“You can help me! I can help you! But most importantly of all, you can help me!”
I never expected it to be endeared to a skeleton man in the way I am to Héctor Rivera, but here we are! It’s amazing how our expectations of this character are set-up and later subverted. So, he is my topic of discussion for today!
When Miguel and the audience first meet Héctor, he comes off as a selfish, yet lovable trickster, trying to get past security so he can visit the world of the living. We don’t know exactly why he wants to go there, but for a guy who tries lie and con his way out of every situation, we’re lead to assume it’s for selfish purposes.
He’s also fun, goofy and the butt of many jokes. The story uses him for many slapstick gags involving his limbs coming off, and the other people in the Land of the Dad call him Chorizo because they all think he choked on one when he died.
The turning point where he truly becomes more than a joke is when we see play music. Music, being such a central part of the movie, is what allows Miguel, and by extension, the audience, to see a caring and melancholic side to Héctor.
He plays a jaunty tune for old Chicharrón, just before he disappears in a “Final Death.” It’s a tender, bittersweet moment with gentle humour (”There are children present). When he goes, Héctor has a drink in his honour. (As an aside, no I don’t know where the drink goes if he has no organs to process it.) On our first viewing, this is the point where Héctor is no longer just some goofy guy who choked on a sausage.
On second viewing, the moment Chicharrón fades away, the deeply sad expression on Héctor’s face shows not only sadness for his friends final passing, but for the possibility that it will happen to him too.
After Héctor and Miguel, again through the power of music, Héctor discovers that Miguel does have family other than Ernesto. The kid lied so he could get his “great, great grandfather” to give him his blessing to go home AND be a musician. Héctor is understandably furious that the kid put himself in danger, and put off placing his photo on the ofrenda, all so he “live out a musical fantasy.” When Héctor tries to forcefully take Miguel back to his family, the kid snaps at Héctor for being selfish, which is quite ironic, given how Miguel is acting. Even though the audience can see that Héctor isn’t just out for himself now, Miguel is too caught up in what he wants to see that.
When Miguel and the audience finally meet Ernesto, he seems to be everything Héctor is not: successful, popular, strong and macho. He’s the ideal that Miguel wants to live up to!
You know, I did all my own stunts!
But of course, Ernesto isn’t as great as he first seems. With his ostentatious parties that constantly replay footage from his own movies, it’s obvious that Ernesto is an egotist who cares about his reputation more than anything. Ernesto is a very effective foil for Héctor, who has little but goes out of his way to find Miguel so he can help him get home. And then, the reveal comes in the lead up to the movie’s third act …
“I just wanted to go back home!”
Ernesto not only took Héctor’s songs, he took his life and family from him. Poor Héctor was a young family man (the director said he was only 21 at the time of his death) who was tired of life on the road and wanted to return to his wife and daughter. Héctor is not at all the shady character he appeared to be in his first scene where tries to trick his way into the land of the living. He’s a victim of an ambitious, callous man, unafraid to do anything to “cease his moment.”
Miguel, and the audiences, perceptions are now completely shattered. Héctor is no longer “Chorizo,” the hapless trickster who chocked on a sausage, and Ernesto is no longer the “good guy,” Miguel thought he was. Even though the movie was dropping strong hints that neither character was what they seemed on the surface, this moment completely flips our earlier expectations of these characters!
When Miguel tearfully apologizes to Héctor as he realises how selfish he’s been, we learn the truth about Héctor.
“She’s … forgetting me.”
He wanted to be reunited with his daughter, who’s been forgetting about him. And his daughter is Miguel’s great-grandmother, Coco, who suffers from dementia. Miguel, relieved that his great-great-grandfather is not a murdering asshole, realises that the creative, artistic part of him that always made him feel different, came from Héctor. And here, as we go into the third act conflict of trying to get Héctor’s photo back from Ernesto and send Miguel home, Miguel’s (and our) perception of Héctor has come full circle. He’s gone from the goofy, selfish trickster, Chorizo, to a gentle and artistic family man who just wants to see his daughter again.
Coco asks the narrative question of what kind of person Miguel will choose to be. The movie plays with Miguel’s changing perceptions of these two men, and because he’s the point of view character, we see those changing perceptions through him. In the end, he has to choose if he’s going to be like the self-serving and callous Ernesto or the flawed, yet good-hearted and loving Héctor. Our expectations of Héctor our subverted in a way that gets us to feel a deep and love for this character.
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