Deteriorate (Spoilers)

It isn’t until Héctor meets Imelda that his friendship with Ernesto starts deteriorating. The more he talks about how much he loves Imelda (and later his wife and daughter), the less he talks about finally acting upon his and Ernesto’s shared dream. The more time he spends with Imelda, the less time he spends with Ernesto.

This isn’t due to a lack of trying on Héctor’s part; he invites Ernesto over plenty, but Ernesto declines every time. Simply put, Ernesto doesn’t care about doing anything with Héctor that doesn’t involve music or their future plans to make their shared dream come true. He’s bitter towards both Héctor and Imelda, but mostly Imelda because she was the one who derailed everything. He’s also angry. Frustrated. Impatient. Restless.

Not that he tells Héctor any of this, though.

Mourn

Coco didn’t hate music so much as mourn what it had done to her family.

Like one day Remember Me was playing on the TV, a young Elena (Abuelita) watching with wonder, until her mother came in and watched for just a moment, sadness brimming in her eyes, before she shook her head and said, “Turn that off, hija, no one wants to hear that overplayed love ballad.”

Elena sees the damage music has done to her mother, silent as it may be, and refuses to let that happen to anyone else in the family at a young age.