Lila Solorzano Rivera
ʻI want to keep his last name.ʼ
Local artist Lila Solorzano Rivera said she looks up to the great Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. “Her art is amazing, she kept it real,” Rivera said Tuesday as she took a break from making paper flowers for an art show celebrating the life of Kahlo, known for her self-portraits, her love of traditional dress and her relationship to muralist Diego Rivera.
Yuba Sutter Arts will host the art show and celebration Saturday in honor of Kahlo. Lila Rivera, a local artist living in Yuba City with her artist husband Randy and 2-year-old son, is curating the event.
Kahlo, who was severely injured in a bus accident while she was in preparatory school, took to painting to ease her mind while her spinal and pelvic fractures healed. Although the pain never left and she suffered through depression, she continued to paint through the rest of her life.
“She never painted her dreams, it was her reality. And she did it for herself. She didn’t expect anyone to like her art,” Rivera said.
Although sharing the last name of Kahlo’s husband Diego Rivera, Lila Rivera is not related.
She does share a Mexican heritage.
Lila Rivera said her father, Felipe Solorzano, traveled from the very small town of Ahualulco, Mexico, to the United States when he was in his 20s, with little money in his pocket. He eventually met her mother, Pearl Coronado, in Oregon. Her grandfather Jose and the rest of her family stayed behind, tending to their backyard sugarcane and mango business.
“My whole family lives on one street; some of my cousins got to grow up across from each other,” Rivera said. She visits as often as she can, but remains close to her grandfather even after he passed away in 2011.
“I sign my paintings with an ‘S’ at the end. I want to keep his last name,” she said. Through celebrating The Day of the Dead every year in October and curating the Celebration of Souls event at Yuba Sutter Arts last year, Rivera said she was able to cope.
But her heritage isn’t just seen through her signed name or the food she makes. It’s everywhere. Whether it’s the sugar skull placemats on her table, her grandfather’s photo on her fireplace mantel, or the decorative Mexican veil she wore for her wedding, she celebrates her Mexican heritage any way she can.
“For the Love of Frida” will be at Yuba Sutter Arts in Marysville from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Enjoy live painting, local vendors, a Frida PBS documentary and a Frida lookalike contest.