Hi Sherrilyn,
The author opens this passage with a contrast between two distinct ways of viewing the content of Kahlo's work: a personal or emotional interpretation and a political interpretation. The former is identified as a way that has been "exhaustively psychoanalyzed." The latter has been, according to the author, "less studied."
Unsurprisingly, the author then attempts to make up for this lack of study with her own writing. She believes that we must also view Kahlo's art as an attempt to champion "Mexico's struggle for and independent political and cultural identity." (Lines 10-11)
The passage continues to detail the political and cultural content of Kahlo's work in the second, third, and fourth paragraphs. This political content is identified as a mixture of Marxism (Lines 12-14 and 28-29) and an opposition to the past influence of Spain and the contemporary influence of the United States in Mexican affairs (16-22, 38-50, and 54-56). The cultural aspects of Kahlo's work is shown in her focus on indigenous Mexican nationalism in lines 22-26, 30-38, and 51-56.
Answer choice (C) summarizes the importance of seeing Kahlo's work in terms of her political and cultural commitments rather well. Let me know if you are having any difficulty with understanding how this statement reflects what I wrote above.
Answer choice (D) however focuses only on the cultural images in Kahlo's art and attributes this imagery only to a 19th century revival in interest in the cultural history of Mexico. This answer not only ignores the political content of Kahlo's art, but it also misses the larger point of why Kahlo focused on the culture of Mexico. She did not have a detached scholarly interest in the subject, but also advocated for Mexican identity, as choice (C) describes.
I hope this helps!
