For our final day in Mexico, we made the trek back from San Miguel de Allende to Mexico City. Thankfully, traffic cooperated and we made the drive in just over three hours, so we had a good part of the day to explore the city. I originally wanted to visit the Museo Frida Kahlo, but tickets truly sell out instantaneously (and they only release on the first of the month, so that meant we’d have to remember to purchase at midnight on New Year’s Day and for obvious reasons, that didn’t happen). However, we were able to get tickets to the Museo Casa Kahlo and decided to spend a few hours exploring the Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City.

Coyoacán is known as Mexico City’s “bohemian” neighborhood and certainly has lovely painted facades and a laid back vibe (although much more touristy than most of the places we’ve visited in the city).

We began with lunch at Madre Cocina Mexicana in the local Mercado 89 Coyoacán, which specializes in chilaquiles, tortas, and other vaguely bread-based fare. We tried:

• The torta de chilaquiles with chicken milanese (it’s exactly what it sounds like and a highly chaotic sandwich)
• Molletes naturales, which is essentially bread slathered with refried beans and cheese, then toasted (I was glad I had the salsa verde to dip it in!)

The market itself was lively, with an amazing display of spices and literal garbage-cans full of dried chilis.

From there, we wandered a bit, hitting the main square, Jardín Hidalgo, which was filled with vendors (it also had a nice Christmas display).

Located adjacent to the square is the Parroquia San Juan Bautista, a lovely 16th century Baroque church with lovely gilt decor lining the walls.

We also saw the Casa Colorada Antigua casa de Cortés y la Malinche, aka the former home of infamous Spanish Conquistador and all around terrible person Hernán Cortés. One guide states that this was where he “awaited the clearing of corpses and ruins from Tenochtitlan [the former name for Mexico City]” as Coyoacán was originally quite far from downtown Mexico City (the Museo Casa Kahlo would reinforce this, saying even in the 1940s that Frida Kahlo had to take an hour-long bus to school downtown and Coyoacán was its own city at the time). Of course, being the great guy that he was (extreme sarcasm), Cortés also murdered his wife in the home (despite building it for her).

The murals here are amazing (that’s true across Mexico, honestly). I especially liked this one, which (despite being somewhat oblique) offers some social critique on social media and how justice has become inexplicably tied to money.

As we continued our wandering amongst beautiful murals and colorful homes, we went to the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares, which had a nice variety of exhibits related to Mexican culture (although I wish there’d been more explanation of what the pieces represent / how they relate to Mexican culture today).

The exhibits included:

• A variety of portrayals of the Virgin de Guadalupe, an extremely important religious figure to Mexican Catholics
• Colorful murals – the one RHS in the second row below seems to show some type of indigenous worldbuilding, but I unfortunately haven’t been able to find a lot of information (I did find a Blogger post that I *believe* is from the artists, who state the title is “Tejedores de sueños” [“Dream Weavers”] and that the mural was created as part of the bicentennial festivities for Mexico in ~2010)
• Incredibly colorful sculptures and some interesting ‘new’ pottery including this adorable armadillo

Since there was limited signage, I can only assume that the pottery styles below are intended to be representative of the traditional styles from their respective listed regions – here’s what I was able to discern from the signage (from left to right):

• Náhuatl design, from San Pablo de Monte, Tlaxcala (“with Chinese-style flowers”)
• Náhuatl design, from San Pablo de Monte, Tlaxcala (“sixteenth century colors”)
• Morelia design, from Michoacán de Ocampo (“jar”)
• Náhuatl design, from San Pablo de Monte, Tlaxcala (“Aquamanile with antique jar”)

The clothes exhibit was small, but stunning. I love the colors and combinations of fabrics, woven patterns, and design elements.

The textile section was similarly limited, but I loved the vibrant patterns and weaving styles.

The “home goods” section (for lack of a better word) also showed incredible artistry and creativity. I especially loved the fruit-shaped jars, the super creative leather desk / chair combination, and the chicken themed dinnerware.

The wood working was also unsurprisingly meticulous.

I really wished there had been more of an explanation of the below folk art pieces – they’re stunning visually and I know the top and bottom RHS represent activities associated with Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead, a huge festival in Mexico honoring the dead – it’s more of a party and less macabre than it sounds!), but I would love to learn more about the symbolism.

The title of the below RHS piece is “Among marigolds and candles, [they] return to [their] eternal home” (i.e., this is likely representative of a Day of the Dead altar), but I wish we had more information about the people represented, their history, why this specific altar was chosen to be represented in the museum, etc.

After the Popular Culture Museum, we headed to the Museo Casa Kahlo, which actually is one of two museums dedicated to the Kahlo family in a ~5 block region of Coyoacán (it turns out her family owned both properties and – I’ll probably get flack for this – Frida herself was a bit of an OG nepo baby given her family’s wealth and connections).

This museum is dedicated to her early life and therefore is slightly less popular (as mentioned at the beginning of this post, it’s near impossible to get tickets to the ‘main’ museum in Casa Azul – below – which chronicles her art and life with similarly prominent husband Diego Rivera). That being said, it was a nice introduction to her early life and her family history, with a variety of exhibits related to her close relationships with her sisters, their children, and her early works.

It’s set in the property that was her childhood home – from what I understand, both this property and the famous Casa Azul were owned by her parents, then sold to some or many of the Kahlo siblings, then sold to Frida and Diego (and a variety of properties, including the Hernan Cortés house mentioned above, were later owned by their students).

The museum begins with a short video that introduces Frida – I’ll be honest, I knew almost nothing about her (other than her prominence as a Mexican artist, marriage to famous muralist Diego Rivera, and their involvement with controversial (?) politics – sadly, I didn’t learn too much about the latter, since I suspect that was covered more in the Casa Azul museum). I did, however, learn a few interesting things:

• Frida was from a tight-knit family (and from what I can tell, a very affluent one who owned multiple properties; her father was a well-known photographer and commissioned by Mexican president Porfirio Diaz for portraits and a whole series featuring Mexico City’s impressive buildings)
• She had several (4, if I remember correctly) sisters, several of whom, like Frida, had non-traditional marriages (including those who also did not produce children, which was abnormal at the time)
• Coyoacán was its own city when she was born, and located so far from downtown Mexico City that she had to take an hour-long bus to school
• Frida was a very curious child, often spending time outdoors gathering plants, flowers, and insects to review under a microscope – apparently, she actually wanted to be a doctor before her spinal injury
• She had polio as a child and was therefore confided to a bed for several months; it sounds like this profoundly impacted her affect and obviously limited her childhold
• Later, she fractured or broke her spine, which again relegated her to bed for months; during this time, she was encouraged to paint using her father’s supplies and thus began her early works, which largely explore portraits and florals remembered from this childhood period
• Interestingly, the museum didn’t really mention her famed husband Diego Rivera; instead, it actually mentioned a few adolescent boyfriends (I loved this detail – I wish more museums gave you the “before they were THEM” version of the story)

Below are a few of the “family” items included – her mother’s wedding dress, her father’s camera gear, a portrait of Frida with her niece and nephew, who she spent a considerable amount of time with and seemed to treat as her own.

I also appreciated that they showcased some of her early drawings – these make me feel better about my own childhood doodles (although obviously she enhanced her craft, while I ventured to the corporate world…). The below are studies of her housekeeper’s daughter in various poses.

The museum also had a couple “famous” items, including one of her first floral paintings, and the famous mirror in which she painted her self portraits (there’s also a hilarious setup where you can create a similar self-portrait in a replica mirror using a replica of her father’s old school camera equipment).

The house is well preserved, staged to look like it would have when the Kahlos lived there. I enjoyed the dark room, kitchen, and bedroom (not to mention the 21st century addition of adds since the projector into the bathtub seemed to be on the fritz!).

I also loved her personal effects – the dresses, embroidered blouse, and flower crown, all nods to indigenous Mexicans, were incredible works of art.

Interestingly, her basement was apparently her sanctuary, despite having no windows and extremely low light.

She was quite an eclectic collector (below is a Chinese doll collection) and saved many of her letters, which are displayed to showcase her personality and close relationship with her sisters.

One thing I didn’t know but really appreciated was the emphasis on her social good (I was also unable to find anything about this online despite it being such a prominent part of the museum). From my understanding of the museum, one of her sisters was left without her husband – it’s not clear if this was a formal divorce, escape from domestic violence, or if he died and she was simply left to figure it out. Either way, it was obviously a struggle and, given her position of power and wealth, Frida was able to assist with developing (what seems like) an early version of social welfare funding that helped not only her sister, but mothers in similar situations throughout Coyoacán.

Overall, a great introduction to her art and life – I suspect there’s much more to learn at Casa Azul (if you’re ever able to get a ticket!).

From there, we went to the final, most random site of the Coyoacán trip – Leon Trotsky’s home. Yes, the one who is known for his poor relationship with Stalin (and, subsequent exile to none other than Coyoacán, Mexico City!). The museum is set in his “home” during exile, which also includes a guard house and a front building that legitimately feels (and smells?) like Eastern Europe in a bizarre way.

I honestly knew very little about Trotsky other than what I’ve learned in various political science and history courses – as a short recap, he was was a key organizer of the October Revolution, which led to the Bolshevik rule in Russia (despite, apparently, not agreeing with Lenin’s politics) and later was instrumental in negotiating Russia’s withdrawal from WWI and subsequently created the Red Army (Russian history 101 keywords? Trotsky’s all over them!). Unfortunately for him, he and Stalin had major ideological differences and he was exiled to (and later assassinated in) Coyoacán (and, he even lived in one of Frida Kahlo’s properties / had Diego Rivera go to bat with the President of Mexico at the time to give him asylum – this is like the lesser known extension of the story that starts with Hitler, Trotsky, Freud, Tito and Stalin all living in Vienna at the same time).

All that history aside, the museum is nice and captures some interesting artifacts from his life and his living spaces in Mexico.

From the rooms, I learned the following:

• The dining room maintains its original layout and color; Trotsky, his family and their “collaborators” would have dined together here
• His study is where he both worked and died; in 1940, he was assassinated by ice axe while working on his biography of Stalin (which is unfinished); his library still includes a variety of famous works, including those by Lenin, Marx, Engel, etc. He apparently suffered from strong headaches due to high blood pressure, which is why the study has a bed
• Trotsky also housed his grandson (“Sieva”), who arrived in Mexico in 1939; his grandson heard the first assassination attempt (using guns) and apparently yell and cowered under the bed, sadly leading to him being the only one wounded (as his yell attracted attention)

The house, as you can see below, includes both the “home” and the guard house, where his minders in exile would have lived.

Trotsky apparently was also fond of tending the land and had a variety of hutches on the property (including a chicken coop and what looked like a chinchilla coop!).

Overall, a nice little neighborhood tour!