San Francisco is home to many murals by Diego Rivera.  He and Frida Kahlo, his wife, traveled to California in the early days of the Roosevelt presidency. Diego was not officially a WPA artist, but he left his mark and served as an inspiration to many of those artists. There are many tours of his work, well worth seeing if you come to San Francisco as a tourist or if you live in the region. What is strange is that many people know and revere Frida Kahlo, not even knowing she was married to the great muralist.

There are socks with her image on them, there are  purses and shopping bags, and there are tee shirts. At Halloween, people dress up as Frida Kahlo.  No one accords such honors to Diego Rivera. What is the secret of her popularity and what does she symbolize or evoke?

San Francisco has announced plans to change the name of Phelan Avenue to Frida Kahlo Avenue.  It’s appropriate in so many ways. At 50 Phelan Avenue is the famous mural for the Pacific Exhibition done by Diego Rivera, husband of Frida Kahlo. She was with him in San Francisco when he did the work.  Frida is ever popular and bound to bring in crowds to any cultural event with her name on it.