Monday, February 13, 2006


It's Monday but I am still thinking of churches and church doors. This one is in the main square of the lovely and very old Coyoacan neighbourhood in Mexico City. I got married to Rosemary here 39 years ago, a few meters from this door. Since both of us were not Mexican, on two previous occasions the judge had refused to marry us, saying we needed permission from the Mexican government. For once the judges were honest and I was not able to bribe them (even though I knew they were wrong about the rules). The third time around I found a judge who accepted a bottle of Castillo rum as payment for the ceremony. We were married but none of our friends or my mother showed up. Both Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo lived in this "colonia". Leon Trotsky was pick-axed nearby. I took this photograph in 1962 with a Pentacon F and a Steinheil 135mm f4.5 Culminar lens. Looking at the photograph I remember that it was a few days after Palm Sunday.

Frida Kahlo
Steinheil