Explore Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s musical love affair with mariachi, Benny Goodman and Carmen Miranda.

Few artists have reached such iconic status in the 20th century as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. During their lifetimes they were – both individually and as a couple – at the centre of Mexican identity and culture, but also existed within a web of connections that brought them into contact with a fascinating array of artistic, political and musical characters further afield. ABC Classics’ companion album to the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ major new exhibition surveys some of the pair’s musical influences, and the musical worlds in which they lived, worked and travelled.

Most fundamentally, both artists were engaged with what it was to be Mexican: Rivera through the construction of a new national identity with an art grounded in social realism; Kahlo through self portraits which explored her own personal identity as a representation of Mexicanidad. The traditional music of their homeland was a constant presence in their lives, and in its mariachi tradition Mexico had a particularly strong and distinctive musical identity. The origins of mariachi are entwined with the history of Mexico, combining indigenous musical forms with...