Most people recognize her portrait on sight, but few living people have ever heard her voice.
A recording of what is believed to be the voice of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo surfaced from the National Sound Library of Mexico on Wednesday. The recording is of her reading a poem from the 1950s radio program El Bachiller, according to the Guardian.
Fans of the artist, who died in 1954, tweeted their reactions to hearing what very well may be Kahlo’s voice.
“She sounds as much the queen as i had imagined her to be,” @EmpressPeony said.
https://twitter.com/EmpressPeony/status/1139174941025329153
So lovely.
— Ali Pitargue (@AliPitargue) June 13, 2019
She’s waxing poetic about Diego here, but I became more curious about how she sounds when she’s cursing him. 🤐
I love how she describes her husband. Real, no sugar coating what could be perceived as faults and loving them as they are.
— Femme (@FemCondition) June 13, 2019
Despite the excitement of some fans, others are more critical of the recording’s veracity. Some have compared the voice heard to the ones heard on of Google Translate or common Spanish class recordings.
“This sounds like the voice on those Spanish listening test recordings,” @mallory__10 said.
One person also floated the idea of finding someone who had met the artist before.
“Try getting in touch with Elena Poniatowska,” @joeynaborn said. “She was a journalist who interviewed in her youth many of Mexico’s great literary and cultural figures.” (The Daily Dot reached out to Poniatowska for comment and will update this story if we hear back.)
She low key sounds like google translate lol
— Tokenbud 🌐 (@Tokenbud909) June 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/joeynaborn/status/1139177066597773312
https://twitter.com/joeynaborn/status/1139206229333463041
https://twitter.com/mallory__10/status/1139196631071543297
Several tweeters thought her voice would be deeper.
“I NEVER expected it to sound like this!”@luuunnnaaa__ said. “I always pictured her with a more robust voice, the complete opposite of this.”
https://twitter.com/luuunnnaaa__/status/1139224147911823360
I’ve always imagined her with a deeper voice.
— Noemí Catalina (@PaintedLady22) June 13, 2019
The tumultuous relationship of Kahlo and her husband, the artist Diego Rivera, is the subject of a majority of tweets and can mostly be summed up in this tweet from @Whowantegg: “Can’t tell if she’s being poetic or roasting him.”
Can’t tell if she’s being poetic or roasting him.
— Scrambled (@Whowantegg) June 13, 2019
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