Hector (Coco)

Hector is a character from Coco.

Personality[]

Héctor has acquired a number of bad traits during his time in death: being deceitful, quick-dealing, and having the air of a con artist. However, these bad qualities stem from neither ambition nor malice, but rather absolute desperation to make up for the mistakes he made in life—leaving his family behind—and make them right. Despite matching what his run-down appearance may suggest, Héctor, at his best, is a charming, creative, and deeply family-oriented man.

Héctor's most defining qualities are his deep love for family, especially Coco, and the profound regret he feels that resulted from his choice to leave his family to share his music with the world. In life, Héctor loved nothing more than Imelda and Coco. For him, music was to show this love. Even his tour with Ernesto was motivated out of the desire to share his feelings with the world. Before learning the true circumstances of his death, Héctor suffered the consequences of leaving and was incapable of telling his family, especially his daughter, how much he loved them. He carried a deep sense of shame for his actions; preventing him from reconnecting with his embittered wife after she died. When left with nothing, Héctor's regret for his choice to leave developed into his own self-loathing and cynical outlook on himself. Even after he learned he was actually murdered, Héctor still carried the responsibility of his choice, which moved Imelda when he owned up on the pain that he caused their family. It is seeing Héctor's love for his family and profound suffering while separated from them that teaches his descendant, Miguel, that family is even more important than his love of music no matter what.

Héctor is a creative genius and an immensely talented artist. His brilliance is most prominently on display within the songs he wrote, which had a tremendous national influence in the world. Héctor's creativity is also on display in his movements as a skeleton. While most of the dead move as they did in life, excepting the occasional reconstruction when they fall apart, Héctor has found all manner of creative ways to move his skeletal body. Héctor's creativity is shown to come from his heart; many of Héctor's best songs were written as an expression of his feelings towards those he loves. Examples being writing "Un Poco Loco" for Imelda and, famously, writing "Remember Me" for Coco.

It is here that he draws a parallel between himself and Ernesto de la Cruz. While Ernesto was strongly incapable of inspiration for his music because he wanted to be recognized for it, Héctor was able to because he wanted to express his feelings of the relationships that inspired him.

While he is often passive and evasive in the face of conflict compared to Imelda, Héctor would fight back when he's deeply betrayed or if his family is at stake. His weak condition did not hold him back in a scuffle with Ernesto after discovering he caused him to remain separated from his loved ones or hold his own with the security guards to save Miguel's fading life and Coco's deteriorating memory, and again to save Miguel from Ernesto. While he held a grudge against Ernesto for taking the credits for his music (which later grew hateful after discovering his betrayal), Héctor showed no ill will to Miguel when it was assumed the latter was fraudulent musician's descendant; growing fond of the boy in their time together and comforted him when his supposed great-great-grandfather turned on him.

At the start of the film's events, Héctor was shown to dislike music nearly as much as his estranged family. Though he loved music in life, Héctor deeply regrets what his musical pursuits cost him; he was very reluctant to play music before meeting Miguel. Likewise, Héctor has also come to dislike musicians due to Ernesto neglecting of him after his death. Thus, Héctor had come to view musicians as self-important showboating jerks, including himself for once being one.

However, Héctor still enjoyed listening to music and was a musically supportive teacher to Miguel. Over the course of the film, Héctor regains his love of music, especially after he and Imelda reignite their attraction to each other through a song. One year after Miguel's time to the Land of the Dead, Héctor is finally accepted back into his family and enjoys playing his music for his family once more.

Physical appearance[]

Before he was murdered by Ernesto De la Cruz and some flashbacks where he sings "Remember Me" for his daughter Coco, Héctor was a human with short black hair and loose bangs, tanned skin, brown eyes, and a goatee. He wore a light brown Mexican formal attire with white upper outlines similar to Ernesto's.

As a spirit in the Land of the Dead, Héctor appears as a skeleton with his bones yellow and rusted, sans the bright gold, green, and purple markings on his skull, which are nearly faded. His appearance was overall unkempt - his black hair became messier, while the rest of himself was held together by things such as tape and bandages on his right arm and left leg. On his head, he wears a straw hat. He also wears a torn-up indigo formal jacket with a red tie and red, black and white suspenders, and torn-up light brown and black pinstriped pants to show his skeletal knees and feet, giving him the appearance highly reminiscent of a scare-crow. He also gained a single gold tooth in his frontal teeth.

By the end of the film, after finally being remembered, Héctor's appearance has since changed. His bones have become brighter and his markings are fully colored. In addition, his wardrobe has been changed to more of a clean-cut approach - his hair is straightened, his jacket has been converted to a vest, his pants have been mended, and now wears brown dress shoes made by Imelda, while retaining his straw hat and tie.

Role in the film[]

Héctor first appears trying to cross over to the Land of the Living disguised as Frida Kahlo. The agent quickly checks that he isn't recognized on his family's ofrenda, leading Héctor to make a run for it. But his hopes are in vain, as he ends up sinking into the marigold petals and is arrested. At the Grand Central Station, Héctor is left off with a warning by the officer and had his request to get his costume back denied. After leaving and angrily crumpling his warning, Héctor meets a living boy named Miguel who, having overheard that Héctor knows Ernesto de la Cruz, asks Héctor to take him to Ernesto to receive Ernesto's blessing so Miguel can go home. Héctor tells him he will get him to de la Cruz if Miguel puts Héctor's portrait on an ofrenda to allow him to cross over, which Miguel agrees.