Centro Cultural Tijuana and ‘Frida Kahlo: Sus Fotos’ exhibition

Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! As for me, I decided to head down to México and spend a few days there. Work had been very hectic and I hadn’t really had a chance to take a break in a while which is why I took advantage of the long weekend. Luckily, even though it was a holiday weekend, the line to cross the border back to the USA wasn’t too bad; we made it through in an hour! For those of you who don’t live in California and aren’t familiar with the proximity, Tijuana is a border city in México which is about a 2 hour drive south of Los Angeles which makes it a perfect weekend getaway.

We stayed in Tijuana and visited Rosarito, Ensenada, Valle de Guadalupe, Puerto Nuevo and of course TJ (Tijuana). We had a great time and I can’t wait to head back to México next month. There will be another post on the the other places we visited on this trip, but in this post, I wanted to share my visit to the Centro Cultural Tijuana.

I’ve visited Tijuana numerous times because of its proximity to where I live and because I am half Mexican, so I enjoy visiting. I had seen this building on almost every trip but never had the chance to go. This time, I told my parents we should check it out, especially since they had a Frida Kahlo exhibition going on titled Frida Kahlo: Sus Fotos. In case you missed my post on Instagram about Frida, I love and am fascinated with anything that has to do with her. Unfortunately (and understandably), no pictures were allowed inside the exhibition so I wasn’t able to take any, but trust me, it was great!

Once inside, we were surprised to know that the Frida Kahlo exhibition and the whole Cultural Center was completely free. Turns out we went on a perfect day because both exhibitions are free on Sundays. There is a nominal fee the rest of the week. Since we visited on a Sunday, the museum was full of families enjoying the day together. It was great to see so many families learning and spending the day together. The entrance to the Frida Kahlo exhibition is timed so we had to get our passes for the next scheduled time.

In the meantime, we visited the La Divina Proporción exhibition. Pictures were allowed in here, except as usual, no flash.

Once we finished there, we headed back to the Frida exhibition for our timed entrance. This was the only picture I was able to take because as stated before, there were no pictures allowed inside.

The exhibition is about some of the pictures that were discovered in the bathroom of her Casa Azul in Coyoacán, México. They were a variety of pictures of her (most never seen), her friends, family, lovers, and of course Diego (Rivera). They were pictures that she treasured and meant a lot to her for various reasons. The pictures were hidden in her bathroom and upon her death were discovered, but Diego requested that the pictures as well as everything else that was found in there, not be viewed or removed from there until 15 years after his death. It was done as he requested; although it actually took more than 15 years for all of the items to be uncovered and viewed. Many of these items are on display now either here at this exhibit or at her Casa Azul. The items are actually not allowed to leave the premises of the Casa Azul so if they are at an exhibition outside of there, they are replicas (including this one). This exhibition runs through September so if you’re in the area before then, make sure you visit!

We later made our way to their café, which was super cute and had a delicious menu, by the way.

We then caught a show folclórico: ‘México a través del folclor’.

After enjoying the show, we headed to their IMAX dome to watch Jerusalén. Mosaico de culturas y creencias. That was a great movie; make sure to check it out as well!

Hope you enjoyed this post and if you do take a trip down to Tijuana, you check it out. I highly recommend it! Stay tuned for another post from my trip!