Tag: coco headcanon

cheeseanonioncrisps:

So we know that Héctor’s songs are often about people he cares about. The most notable examples being ‘Remember Me’ (about Coco) and ‘Poco Loco’ (about Imelda).

So just saying, what if ‘The World Es Ma Familia’ was actually written for Ernesto?

For one thing, it’s the opposite of ‘Remember Me’, which was written to be sung to only one specific person, in that the song only really works when it’s being sung to an audience. Because unlike Héctor, Ernesto would never sing just for himself or a loved one. From his perspective, music is just a means to an end.

And, though obviously this wouldn’t affect how Héctor would have written it (although the film does seem to have quite a rich lore, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the filmmakers hadn’t come up with this themselves) it’s the only song Miguel ever sings for Ernesto.

Also, there’s the significance of the line, “the world es mi familia"— the world is my family. It’s kind of similar to Ernesto’s own “seize your moment” catchphrase in that it can sound pretty inspirational when you first hear it but actually has the potential to be quite disturbing in the right context. Unlike Héctor, Ernesto doesn’t feel tied to his family (though we know he must have had one, because he doesn’t deny it when Miguel asks him if it was hard to leave them— probably he had parents or siblings or something), or to his friends.

Look at how easily he turns from loving Miguel to trying to kill him— despite the fact that he never actually finds out that Miguel isn’t related to him (his response to finding out that Imelda is Miguel’s grandmother isn’t “I’m not your great-great grandfather after all?!” it’s “you’re related to Héctor?!”, which to me suggests that he’s wondering if he somehow hooked up with Héctor’s daughter or cousin or something).

Why wouldn’t he? Ernesto doesn’t need a family. The world is his family. He is on so many strangers’ offrendas that he doesn’t know what to do with all the offerings he gets— what does it matter if he has to bump off one friend to get to the top?

Apart from that, however, there’s very little meaning to the song. Admittedly it’s cut off halfway through, but the lyrics seem to just be the singer greeting the audience for an evening performance, telling them what a pleasure it is to play for them and then repeatedly telling them how much he enjoys music in general (because it allows him to communicate with people and bring them closer to him).

Even ‘Juanita’ which, since Héctor didn’t expect Miguel to have heard it, we can assume was written post mortem (head canon that it was written specifically to entertain Chicharrón— possibly as an apology for the whole femur incident) and just for fun, has more detailed lyrics than this. But it fits Ernesto, who doesn’t seem to care what he’s singing as long as the audience enjoys it.

Baby!Coco things:

aziraphalesbookkeeper:

  • Hector 110% cried when Imelda told him she was pregnant
  • (or then fainted maybe, idk which scenario I like better but
    both are pretty plausible)
  • ALSO imelda being super nervous to tell him because they’re newlyweds
    or maybe aren’t even married yet and when he reacts in such a positive way
    she’s filled with so much love and happiness questions why she ever doubted him
  • Hector proceeds to run around town excitedly screaming about
    how he’s going to be a dad
  • Un Poco Loco comes
    from Imelda’s pregnancy brain (because she’s so fiery by herself, imagine her with
    the emotional hormones of two people)
  • When Imelda starts to go into labor she and hector keep
    fighting about contraction times (a la Jim and Pam in the Office episodes “The
    Delivery pt 1 &2”)
  • Hector being frazzled and literally so stressed that
    something might go wrong during the delivery that Ernesto has to calm him down
    multiple times and at one point having to physically drag him from the room because you’re not helping, the midwives know what
    they’re doing she’ll be fine
  • (Because modern medicine wasn’t a thing) imelda’s family
    kept predicting that their child would be a boy because of the way her hips
    were shaped and her belly size, but Imelda always kind of knew in the back of her
    head the baby was a girl, and when Coco is born she feels comforted she knew
    the whole time
  • But she’s a little worried Hector might have gotten his
    hopes up for a boy but he’s like wE HAVE
    A LITTLE GIRL,     WHO CARES ???!1!!
    SHE’S BEAUTIFUL, THANK GOD SHE DIDN’T
    GET MY NOSE and Imelda just fondly rolls her eyes
  • Hector being afraid of holding her at first and he’s very
    jumpy and it takes a lot of coaxing from Imelda to get him to be steady enough
    to hold the baby without accidentally vaulting her somewhere
  • Uncle Ernesto
  • Both hector and Imelda being equally attentive and loving
    parents to their precious baby girl
  • Neither of them wasting any time introducing music into her
    life (ie: Hector carting her around the courtyard on his hip when other musicians
    are playing, Imelda singing Coco to sleep every night, both harmonizing
    together and dancing with her in the living room to get her to smile)
  • Baby Coco tugging on hector’s goatee
  • The first time Coco walks Hector is playing in the plaza and
    Imelda is there to support him and she’s sitting with Coco on the ground and
    they’re both listening but then coco pushes herself up and toddles over to her
    papa and hector loses his goddamn mind
  • Hector trying to get Coco’s first word to be dimple, ernesto
    trying for it to be chorizo, Imelda being so done with both of them because babies can’t pronounce syllables no matter how
    close you stick your faces to hers you idiotas

bitteralmondsscent:

Since everybody was playing an instrument in the end of the movie, I’m pretty sure at least half the Rivera had a secret music life. They just were better than Miguel in hiding it.

If Miguel hasn’t made all that scene, one of his relatives would have invited him to the secret family meeting they have every week to play together.

im-fairly-whitty:

slusheeduck:

kryptoncat:

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!!)