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FRIDA'S FIESTAS -- RECIPES AND REMINISCENCES OF LIFE WITH FRIDA KAHLO |
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AUGUST: FRIDA AND DIEGO'S WEDDING
The official wedding portrait, August 1929.
A corner of Tina Modotti's terrace, with tequila and lemons ready to be served. Thirteen years before I went to live with them, Frida and Diego were married in the Coyoacan town hall. The date was August 26, 1929. Tina Modotti, bridesmaid and friend of Frida, gave the wedding reception on the terrace of her apartment building. There was a tremendous turnout, although Alejandro Gomez Arias, Frida's first official fiance, was noticeably absent. The same could not be said of my mother, Diego's second wife. From that day on, Frida dressed in either the Oaxaca style or the antiquated fashion of the Mexican capital both to please her husband and to reflect her personal preference. The Oaxaca style, as worn by the women of Tehuantepec, is heavy with embroidery, ribbons, and floral motifs -- but when Frida dressed formally, sheathed in silk and lace, she was transformed into a lady of the court during the presidency of Porfirio Diaz. In her everyday cotton percale with embroidered hems, Frida became the very image of the muse described by the poet Ramon Lopez Velarde, who wrote about provincial girls "with blouses buttoned to their ears, and skirts down to their ankles. " In her remarkable self-portrait titled The Two Fridas, she appears in two different dresses, one a magnificent antique and the other in the Tehnana style -- a proud, elegant lady next to a native beauty both similarly wounded by life. To complete her attire, Frida always wore a silk or linen rebozo, choosing a color that matched the rest of her clothes. Her favorite rebozo was a handmade silk one from Oaxaca, raw fuchsia in color. In keeping with her ongoing commitment to communism, Frida dressed simply for her wedding, like an ordinary country woman. Judging from her clothes alone, she might have been presiding over a ceremony in any small town near Mexico City or in a modest household in the renowned village of Coyoacan. It was like a fairy tale: the simple terrace of the apartment building where Tina Modotti lived was transformed for one day into a splendid, magical place. Hundreds of brightly colored pendants and streamers dangled from the beaks of papier-mache doves. '"Long live Diego!" "'Long live Frida!" "Congratulations!" "Long live love!" There were paper tablecloths in various colors and napkins in contrasting colors. The place settings were for everyday use: green-and black-painted earthenware from Michoacan with designs of doves and other birds, dogs, and cats. From her wedding day on, Frida realized that good cooking would be an important part of her life. Master Rivera's bad moods vanished before the delicious dishes that are normally served in a Mexican home, like white or saffron rice, huauzontles in different sauces, stuffed chiles in broth, and Oaxaca mole. With the exception of a splendid oyster soup, the wedding banquet was a modest affair. The oysters were served as an entree, thanks to the common Mexican belief that the little mollusks stimulate the appetite -- for sex as well as food. I do not know whose idea it was: it could have been Diego's or Frida's -- or even my mother's.
Frida photographed in 1937 in one of her favorite rebozos. The guests had their choice of dishes prepared by Lupe Marin and cooks who were brought in from the marketplace near Tina's home. Lupe was responsible for the Mexican rice, the white rice with plantains, the huauzontles in green and red sauce, and the chiles stuffed with picadillo or with cheese. The other cooks made the famous oyster soup, the mole, and the desserts served in individual casseroles, as one should do with a good torreja or an even better capirotada. All of the guests ate at least one slice of the delicious wedding cake that Frida had ordered from the finest bakery in Coyoacan. The cake was decorated with white icing doves and roses and topped by the newlyweds rendered in sugar paste. The cake bride wore a beautiful white tulle dress, and the cake bridegroom a top hat, tails, and gloves. Of course this couple had nothing in common with the actual bride and groom. They were more like their formal, conservative antithesis. At that time Diego believed that only the bourgeoisie used silverware. So for the soup there were blue-enameled metal spoons, the most common kind for sale in the market, but the rest of this wonderful food had to be eaten with the sole aid of tortillas. Plain pulque, celery-and prickly pear-flavored pulque, and the obligatory complement of tequila flowed like rivers throughout the banquet. The result was a lot of raucous fun, punctuated with song after song and endless cheers. As luck had it, neither Rivera nor any of his friends pulled out their pistols to follow the revolutionary painters' time-honored practice of celebrating important events in their lives by firing live rounds into the air, instead of setting off fireworks. Ever since their artist days at the National Preparatory School, Rivera along with his friends and colleagues David Alfaro Siqueiros and Xavier Guerrero were in the habit of wearing revolvers or pistols strapped to their waists and drawing them on the slightest pretext, to express their pleasure or annoyance. The wedding could very well have been another such occasion. Fortunately, it turned out otherwise. By nighttime a number of guests had stayed behind either by design or because they were immobilized by all the beer, pulque, and tequila they had drunk. They were more than happy to serve themselves heaping portions of pozole and all kinds of tostadas, beginning with pig's feet and chicken with avocado. The Riveras' honeymoon took them to Cuernavaca, where Master Diego was to paint the murals in the Hernan Cortes palace. Among the many individuals represented in these paintings are two heroes of the history of Morelos state, Emiliano Zapata and Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon. Zapata, shown standing by his horse, in time became a legendary figure, while Morelos, holding his sword on high, is today as always the very definition of the hero. While Diego worked at re-creating the tropical
landscape of that city of never-ending spring, Frida applied herself to cooking,
cleaning, ironing, and other chores typical of a Morelos housewife.
Capirotada, a traditional dessert, served in a green pressed glass bowl from Puebla.
Diego and Frida's wedding banquet table, re-created on Tina Modotti's terrace. MENU Oyster Soup
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