Y si quieres saber de mi pasado y La casa azul: Imaginación y sensibilidad surrealista en Chavela Vargas

Abstract

This article analyzes the construction, representation, and meaning of the personal relationship between painter Frida Kahlo and singer Chavela Vargas in the graphic novel La casa azul (Alba 2014) by the Catalan artist Tyto Alba. I explore how Alba re-creates and interprets the relationship between these two prominent popular culture figures based on Chavela’s memoirs Y si quieres saber de mi pasado (Vargas 2002) and Frida Kahlo’s Diario. Autorretrato íntimo (Kahlo 1995). In this analysis, I found particularly relevant the role played by dreams, daydreams, and imagination—all pillars of the surrealist movement to which Alba pays homage in La casa azul—as tools in the construction of the story and, more importantly, in the creation of Chavela’s subjectivity. Ultimately, I argue that Tyto Alba construes Frida as a metaphorical mirror in which Chavela sees herself and constructs her own personal identity.