Lying on her bed, Frida turns her head slightly and looks at the camera. His expression says a lot about the pain in his tired body. Back, in the header, there are several photographs pasted. Two stand out - by size and location - those where Diego Rivera appears with the muralist.
In one of them, the one with the largest format, Rivera finds himself carrying a small xoloitzcuintle and, at his side, touching the dog, Frida, who in his look reflects the admiration he feels for the painter. Some yesterdays have already passed since the image was captured.
Despite her state of health, she is combed with thick black braids that surround her head, in the manner - as one newspaper of the time said - of Tehuantepec, and adorned with colorful rings of blue, green and silver. in one of his hands. With the other touches a dog xoloitzcuintle, whose dark skin is full of small spots that reveal that it is not a young specimen.
The dog, with distrustful look, is on the floor, recharging two of its legs in the bed of the convalescent. The painter touches it because she wants to receive its warmth, to feel that warmth that gives the closeness to another living being. Heat that at the same time is comforting caress for the soul. The xoloitzcuintle is the spoiled male dog of the Rivera-Kahlo. It is the "Señor Xólotl", the one who "signed" some of the watercolors of maestro Rivera.
They say that xoloitzcuintles have healing properties, that their heat decreases muscle and joint pain, overcome the inflammation produced by poor digestion, that is, it is a remedy against rheumatism, colic and stomach pain. Ailments very different from those found in the De la Cruz-Badiano codex (XVI century) which - referring to the dogs of ancient Mexico in general - prescribes as ingredients the gall, urine, and bones of the dogs against diseases such as dandruff, hair loss and bad underarm odor.
In the native towns the dogs had an important place in relation to the health, because in them they were deposited, with only touching them, a series of evils that, of not doing it, they would end in the death or in a serious illness of the person or of some member of his family, mainly of small children, as a consequence of the so-called "air" that can be found when passing through some places.
Although, the popular tradition, puts in remarkable place the curative properties of the dog against the "air", as well as palliative of diverse pains, nowadays the xoloitzcuintles are used like companies of allergic people, as well as companions in a series of therapies where contact is fundamental. In the manner of modern therapists, by interacting with people, they help to improve the quality of life of the human being.
They give so much affection that, with the mere fact that they accompany us, we must consider ourselves well served.
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