Her humour gives you the sense that she is not taking herself or her art too seriously, which is something I cherish: art is important, but nowhere near as important as many other things. I also love the way that she manages her identities: she had a German father and a Mexican mother, and she lived for a while in the USA.
Out of those different elements she creates something wonderfully new that combines the best of all of them. I never much liked the England I grew up in, finding it claustrophobic and narrow in its horizons; I left early and since then have lived in Europe, Latin America, the USA, and the Middle East, and I have tried to take on some of the good things about all those places. Perhaps I have been so happy teaching at the European School because most of my pupils there are juggling multiple identities, like Frida Kahlo.
I find it a place of infinite richness and constant surprise. The current movement across Europe, England and America to reduce identity to one thing one nation, one language, one class, one skin colour is sad and impoverishing. Frida Kahlo shows how you can create a richer self by incorporating a multiplicity of identities into you. That is why she is my greatest role model. His poetry has been shortlisted in numerous contests and last year Luxembourg commissioned him to write a poem for the Luxembourg pavilion at the Dubai World Expo.
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