Few Mexican icons have enjoyed greater recognition than the painter Frida Kahlo. Only her voice seemed doomed to oblivion. Until Wednesday, that is, when the National Music Library of Mexico released a radio recording, apparently capturing the artist as she was reciting fragments of “Portrait of Diego”, a text she wrote in 1949 about her husband, the painter Diego Rivera. The Mexican government announced the discovery with caution, saying that studies suggest the recording is the voice of Kahlo, but acknowledging they were not able to confirm it. “It’s a finding that has many elements that can be identified as the probable voice of Frida Kahlo, but it isn’t 100 percent certain,” said Secretary of Culture Alejandra Frausto. Kahlo, whose spent long periods bed-ridden after a traffic accident in her youth, was the creator of some 200 paintings, sketches and drawings – mainly self-portraits – in which she transformed her misfortune into works of bold colour and emblematic strength.