‘A Great Enigma’: Frida Kahlo's Only Known Voice Recording Possibly Unearthed (AUDIO)

A recently discovered audio clip from an episode of Mexican radio show “El Bachiller” may include the first known voice recording of Frida Kahlo, an iconic 20th-century Mexican artist who painted many self-portraits and other works inspired by nature and artifacts in Mexico, the National Sound Library of Mexico announced this week.
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Although Kahlo, who died in 1954 at the age of 47, has one of the most recognizable faces in the world, the painter’s voice has long remained a mystery.

In the 90-second clip, an unidentified speaker, believed to be Kahlo, reads passages from a Kahlo essay titled “Portrait of Diego,” which describes the artist’s husband Diego Rivera. It is believed that the radio show aired in 1953 or 1954. 

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The soft, melodious voice that may belong to Kahlo speaks the following words translated to English from Spanish:

“He is a gigantic, immense child, with a friendly face and a sad gaze. His high, dark, extremely intelligent and big eyes rarely hold still. They almost come out of their sockets because of their swollen and protuberant eyelids – like a toad’s. They allow his gaze to take in a much wider visual field, as if they were built especially for a painter of large spaces and crowds.”

Historians are currently trying to determine whether the voice on the recording, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Rivera’s artistic career as a muralist, belongs to Kahlo.

“Frida’s voice has always been a great enigma, a never-ending search. Until now, there had never been a recording of Frida Kahlo,” Sound Library director Pável Granados told media sources.

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