Héctor Rivera

## Media

**Héctor Rivera** is the deuteragonist of the 2017 film, *Coco*.

## History

### Early Life

Héctor was born November 30, 1900 and grew up in Santa Cecilia with childhood friend, Ernesto de la Cruz. Héctor met and fell in love with a girl named Imelda. At ages nineteen and eighteen respectively, they married and had a daughter, who they nicknamed "Coco" as her full name was Socorro. The family lived in the house that would eventually become the workshop for the Rivera Shoe-making business.

Having a passion for music, Héctor writes a song for his daughter, Remember Me, and his wife, “Un Poco Loco”.Though Imelda wants to settle down, Héctor leaves the family to join his former friend, Ernesto da la Cruz in music.He began missing his family and intended to return to them but was unfortunately was killed by his former friend, Ernesto.However, most people, Including Héctor, believed that he died of food poisoning.He later woke up in the Land of the Dead. When he never returned, Imelda believed he had truly abandoned the family. When she came to the Land of the Dead, Imelda and Héctor remained distant towards one another. Slowly, as Coco forgot her father, Héctor's bones began to turn yellow and cracked.

He tried numerous times to cross the bridge, dressing up as Diego Rivera and an Alebrije. However, both attempts failed. Because music appeared to have stopped him from realizing what he wanted all along (family), Héctor began to dislike musicians and grew embittered towards his once friend, Ernesto da la Cruz for stealing his music and taking all the credit, as well as stealing his guitar.

## Physical Appearance

Before his death, Héctor was a handsome, young man and was only twenty-one when he died. He had tan skin, short black hair, and brown eyes. After his death, his brown eyes became majenta.As Héctor was being forgotten, his bones turned to a yellowish color. He wore clothings that became rip and tattered. Mostly in rags his purple vest was tattered and his brown pants torn on each pant leg. By the end of the film, Héctor's bones turned white again. His clothing was no longer ripped up or tattered and instead of being barefoot, he sports on shoes presumably made by his familyAccording to his great-great grandson, Miguel, Héctor and Coco have the same facial structure, by the similar cheek bones.

## Personality

Héctor is mischievous, well-meaning, sly, charming, caring, loving, nice, somewhat desperate, sneaky, fatherly, humorous, benevolent, romantic, protective, crafty, and stubborn. Héctor was a man who did not want fame or fortune or the world to remember him. He was a man who had a deep love and adoration of his family, especially towards his daughter and wife, and eventually, his great-great-grandson, Miguel.

Héctor is somewhat sneaky and crafty, being able to put a costume together. However, most people can see through his disguise, including the security guard. However, this was probably because she knew he mostly would try disguises to get the bridge. Mostly when someone sees Héctor for the first time, they mistake him fore a conman, as he is sly and crafty. Even Miguel was impressed by Héctor's escape attempt while trying to run away from the security guards and attempting to cross the bridge. However, he didn't openly trust Héctor and really didn't believe him until Héctor's and Ernesto's argument.

At the start of the film, Héctor was shown to dislike music almost as much as his estranged family. He believes that all musicians are a bunch of "self important jerks" despite being a musician himself. This was because he grew resentful of Ernesto never giving him credit for the songs that made him famous. However, he made the exception for Chicharrón and played the song. After meeting Miguel again, Héctor shared a love of music again, even becoming a supportive to Miguel and teaching him how to shake off his nerves before a performance.

Héctor also shares a stubbornness with his wife, Imelda and their great-great-grandson, Miguel, as he is stubborn in showing a determination not to change his attitude. He was somewhat desperate in getting to cross the bridge, even desperately getting help from the human child, Miguel to put his photo on an ofrenda when he got home. Héctor was also a protective and fatherly individual, as his fatherly thought was to always love his daughter. Becoming close with Miguel, Héctor became a fatherly figure towards the child, even worriedly searching for him when he ran away to find Frida Kahlo. He was also a romantic, shown when he wrote "Un Poco Loco" for his daughter and was able to reconcile with her.

It is shown that Héctor loves his family more than anything, especially his daughter, Coco, his grandson Miguel and his wife. He took the blame for not being there for his family, especially admitting his wrong actions to Imelda when apologizing to her. This moves the family to do something about Héctor's deterring health and save him from being forgotten by Coco, who Héctor wanted to know that he loved her so much and was trying to get home to her and Imelda.

It's known that Héctor dislikes being lied to, explicitly shown during his argument with Miguel. He is a well-meaning individual, shown in several cases:Héctor wants to return Miguel back to his family, probably due to the fact that he left his family for the same reason and was only thinking what was best in Miguel's interest. Later, he believed Miguel deserved to know the truth about de la Cruz.

What parallels him from Ernesto is that he performed music to provide for his family while Ernesto only cares for the attention. Also, Héctor gave Miguel genuine music advice while Ernesto would give terrible advice about fame to Miguel. Instead of a famous musician, he was a talented one.