Coco: Honoring Family Through Celebrating the Dead
by Sabeth Kapahu
*You can watch or read the content of the article below.
Does your family have any “rules?” You know, the ones that you follow because that’s what they’ve been doing for generations. Sunday night dinners are at grandma's house. No elbows on the table. No playing outside after your bath. “Never name a street dog, they’ll follow you forever.”
Our family rules have a way of informing us as people whether we know it or not. Sometimes these rules have come from a place of strong tradition, deep hurt, unrealistic fear or pure joy that we never would have known about how we not looked back into our family history. There is a rich journey to be taken when we explore the background of Disney’s Coco (2017).
This article runs at the perfect time, as is national Hispanic heritage month until the 15th. As a nation we get to collectively recognize the deep and rich influence of Hispanic Americans throughout our history, culture and achievements.
At first glance this movie is a celebration of the dead through the Mexican holidays that draw on indenous and European roots, Dia de los Muertos—the Day of the Dead. For many North American western viewers this culture is unfamiliar. We simply see it as a bunch of calacas and calaveras (skeletons and skulls), candles, and ofrendas (memorials).
As Christians inside and outside of this traditional narrative it gets tricky to figure out if and how to celebrate it. After all, death is serious. The reality is that this holiday is quite complex. In the time of the Spanish conquista, Roman Catholicism was imposed on native people through a variety of means, such as mixing Christian and pagan traditions. We can’t get into its details here, but we also can’t reject the day outright because death scares us. As Christians it actually shouldn’t. It has already been conquered.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
“Does your family have any “rules?” You know, the ones that you follow because that’s what they’ve been doing for generations.”
Death was conquered by Jesus. It wasn’t by any offering we gave. It wasn’t by our good deeds in life, it wasn’t by what we least behind. It was by the only One who could take away its sting for good.
Yes, Coco is about the celebration of the dead with elements that don’t align with what we believe happens after death. But we can take a deeper look into it, and see that what this film is really celebrating is the life of those they have loved and have lost. Every year they build beautiful offenders adorned with pictures of those that they have lost. All four elements earth wind fire water are displayed within the ofrenda and families are flooded with memories of all kinds, good bad and otherwise.
What I love about Coco is that we view the story through the eyes of Miguel, the young boy who we journey with throughout the movie, the film is named after his Abuelita (grandma), the silent star. In Mexican tradition family structure is matriarchal. The women run the household. They take care of the finances, perpetuate the family trade, make decisions, keep order, and carry the legacy from generation to the next. In Coco, Abuelita ran everything with her chankla (slipper), who was the granddaughter of Momma Emelda, head of the Rivera family. Red lipstick heels and dresses, gave her a regality. She was a pillar of their family and tradition. In fact she loves her family so much that she’ll do whatever it takes to protect them from the pain she’s experienced in life. This is where the family rule comes from, “NO MUSIC.”
But a love for music ran deep within Miguel and he struggled with this family rule. He said things like,
“we’re the only family in Mexico who hates music.”
“If he could play music maybe I could too.”
But he’d also say things like,
“I need my great grandmother’s blessing. Can you get me a guitar?”
and
“I want to prove that I’m worthy”
as he talked about his musical hero and thought to be relative, Ernesto De La Cruz.
We are given a tip of the iceberg peak into the collectivist culture that his family traditions stem from. They are all for the sake of the family name. It’s not about what he wants, even though he wants it so badly. His journey throughout the afterlife is about getting the blessing of his family, the ones who have gone before him, and the ones he will return home to, if he gets back.
“Death was conquered by Jesus. It wasn’t by any offering we gave. It wasn’t by our good deeds in life, it wasn’t by what we least behind. It was by the only One who could take away its sting for good.”
If you’ve seen the movie you know that he does get back! It is his music that brings grandma Coco to life in her final span before death. The music resonates deep within her to remember the girl she once was, to her musician papa, Hector, and to the essence of joy that once filled her life. It was this legacy that carried her into the afterlife and was revived within the family that she left behind. It’s the theme we see through the film of music connecting individuals to their families and culture. Notice that it wasn’t enough that Miguel had discovered and reconciled, he had to bring it back to Grandma Coco, who could then remind Abuelita, who could give permission to Miguel’s momma, and could pass it down to his little sister, Socorro.
This movie was not just a look into the afterlife but a reminder of the legacies we get to cultivate while we’re still here on earth. These are things our families will remember us for, talk about when they look back through old pictures, and pass on to their children for generations to come.
“This movie was not just a look into the afterlife but a reminder of the legacies we get to cultivate while we’re still here on earth. ”
Resources
We’ve created a free downloadable PDF to explore the article deeper. It contains discussion questions about the topic in general terms that will give you a jumping-off point for beginning a conversation.
The second page contains a way to see the topic from a biblical perspective.
And finally, to go deeper into the subject, we have chosen a few curated resources to explore from other authors’ and thinkers’ research or perspectives.
Read. Engage. Enjoy!
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Depending on how a gem is held, light refracts differently. At B+PC we engage in Pop Culture topics to see ideas from a new angle, to bring us to a deeper understanding. And like Pastor Shane Willard notes, we want “…Jesus to get bigger, the cross to get clearer, the Resurrection to be central…” Instead of approaching a topic from “I don’t want to be wrong,“ we strive for the alternative “I want to expand my perspective.”
So, we invite you to engage with us here. What piqued your curiosity to dig deeper? What line inspired you to action? What idea made you ask, “Hmmm?” Let’s join with our community to wrestle with our thoughts in love in the Comment Section! See you there!