedding was reported by the Mexican and international press,{{sfnm|1a1=Zamora|1y=1990|1p=40|2a1=Herrera|2y=2002|2p=Preface xi}} and the marriage was subject to constant media attention in Mexico in the following years, with articles referring to the couple as simply "Diego and Frida".{{sfn|Herrera|2002|pp=Preface xi}} Soon after the marriage, in late 1929, Kahlo and Rivera moved to [[Cuernavaca]] in the rural state of [[Morelos]], where he had been commissioned to paint murals for the [[Palace of CortΓ©s, Cuernavaca|Palace of CortΓ©s]].{{sfnm|1a1=Zamora|1y=1990|1p=42|2a1=Herrera|2y=2002|2pp=101β105|3a1=Burrus|3y=2005|3p=201}} Around the same time, she resigned her membership of the PCM in support of Rivera, who had been expelled shortly before the marriage for his support of the leftist opposition movement within the [[Third International]].{{sfnm|1a1=Burrus|1y=2005|1p=201|2a1=Herrera|2y=2002|2pp=101β105|3a1=Tibol|3y=2005|3p=191 for time for Rivera's expulsion}} During the civil war Morelos had seen some of the heaviest fighting, and life in the Spanish-style city of Cuernavaca sharpened Kahlo's sense of a Mexican identity and history.{{sfn|Udall|2003|p=11}} Similar to many other Mexican women artists and intellectuals at the time,{{sfnm|1a1=Kettenmann|1y=2003|1pp=26β27|2a1=Albers|2y=1999|2p=223|3a1=Block|3a2=Hoffman-Jeep|3y=1998β1999|3pp=8β10|4a1=Ankori|4y=2002|4p=144}} Kahlo began wearing traditional Indigenous Mexican peasant clothing to emphasize her ''[[mestiza]]'' ancestry: long and colorful skirts, ''[[huipil]]s'' and ''[[rebozo]]s'', elaborate headdresses and masses of jewelry.{{sfnm|1a1=Herrera|1y=2002|1pp=109β113|2a1=Zamora|2y=1990|2pp=78β80}} She especially favored the dress of women from the allegedly [[matriarchy|matriarchal]] society of the [[Isthmus of Tehuantepec]], who had come to represent "an authentic and indigenous Mexican cultural heritage" in post-revolutionary Mexico.{{sfnm|1a1=Herrera|1y=2002|1pp=101β113|2a1=Marnham|2y=1998|2p=228|3a1=Block|3a2=Hoffman-Jeep|3y=1998β1999|3pp=8β10|4a1=Dexter|4y=2005|4pp=12β13|5a1=Baddeley|5y=1991|5pp=12β13}} The Tehuana outfit allowed Kahlo to express her feminist and anti-colonialist ideals.{{sfn|Baddeley|1991|pp=13β14}}
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