#VivaLaFrida: Naming Frida Kahlo as tecnodiscursive performance in digital plataforms

Abstract

The article is based on the theoretical-methodological framework of Digital Humanities in Latin America, Data Feminism, and Technocultural Critical Discourse Analysis to examine Twitter posts about Frida Kahlo in Spanish and Portuguese between 2009 and 2023. Through extraction and processing methodologies and quantitative and qualitative methods using Wolfram Mathematica and Python in Jupyter Notebooks, we examine the following aspects: the historical flow of tweets, the most frequent hashtags, and the most mentioned usernames. Subsequently, we create word clouds. We identify three main modalities through which the practices of naming Frida Kahlo constitute activist performances that make catalyse the constitution of communities and counter-communities, affirming and maintaining identities in Latin America. Firstly, naming Frida Kahlo becomes an expression of belonging to the Latin American, Hispanic-American, and/or Mexican world. Secondly, Frida Kahlo makes visible and mobilizes social movements, whether in the direction of feminism, LGBTQIA+ rights, or disability rights. Thirdly, naming Frida Kahlo mobilizes sales performances, recommendations, or adherence to the consumption of objects and products from various commercial spheres. However, the audience does not have a passive attitude towards this phenomenon of commodification around Frida Kahlo; on the contrary, the author becomes the core of conflicts between opposing positions. In these ways, naming Frida Kahlo allows for the construction of positions around community identities, Latin American identity, sexuality, and gender, and enables diverse interventions in the market of cultural consumption.