Frida Kahlo was Mexican, of Spanish descent, and was part German

The mother of Frida Kahlo was mestiza—both Native American and comes from a line of generals in Spain. Frida was incredibly proud of her American Indian and Mexican heritage, and her work and appearance both reflected this. She portrayed herself in her paintings wearing traditional Tehuana attire and braiding ribbons in her hair. Additionally, Mexicanidad has had a significant impact on both her work and way of life.

Did you know that Frida Kahlo's father was not at all Latinx despite her strong ties to Mexican, Indigenous, and Latinx culture? Her parents, photographer Guillermo Kahlo (1871–1941) and her mom (1876–1932) were, respectively, 36 and 30 years old at the time of her birth. Carl Wilhelm Kahlo was born in Germany as Guillermo Kahlo and left his own country in 1891 to pursue his university education in Mexico due to epilepsy brought on by an accident. Although Kahlo claimed that her father was Jewish and that her paternal grandparents were Jews from the city of Arad, this claim was denied in 2006 by two German genealogists who discovered that he was really from a Lutheran family in the Grand Duchy of Baden. He used the name Guillermo Kahlo and established herself as a photographer when he landed in Mexico in 1891. Along with Kahlo, her parents gave birth to the daughters Matilde (1898–1951), Adriana (1902–68), and Cristina (1898–1964). Besides, she has two half-sisters, Maria Luisa and Margarita, from Guillermo's first marriage.

Later, Kahlo recalled that her childhood home was frequently "very, very melancholy." Both parents suffered from frequent illnesses, and their marriage lacked affection. She had a very strained relationship with her mother, Matilde. According to Kahlo's description of her mother, she was "kind, busy, and brilliant, but also cunning, harsh, and fanatically devout."