Marika Rivera obituary

From the Guardian:

"But her thoughts had turned increasingly to Mexico from where, after a silence lasting many years, her father had called her, begging her to come to him. 'I asked if he wanted just me or my mother as well and when he said that he only wanted to see me, and me alone, I refused. How I regret that now.'

In her dreams, however, she flew to his side to comfort him after the death of his third wife, the painter Frida Kahlo, whom Marika had disliked ever since an attempt to reach Rivera had been intercepted by Kahlo. 'Every time I called him, she said he wasn't there,' Marika said. 'Sometimes I could hear him in the background. Once, she just hung up.'

She thought often about returning to Mexico, although her one previous trip had been uncomfortable – she felt rejected by Rivera's two daughters by his second marriage, to Guadalupe Marin. Instead, she asked me to go on her behalf to the beautiful chapel at Chapingo, outside Mexico City, which is almost womb-like in its structure, and where Diego Rivera had, she claimed, painted the walls and ceiling with images inspired by Marika and Marevna. She told many stories, often with a great sense of humour – she loved to tease – and would drift off into impassioned French, especially when warning of the ways of men."