--- title: Cristina Kahlo on How 'Frida' Captures Her Great-Aunt's Legacy description: Cristina Kahlo reflects on her great-aunt Frida Kahlo's legacy, detailed in the artist's own words in the documentary Frida canonical: https://time.com/7206184/frida-kahlo-cristina-kahlo-documentary/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-01-10T21:52:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T17:36:51.000Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Cristina Kahlo on How 'Frida' Captures Her Great-Aunt's Legacy og:description: Cristina Kahlo reflects on her great-aunt Frida Kahlo's legacy, which is detailed in the documentary Frida og:url: https://time.com/7206184/frida-kahlo-cristina-kahlo-documentary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebb54e99bf287ead/6998b26b47fe512d4b55972c/cristina-kahlo.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cristina Kahlo, great-niece of Frida Kahlo and curator og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cristina Kahlo on How 'Frida' Captures Her Great-Aunt's Legacy twitter:description: Cristina Kahlo reflects on her great-aunt Frida Kahlo's legacy, which is detailed in the documentary Frida twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltebb54e99bf287ead/6998b26b47fe512d4b55972c/cristina-kahlo.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Cristina Kahlo on What People Get Wrong About Her Great-Aunt Frida > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Jan 19, 2026 5:36 PM UTCPublished: Jan 10, 2025 9:52 PM UTC  Cristina Kahlo, great-niece of Frida Kahlo and curator speaks during a media tour for the "Kahlo without Borders" exhibition, at the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Studio Museum, July 6, 2024. Cristina Kahlo, great-niece of Frida Kahlo and curator speaks during a media tour for the "Kahlo without Borders" exhibition, at the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Studio Museum, July 6, 2024.Jose Luis Torales/Eyepix Group/LightRocketGGetty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Jan 19, 2026 5:36 PM UTCPublished: Jan 10, 2025 9:52 PM UTC Produced by TIME Studios and Imagine Documentaries, the Amazon MGM Studios doc [_Frida_](https://time.com/6836969/frida-kahlo-documentary-explained/) is on the [2025 Oscars shortlist](https://press.oscars.org/news/97th-oscarsr-shortlists-10-award-categories-announced) for best documentary film. The innovative movie, available to stream on Amazon Prime, is hailed as the first documentary to be entirely told through the [Mexican](https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places-2021/6079287/puerto-escondido-mexico/) painter [Frida Kahlo](https://time.com/5793490/frida-kahlo-100-women-of-the-year/)’s own words. Director Carla Gutierrez and her team feature Kahlo’s letters on men, politics, feminism, and Fernanda Echevarría Del Rivero voices her personal diary entries. Animation brings the artist’s iconic paintings to life. One of _Frida’s_ credited consultants is Kahlo’s great-niece, Cristina Kahlo, 64, who is an artist in her own right. A photographer for 35 years, she has documented many different subjects, such as Mexican cultural institutions, danzón dancer communities, and children with disabilities. Kahlo is named after Frida Kahlo’s sister, who famously had an affair with Frida’s husband, the artist [Diego Rivera](https://time.com/5786068/whitney-museum-mexican-muralists/) and posed for his artwork. The affair has not clouded the work of Cristina the photographer. In fact, she once collaborated with Diego Rivera’s grandson. Most of what she learned about Frida came from research later on in life, and when she is not behind the camera, she is doing interviews about Frida and helping curate[ exhibits](https://time.com/5534763/frida-kahlo-brooklyn-museum-exhibit/) about her great-aunt. In the below conversation, she talks about what it’s like to work under the Kahlo name, myths and misconceptions about her great-aunt Frida, and reflects on [Frida’s legacy](https://time.com/3858100/see-frida-kahlos-colorful-collection-of-clothes/). **Growing up, what did you learn about your namesake Cristina Kahlo and her relationship with Diego Rivera?** My father Antonio passed away when I was 13 years old. I was really young, so we didn't have much time to talk about the family. When my father passed away, I started reading about Frida Kahlo and learned that her sister Cristina had an affair with Diego Rivera. **How did you feel when you read about that?** Well, it’s complicated. Frida and Diego were very sexually open, and he was a smooth-talker. He was always telling women that they are so beautiful. I think it was very easy for Cristina to feel attracted to Diego Rivera. And at the same time, Frida Kahlo had her own lovers. You never know what really happened. **How did the affair affect Frida and Cristina’s relationship as sisters?** Frida and Cristina were apart for about one year, and then Frida forgave Cristina. Of all of Frida’s sisters, she was closest to Cristina. When Frida traveled to New York, Cristina was with her. When Frida was sick, Cristina took care of her. **How did Cristina and Diego’s relationship affect you?** I was in the same school with Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera, who is Diego Rivera's grandson, and we talked about that. He said while we are not family, we are historically related. We became friends, and in the 1980s, we had an art gallery—one of the first art galleries in [Mexico](https://time.com/6992412/olivia-foundation/) focused on photography. **What are your favorite Frida paintings?** [_Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress_ ](https://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-in-a-velvet-dress.jsp)(1926) and [_Self Portrait with Necklace_ ](https://www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-with-necklace.jsp)(1933), when she started to see herself as a subject for doing paintings. They are very simple, before she started to paint flowers in hair and monkeys. I love the symbolism in [_My Dress Hangs There_](https://www.fridakahlo.org/my-dress-hangs-there.jsp) (1933). She was in the United States, but she wanted to be in [Mexico](https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places-2021/6079262/la-paz-mexico/). The hanging dress is like saying, ‘my dress is here, but I am in another place.’ **What do people get wrong about Frida?** Sometimes people know the face of Frida Kahlo as a character, but they really do not know anything about her, as someone who has suffered her whole life. **Yes, in fact, one of the exhibits you curated in recent years was “Kahlo Without Borders” for the MSU Broad Art Museum in Michigan, in which you photographed her medical records.** I made an installation with the files of different surgeries, the medical files of the doctors, and the many medicines she has to take. That exhibition was important for showing Frida as human. Frida has become kind of a pop character, and it's important to show her as a real person.  Amazon MGM Studios **It’s a really good point you're making about trying to show the human side of Frida, and now the TIME Studios documentary** **_Frida_** **is trying to do the same, by telling Frida’s story in her own words**. One thing that I like very much about the film _Frida_ is that the filmmakers use real photographs of her and her letters and writings, so she is the one talking, as opposed to the many people who write about her in a novel. **How do you see Frida Kahlo’s legacy today?** I travel a lot because of my work, and everyone knows who she was. She has become a kind of ambassador of [Mexico](https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places-2023/6261769/guadalajara-mexico/). That makes you curious about a country, about [Mexico,](https://time.com/6992278/boca-de-agua/) about popular art, about Oaxaca, and I think that’s good for [Mexico](https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places-2023/6261767/mexico-city/). **What do people get wrong about Frida?** The problem is that she has become a business. She has become so [popular](https://time.com/collection-post/6117195/frida-kahlo/) and well-known everywhere that the face of Frida Kahlo is now on many products which don’t have anything to do with her personality or with her political ideas or with her personal ideas. I think she would really hate the Frida Barbie doll because it’s expensive, and not everybody can have one. People arrive at my house dressed like Frida Kahlo, with some outfit from Oaxaca and flowers in their hair and things like that. There are a lot of contests—like Frida look alike contests—and that's not the correct way of understanding the lessons that she left us. **What are those lessons?** You have to look for your own personality. You have to talk about the things you like, and dress the way you like to dress, but not copy another person. Frida’s husband Diego Rivera was very, very well-known as an artist in [Mexico](https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places-2022/6194556/riviera-nayarit-mexico/), and yet she had her own style as a painter and her own subjects. 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