Frida Kahlo.

Frida Kahlo was considered one of Mexico's greatest artists.

At the age of 15 years enrolled at the National Preparatory School. She was one of the few women students to attend the school.

Self-portrait in a Velvet Dress

While at school, Kahlo spent her time with  a group of political and intellectualy students. She became romantically involved with one of them. When they were traveling together on a bus, they unfortunately had an accident. As a consequence of that, Kahlo suffered several serious injuries.

After the accident, she began painting during her recovery and finished her first self-portrait the following year.

Henry Ford Hospital

In 1932, Kahlo incorporated more graphic and surrealistic elements in her work. In her painting, Henry Ford Hospital, a naked Kahlo appears on a hospital bed with several items: a fetus, a snail, a flower, a pelvis and others. As with her earlier self-portraits, the work was deeply personal, telling the story of her second miscarriage.

While she never considered herself a Surrealist, Kahlo befriended one of the primary figures in that artistic and literary movement, Andre Breton, in 1938. That same year, she had a major exhibition at a New York City gallery, selling half of the 25 paintings shown there.

In 1939, she went to live in Paris for a time where she exhibited some of her paintings and developed friendships such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso. During this time, she painted one of her most famous works, The Two Fridas. The paintings shows two versions of the artist sitting side by side, with both of their hearts exposed. These figures are believed to represent "unloved" and "loved" versions of Kahlo.

The two Fridas

After being diagnosed with gangrene in her right food, Kahlo spent nine months in the hospital . She continued to paint and support political causes despite having limited mobility. In 1953, Kahlo received her first solo exhibition in Mexico. She arrived by ambulance and remained in the event from the comfort of a four-poster bed set up in the gallery just for her.

After her 47th birthday, Kahlo died on July 13 at her beloved Blue House (the house were she was born).

Since her death, Kahlo's fame as an artist has only grown. Her beloved Blue House was opened as a museum. The feminist movement of the 1970s led to renewed interest in her life and work, as Kahlo was viewed by many as an icon of female creativity.

Here a video about a short biography of the artist.  Video

Webgraphy: http://www.biography.com/people/frida-kahlo-9359496

Women's rights

Women had many moral obligations and duties at home, in church and in community; whereas they had few political and legal rights in the government. However, by the 1830s and 40s, the climate began to change thanks to many supporters who defended social reforms of prostitution, capital punishment, prisons, war alcohol and, the most important; slavery.

There were many activists who began to mobilize people for the abolitionist movement as a way of calling attention to all human rights. Two important Southern sisters, Angelina and Sarah Grimke, called for women to participate in freedom and free education of slaves.

Around 1840 the abolitionist movement was split over the acceptance of female speakers and officers. But in 1848 Elizabeth Stanton organized the first convention for women's rights in New York. The convention demanded improved laws regarding child custody, divorce and property rights.

They argued that women deserved equal salaries and career opportunities in law, medicine, education and the ministry. And the most important amond demands was suffrage; the right to vote.

As with the Civil War, the women's rights were established in the Declaration of Independence, claiming that "all men are created equal". Sarah Grimke wrote in 1837 that "men and women were created equal...whatever is right for men to do is right for women".

Webgraphy: http://www.ushistory.org/us/26c.asp

María de las Mercedes Barbudo and Sarah Goddard

To begin with, we found an important Hispanic woman during the 18^th Century whose purpose was to change little by little her small world. Her name was María de las Mercedes Barbudo, who was a political activist from Puerto Rico and joined forces with the Venezuelan government to lead an insurrection against Spanish Empire. Before this, she became an important businesswoman thanks to her store dedicated to the sale of buttons, threads and cloth. Because of this she had commercial dealings with important businessmen in connection with a company (Compañía de Asiento de Negros) which regulated the slave trade in the island.

She had such a liberal mind she often met intellectuals in her own house to talk about political issues, social and economic situations, and to propose solutions to the problems involving Puerto Rico and the Spanish Empire in general.

As a result, she was imprisoned in a house for women accused of crimes. She escaped thanks to the revolutionary factions which were operating in Cuba. After that, she moved to Venezuela, where she died in 1849.

But in the English colonies, there were also many notable women. One of them is Sarah Goddard, a printer who was born at Rhode Island in 1701. Her education included not only the subjects usual to the day but also French and Latin. She was married to a member of the Church of England, and they had four children, but only two of them lived to adulthood, who were educated by herself. 

Their son, William, started Providence's first printing shop and newspaper with his daughter, thanks to his mother's money. As he had to move temporarily to New York to find more subscribers, Sarah became the second printer in the shop by supervising it while her son was out. After a few years, they sold the shop and Sarah joined her son in Philadelphia, where they started the Pennsylvania Chronicle, and where she finally died at the age of 69.

Between these two women, we find some differences. On the one hand, the one did not get married as the other. On the other hand, the one was a political activist whereas the other was a printer. But they had something in common, too: they wanted, each one in their own way, to change their world. The one did it by joining forces with Venezuela against the Spanish Empire, and the other by helping her son to become a newspaper's printer, which would be very important for the people to be informed at that time.

Webgraphy:

- Eileen K. Cheng, Ph.D; and Joanne L. Good Win , Ph.D (2015). Encyclopedia of Women in American History, vol. I-III (page 111). London and New York: Routledge. Weblink: Encyclopedia of Women in American History
- María de las Mercedes Barbudo 
- Raquel Rosario: Barbudo
- Tony "the Marine" Santiago: María de las Mercedes Barbudo.