I personally think that he’s one of the best Twist Villains Disney/Pixar showed to date, maybe not to the levels of King Candy, but pretty close.
I guess it helps that all we knew about him was from the perspective of a fan (Miguel), so the twist worked better.
I usually feel pretty indifferent about twist baddies after they’ve revealed their true colors (Hans, Bellweather, Callaghan…), maybe because they kinda lose their charm after they spill out the beans (I myself am more of a fan of deliciously evil bad guys: they’re not realistically evil in any way, but they’re dang funny!)
But Ernesto? He’s actually clever: he killed Hector, and kept it a secret for almost a century, while at the same time boasting about it in his movies. It’s so disgustingly evil, that only a good amount of charm on his part could make that work, and I can’t help but applaud that.
And he was Hector’s childhood friend: the thought of someone killing his own brother figure just to get fortune and fame is absolutely despicable; Ernesto is a ruthless villain, and a well written one at that.
And that’s why he deserves everything bad happening to him! ^_^
I’ve been reading theories about the end of the movie and how quickly people in the land of the living seemed to “forget” Ernesto. A good explanation for this is that some people might have already been suspicious of Ernesto.
Imagine the inheritors of Ernesto’s possessions after his death. They might not have critically analyzed the song book right after he died, but eventually someone would notice it was not written in Ernesto’s handwriting. People who research every detail of a celebrity’s life might have checked the ledgers of old hotels looking for Ernesto’s name, and they’d find Héctor’s name right along with it. They might have even looked up birth records from Santa Cecilia to find this mysterious
Héctor and confirm that Héctor and Ernesto likely grew up together.
Of course, those who questioned the Rivera family about a musician were immediately shown the door, so no leads there. Nevertheless, there would probably have been conspiracy theorists who wondered what happened to
Héctor
and predicted foul play before Miguel’s journey. Evidence from the suddenly-musically-inclined Rivera family likely fueled the fire to a decades old unsolved mystery.
I would honestly love to see the de la Cruz historians because you KNOW they mapped out EVERY INSTANCE OF THIS MAN’S LIFE.
Like, even before Miguel goes to the Land of the Dead, there’s all this debate about H. Rivera–who pops up in ledgers and in a few notes Ernesto made–and who they were. Were they a music partner? Just a travel buddy? A lover? Like, there’s at least one documentary made trying to uncover the secret identity of H. Rivera.
(Miguel watched it before and after going to the Land of the Dead; the first time he brushes it off because this H. person isn’t important to the music and the second time he just screams because the conclusion they made about Papa Hector is SO WRONG.)
Can you even imagine the slap-in-the-face feeling Miguel gets when he first watches that documentary a second time, realizing that Hector was right in front of him the whole time??
I love this headcanon because it’s a reminder of how easily facts can get shuffled over with time, and how clues in plain sight can be taken waaaay off the right trail. Surprisingly this ESPECIALLY happens with the hyper-famous as historians (and mostly the non-historians) latch onto tiny scraps of non-clues and run with them.
(I’m an English major and don’t even get me started on how much amateur historical headcanon there is on Shakespeare precisely because 100+ years of speculators have been imaging up extra bits of his life that have no real historical backing.)
I’m pretty sure the reining theory on H. Rivera was that they were a “Helena Rivera,” a b-list actress and suspected lover of Ernesto’s who was often spotted around the sets of his first movies. (Or some such speculative nonsense.)
DO YOUR GENEALOGY PEOPLE, these are the stories that matter. (And more importantly, resist the urge to prune your family tree!!)
So I saw a post about Ernesto and it made me think and realize something.
Spoilers for Coco. Last chance, amigos.
Ernesto literally had no reason to try and kill Miguel or trap Hector or ANY OF IT.
Like, honestly. What danger did they pose? The Lands of the Living and the Dead adored him. The podunk town he was from had a beautiful monument, the Land of the Dead had a plaza named for him and he hosted huge parties with the best of the best. He was the crowning event on Dia de los Muertos. Hell, there were people who seemed to either not go see their families or cut their visits to the Land of the Living short to try and meet him or see his concerts.
So what threat did this family pose? Hector is a Forgotten conman with a rap sheet a century long from years of trying to cross the Marigold Bridge illegally. Miguel is a twelve-year-old. The Rivera clan appears to be respected (the novelization goes into more detail about how many people know them for their shoes and the quality thereof), but they’re still not about to pose a threat to De la Cruz, especially when the information they have is learned second-hand from the aforementioned conman.
And if Miguel went back to the Land of the Living? What then? I’m pretty sure the only reason they were able to make sure Hector got his due credit was because Coco kept the poems and letters and had the picture scrap, which Ernesto had no way of knowing about.
Which makes me think that as paranoid, self-obsessed and irrational as he was, there may have been something different at work.
Ernesto wanted Hector Forgotten. Not just dead, not just out of his way. Deader than dead. Completely gone. He was willing to go to insane, pointless lengths to do this: kill a child, his own great-great-grandchild as far as he knew, assault several people with the help of his guards, and I would go so far as to say he’s done similar things before, what with the speed that the guards ‘take care of’ troublesome ‘guests’ by flinging them into that sinkhole.
Ernesto is, without doubt, some kind of unstable. A narcissist certainly, maybe also a sociopath. I’m not an expert. But as far as he’s concerned, Hector was his best friend. And maybe he was, but maybe Ernesto’s view of what a best friend is and what our view of what a best friend is are different things.
Ernesto canonically feeds on praise. His parties are towering, over the top ways for him to have hundreds of people fawn over him in person, and then immediately go outside and be showered with praise and love from thousands more. Hector and Ernesto grew up together from childhood, and a lot of people headcanon them having been orphans or otherwise reliant only on each other.
Hector is a very openly affectionate person. It’s one of his great qualities, how open and honest he is about who he cares about and how much he cares about them. He’s pretty shameless about it really. His interactions with Imelda make this rather obvious, but there’s also his interactions with Miguel, a kid he just met. He’s very physically affectionate, gently gripping him by the shoulders to reassure or lead him away from celebs, literally holding him in his arms during the Un Poco Loco number, holding him when he’s panicking after being thrown into the sinkhole. There’s an obvious instinctive paternal quality to him, but there’s also the fact that he’s just very open about his feelings.
Ernesto needed adulation. Needed affection, love, praise. Hector, for a long time, was how he got it. At first directly, with this younger boy looking up to him as a primo, and then indirectly, with his songs being the reason for the applause he received after shows.
This is just my personal view, but Hector seems like a very easy-going guy. Not a pushover by any means, but I’ve had this thought that being a father and being with Imelda made it easier for him to put his foot down. Sure, Imelda might have been the better disciplinarian, but a united front is important so he needed to be able to learn how to stand firm on things. And while I think he couldn’t be with Imelda if he wasn’t easy-going and willing to let her take the lead, I think if he wasn’t at least a little stubborn, Imelda would trample him underfoot. A man who can bend without breaking is necessary for someone like Imelda, but a man without a backbone isn’t someone she can respect.
So I imagine Hector and Ernesto being all the other had for years… and then Imelda comes into the picture. And Hector is smitten. Enamored. Maybe Ernesto doesn’t get it; the fiery, dominant Imelda isn’t to his tastes but sure, whatever. It’s not like anything’s going to happen. Except something DOES happen. Imelda falls for Hector, they get married, have Coco… And suddenly, Ernesto doesn’t have Hector all to himself. Maybe it’s a romantic thing, maybe it isn’t, but I think it definitely turns into a sort of “If I can’t have you…” Because Hector is all Ernesto had. He was it. He was the one who put Ernesto on a pedestal when they were kids and here, now, he’s the one who can put him on a pedestal for the world.
But then, in Mexico City, Hector puts his foot down. And while we know that he cares about Ernesto and doesn’t want to lose him as a friend, to Ernesto, it’s a betrayal. It’s a declaration that Imelda is more important and to someone like Ernesto…? No. That is not allowed.
Maybe some of the horrible things Ernesto did in the movie was out of fear for his reputation, but the more I think about it, the more I think it was spite. You left? Fine. Suffer.
Watch me ruin this song you wrote for your precious kid, who is apparently more important than me.
Want to go back to Imelda? Why would she want you? You left, and you think I’m about to go cover for you? Maybe if you’d been a better friend, I would have.
Oh, this is your great-great-grandson? That’s even better. Watch me chuck him over the side of this tower and then listen to me go back out there to the adoring crowd, singing your songs while you fade away.
And that’s why I left the cinema saying “it’s been YEARS since I watched such a villain in an animated movie”
Yessss, welcome to the Ernesto-has-so-many-layers train. 🙂
This is the kind of emotionally complex thinking I thrive on!
y’all need to understand that miguel adored ernesto de la cruz, he looked up to this man, wanted to be him, his face showed nothing but adamance and devotion for this guy and even jumped to the conclusion that he was his great-great grandpa because he just couldn’t be any more excited about the whole thing
cue to the scene where they are in the sinkhole and he now knows that hector was the one he was related to all along but doesn’t even bat an eyelash before he’s screaming ‘im proud to be his family’ and i know what ur thinking–thats only because he found out ernesto was a murderer–but watch the scene where he’s backstage and hector doesn’t fight back because he’s just pleading for ernesto to let miguel live
hector was there with him the entire time, he was the first person miguel saw playing the guitar in the flesh (bone?) that it mesmerises him, hector then performs with him and let’s him know that he’s proud of him,
with this, miguel realises hector is the one person he’s been missing and yearning for his entire life, the person he feels connected to, the one that loves music just as much as he does, not ernesto and that right there is why he’s proud and that his family has been on his side supporting him the whole time
miguel then looks into the eyes of ernesto, this man who he has a personal altar for, decorates with candles and records and gives more offerings to than he does with his family, watches that same tape over and over again and goes through the whole night looking for this man just to prove to him how much he’s worthy to play music, to then throwing that all away and calling him a—coward
this is the type of buried symbolism i need in my life, coco is ART
It’s really subtle, but look how touched Hector is. In the novelization, he’s said to be happy because he thought of Ernesto as a brother and didn’t want to lose his friendship.
He was happy because he thought Ernesto was still his friend.
I actually mostly missed how affectionate Hector is with Chicharron the first time I saw Coco, but the second time I was paying more attention and… it’s one of the first signs we get about what kind of character Hector really is. That scene just punches me right in the feels.
Hector goes in there trying to be all charming and yacking a mile a minute. He’s obviously trying to bluster his way into getting this guitar, despite having lost a bunch of stuff he’s already borrowed, and knowing full-well Chicharron is going to be pissed off at him. …But as soon as he realizes that his friend is fading, he drops the act immediately, and his tone does a 180. We instantly see his face go from the ‘I’m being super charming’ grin to this sad, knowing little smile, and his voice goes from fast-talking wheedling to being really gentle and soft. Hector could’ve just picked up the guitar and walked off with it at that point, since he knows Chich can’t really do anything to stop him. The character we’ve led to believe Hector is so far might just do that – playing the loveable scoundrel card. Maybe Miguel would guilt him into going back to return it… but this Hector doesn’t do that. He clearly doesn’t want to play, and even says as much – but he does it anyway, burning time he’s not sure either he or Miguel have, because Chicharron is dying, and this is important. He looks so damned heartbroken after Chich disappears… and not just because he knows it’ll happen to him too soon enough.
It’s the first time we really begin to see Hector for who he actually is, rather than all the goofy bluster and con-man antics, and it still breaks my heart every time I watch this movie.
Stop talking and start doing: My Fallout Shelter for my Tumblr blog 