The accident

On 17 September 1925 Frida was riding a bus to Coyoacán, back to her house after Preparatory School. One year after the accident she did this drawing.

Frida remembered the accident as follows: A little while after boarding the bus, the collision began. Before that we had taken another bus, but since I had lost a little parasol, we got off to look for it. That was how we got on the bus that broke me.

The accident took place on a corner in front of the San Lucas market, exactly in front. The streetcar went slowly, but our bus driver was a very nervous young man. When the trolley car went around the corner the bus was pushed against the wall.

I was an intelligent young girl, but impractical, in spite of all the freedom I had won. Perhaps for this reason, I did not assess the situation nor did I guess the kind of wounds I had.

The first thing I thought of was a balero [a Mexican toy] with pretty colors, which I had bought that day and carrying with me. I tried to look for it, thinking that what had happened would not have major consequences.

It is a lie that one is aware of the crash, a lie that one cries. There were no tears in me. The crash bounced us forward and a handrail went right through me, the way a sword pierces a bull.

A man saw me having a tremendous hemorrhage. He carried me and put me on a billiard table until the Red Cross came for me.