Content warning: This section of the guide discusses miscarriage.

The novel is set partly in Casa Azul, the historical home of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who was born in 1907 in Mexico City. Kahlo’s father immigrated to Mexico from Germany where he met Frida’s mother. Though she was born three years before the Mexican Revolution, Kahlo would later claim to be born the same year so that she would be associated with the notion of freedom embraced by the revolutionaries. Kahlo’s life was marred with difficulty at a young age: At six she contracted polio, which left her with a permanent limp; as a teenager she was severely injured when the bus she was riding in collided with a street car. Kahlo was bedridden for several months with a broken spine and pelvis, and she was immobile due to a body cast.

Just prior to this, Kahlo entered the National Preparatory School, where she was one of only a few dozen women. Initially interested in pursuing medicine, it is there that she met painter Diego Rivera when he was painting a mural for the school. Her schoolmates described Kahlo as outspoken, eager, and interested in politics. It was during her convalescence from her injuries that Kahlo began painting, completing her first self-portrait at this time—she would go on to paint 54 more in her lifetime; she painted 132 paintings in total.