Legacy is a funny thing isn’t it? When someone has a legacy and that is all we know of them, it begs the question of what happens when they don’t live up to that legacy. In many ways, this is what we see with Ernesto de la Cruz from Pixar’s Coco. By the time the movie has started, de la Cruz has been long dead and to Mexico, he is considered a hero and the greatest musician in their country.
What if that is all a facade to hide who he truly is? Consider his mantra is “Seize the moment”. This in itself is not bad thing to live by and it is similar to what one of my favorite musicals says.
Yet, this movie seems to look at the idea of seizing the moment and asking what if it was not yours to seize. It is no secret that de la Cruz is a coward a thief who stole the work of his supposed best friend to get where he is, I think we can safely the moment(s) he seized were not his to take.
First Appearance
Now, we have two first appearances to look at when considering de la Cruz. First, we see him when Miguel is telling his story and how beloved he is performing Remember Me until he dies when a bell falls on him. This goes back to the image that people have had for decades. The movie takes place in the present day and de la Cruz died in the 1940’s.
This means for generations, de la Cruz was seen as this great figure that Mexico cherished and loved. In many ways, this hits closer to home than many other villains. Think of the likes of someone like Bill Cosby, a figure in Hollywood who was so beloved by nearly everyone until his heinous secrets came out.
This is much the same with de la Cruz but even in death, he is still beloved and cherished as a hero. This comes to the second time we see him and that is after Miguel has entered the Land of the Dead and believes that de la Cruz is his great great grandfather by looking at the guitar in the picture from the ofrenda. You can’t blame the kid for thinking that as the head of Hector had been torn off as his family had been wrongly taught to hate him and music.
Going back to de la Cruz, we see him perform a heroic deed at his party when Miguel is about to drown in his pool at his party and we see him use his celebrity as shield. Gee, sound familiar and brings Miguel into his inner circle but once he learns, they aren’t related, he’s willing to drop the child.
Personality
To the people of Mexico and Miguel specifically, he’s a hero who rose above his hardships and while that is true to an extent of him rising above, it goes back to how he didn’t seize a moment but rather stole a moment. It’s no secret that Hector was his friend but he ruined Hector’s life and stole everything from him.
Consider how his most famous and later to be revealed stolen song is called Remember Me, through his actions of stealing a song that Hector wrote for his daughter so that she would remember her, he made the Rivera family come to hate Hector and want to forget him.
Which we see almost happen as Mama Coco nearly forgets him until Miguel plays the song. The lullaby version of the song that Hector sings to Miguel is the true and tender version that sparks real love. Whereas the version that de la Cruz sings is bastardized version that he sings as a sendoff to say he loves his fans. In some ways, it’s a bit parasocial on his part how he uses this song and his fans latch onto loving him and remembering him.
Yet once we look beyond the surface we see the real de la Cruz and see that this is all a mask and it’s a false sense of bravado to hide the coward he is as he knows that he is nothing without Hector’s songs. And even as Hector was going to leave and head home to Imelda and Coco, he had to kill him. Which yes I will talk about more in Most Evil Deed. Yet the hubris on this man to put the speech and mannerisms of how he killed his friend into one his movies shows how he thought he was untouchable. Yet as they, the bigger you are the harder you fall.
Grand Desire
This again goes back to something I’ve touched upon throughout the movie but his grand desire ties into the idea of legacy. He wants to hold onto his legacy and be remembered as the hero that Mexico thinks of him as. And for the longest time before the start of the movie, that’s how he is viewed Yet once Miguel enters the Land of the Dead and learns the truth his legacy is at risk and this is angers him as de la Cruz is nothing without his legacy. This is why he attempts to kill Miguel in the land of the dead as he knows if Miguel returns to the living world, his legacy will be tarnished and he will be seen for the fraud that he is. And he’s right as that does happen. You could argue that his legacy is more important to him than his humanity as his legacy is how he is remembered but those memories are built upon falsehoods. Without his legacy, de la Cruz is nothing and that kills him as in many ways, his legacy is what gives him his power.
Most Evil Deed
I already touched upon this briefly when looking at his personality but it has to be killing Hector. Poisoning Hector was such a cowardly move on his part as de la Cruz knows that he is nothing without the songs that Hector wrote. So, he poisons him and takes all his songs and built his career off the back of someone else.
This imo speaks to how people will step on others to get ahead if it furthers their goals. This again goes back to the idea of seizing the moment which de la Cruz but at what cost. By poisoning Hector, he made the Rivera family beleive that Hector was a bad man who hated his family and led to the generation spanning ban of music in the family. If it were not or de la Cruz killing Hector, we would not have heartbreaking moments such as Grandma Elena breaking Miguel’s guitar.
Yes, that was of her own choice but it comes from how she was raised and she was taught to hate music because of what her mother learned from her mother about Hector even though the family didn’t know the whole truth.
Demise
This again ties back into the idea of legacy as we see his legacy is tarnished at his sunrise show when Miguel’s family turn on the cameras and his adoring fans in the Land of the Dead swiftly turn on him and hate him. Yet, I believe the bigger blow to his ego comes one year later on the following Day of the Dead as we see a wooden sign that reads Forget You as the living know the truth and are now celebrating Hector for his contributions.
This might be the most unrealistic part of the movie as people who have done worse than de la Cruz are still celebrated to this day but it works narratively.
Is Ernesto de la Cruz a Good Villain?
Yes absolutely, he’s one of Pixar’s best villains. This again goes back to the idea of legacy and what is truly our legacy and how does it define us. The legacy that Ernesto de la Cruz built was based on lies that he stole from others and when the truth is exposed, he has nothing.
Join me next time as we look at Disney’s second big screen attempt at a Haunted Mansion movie as we look at that film’s take on…
The Hatbox Ghost
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