Héctor Rivera is the deuteragonist of the 2017 Disney/Pixar animated feature film, Coco. He was a Mexican musician in life and became a residential spirit in the Land of the Dead in death. Héctor helped Miguel in his quest to find the famous singer Ernesto de la Cruz and escape the Land of the Dead. Little did they know, however, Héctor and Miguel had a hidden connection. When Héctor was alive, he was best friends with Ernesto de la Cruz. He spiked Héctor's drink with poison and killed him before he even got to go to see Imelda and Coco.
Background[]
Personality[]
Physical appearance[]
Role in the film[]
Trivia[]
- Héctor is the first central character in a movie to have died before its events.
- In terms of actual age, Héctor is a year younger than Imelda and four years younger than Ernesto.
- Héctor is one of the six characters in the movie to be voiced by the same actor in both the English and Latin American Spanish dubs of the film, the others being: his son-in-law Julio Rivera, the Departure Agent, the Security Guard, his great-grandson Tío Berto, and great-granddaughter-in-law Luisa Rivera.
- The way he embraces loved ones is similar to his living granddaughter.
- Héctor was 21 years old when he died.
- There are some hints that foreshadow Héctor's true identity as Miguel's great-great-grandfather and actual death:
- The guitar of the faceless man in the Rivera family torn family photo has a gold tooth painted on the handle, just like Héctor's gold tooth.
- Dante brings Miguel to Héctor when the former tells him that he's looking for his great-great-grandfather.
- His statement that no one put up his photo. Upon closer attention, the photo showing Miguel's great-great-grandfather is missing the face while the photo that Hector gives to Miguel only shows his face.
- Héctor's behavior when he catches up with Miguel in the studio hints at his identity as a parent.
- He states Miguel will thank him later when he returns him to his family, referring to his own mistake of forsaking his family.
- During the song "Everyone Knows Juanita", Héctor is shown to be good at playing the guitar of his old friend Chicharrón, plucking the right notes with ease compared to Miguel's guitar playing skills while watching an old video of Ernesto. This implies that Miguel must have inherited this talent from Héctor in contrast to Ernesto who is shown during wide shots merely strumming his guitar in the video.
- The toast he shared with Chicharrón involved him finishing his drink while Chicharrón's remained full, hinting at how Héctor was murdered by poisoning.
- Héctor claiming he died from food poisoning further alludes to his murder.
- He defensively refuses to allow Miguel to play "Remember Me" at the talent show in the land of the dead, a song that he wrote as a lullaby for Coco.
- He resembles Miguel a bit when he was alive.
- Hector and Imelda both describe technology similarly, showing they're from the same generation. Hector calls the scanner a "blinky thingie" while Imelda calls a computer a "devil box".
- Hector's attitude towards music and musicians is just like the Riveras earlier in the movie. He calls Miguel's dream a fantasy just like Gloria and speaks of musicians similar to how Abuelita does.
- He keeps shoe polish despite not wearing shoes. He probably keeps one as a reminder of his family who had become shoemakers after his departure.
- Hector has a rather dismissive attitude when Ernesto doesn't show up to his rehearsal.
- Héctor's portrait was with him when he died, hence why his spirit owned one.
- Hector is similar to Cassim in that they both left their family to pursue a personal goal, and this created a rift between a relative of theirs (Hector's wife Imelda and Cassim's son Aladdin) until they forgave each other and rekindled their bonds.
- Hector bears some similarities to Aladdin from the Aladdin franchise such as:
- TBA
- The novelization states that Coco and her father have the same chin and cheekbones.
- Héctor wore a white coat bigger than his size just like David Byrne.
- The novelization also reveals Héctor tried many methods to cross the bridge; impersonating Diego Rivera, disguising himself as an alebrije, and hiding in a raspa cart. He further hints at his identity by telling, though not giving her name, about Coco and how he sings a song to her every night, hoping it can bypass the border between life and death and reach her at least in her dreams.
- The novelization reveals more of Héctor's past. Ernesto was the one who convinced Hector to go on a series of tours throughout Mexico. Héctor gave in to his demands in the hopes of getting more inspiration from the tour. Throughout their performances, Héctor often mailed the money gained from the tours to his family. Héctor notices the differences in his friend's performances, shifting between happy and half-hearted depending on the majority of the audience, and realizes Ernesto cared only about the attention he was getting. This revelation made him realize that Ernesto's motives had destroyed his purpose for the tour and it convinced him to attempt to return home.
- According to his voice actor, Gael Garcia Bernal, Héctor's birthday is on November 30.
- Attributing to this, Héctor died sometime in 1922, confirmed by the fact that he died at 21 years of age and his birthday occurring on November 30.
- November 30 is also the birthday of Héctor's voice actor.
- In both the photograph and the flashback sequences, Héctor is not shown as having a gold-crowned tooth, meaning that he got it posthumously.
- Héctor's nickname "Chorizo" stemmed from the belief that he died eating chorizo (a spicy Mexican sausage), which itself originated from Ernesto when telling a dying Héctor that he was probably suffering a stomach ache from the chorizo.
- In Latin America, chorizo is a euphemism for the male private parts. Given how his supposed mocked death was that he choked on a chorizo, it's heavily implied Ernesto is insulting Hector further in death.
- Deleted scenes revealed that Héctor would work as a tour bus guide in the Land of the Dead. He would avoid Ernesto's mansion as Ernesto coldly refused his service out of fear of his undoing.
- Hector disappearing (as his living daughter forgets him) but coming back at the end (as his daughter was able to remember him and tell people about him) could be a parody of the Disney death, as Hector already was dead.
- Up until the end of the movie (aside from flashbacks), Hector is barefooted. In the end, when he finally can cross the bridge to the Land of the Living, he is wearing shoes, symbolizing how he has been welcomed back into the family (due to Imelda's legacy of shoemaking).
- Héctor's limping walk was inspired by Dustin Hoffman's performance as Rico "Ratso" Rizzo in the film Midnight Cowboy.