This is a portrait of a young Zapotec woman from Tehuantepec Isthmus in Mexico. Her garments are emblematic of the Tehuanas, women who dominate their market places to the extent that in 1970, men were completely banned from selling there. The ban has since been lifted but men are still a tiny minority in their markets. I chose to hold this Tehuana maiden up because in her anonymity she represents her culture more accurately than Frida Kahlo, who was not raised in this indigenous culture yet is an international icon and adopted their traditional garments under the auspices of solidarity with these strong women role models. I am interested in examining the inherent privilege of a woman from the upper class of Mexican society, essentially appropriating their cultural identity as a fashion statement.

Frida’s father was German and her mother was a devout Catholic of mixed heritage; Spanish and Indigenous. No source that I can find specifies what Indigenous tribe her Mother’s Mother is from and so therefore one might safely assume Frida was not raised within an Indigenous community, yet she easily adopted and made her own the cultural dress of the Tehuanas from Tehuantepec Isthmus. This has become her signature look and interestingly, her image has been commodified to such an extent that one might wonder how she would view this considering her own Marxist values. This is not in anyway to discredit Frida Kahlo’s important contributions but moreover to attempt to dissect the commodification of an artist’s self image which was based on someone else’s culture.

Tehuana Maiden

acrylic on archival paper

30” x 42”

Oct 2018