In our self-absorbed New Year navel-gazing state, we completely overlooked Mexican Independence Day, which fell on Erev Rosh Hashanah. Lo siento mucho, hermanos y hermanas JMexicanos.
Speaking of independent Mexicans, we recently came across information about the Jewish heritage of one of our favorite artists, Frida Kahlo. Her intimate family painting, My Grandparents, My Parents, And I, had a recent showing at the Jewish Museum in New York and was first exhibited in 1938. It depicts the fact that Frida’s father was Jewish, and the full effect of the painting makes her a Hungarian-German-Jewish-Indian-Mexican-Catholic. An achingly thorough interpretation of the painting and Frida’s complex roots is here for the art buffs; the rest of you sit still and look at the pretty pictures.