Coco: From Sharks to Alebrijes

By Linda Rodriguez

January 15th, 2018

When I heard that Coco would be screened at the Excélsior theater in the town of Cabo Rojo in Puerto Rico last December, I quickly added the event to my calendar. In the 19th C., the Excélsior began its life as a traditional theater, opening its doors with the premiere of Salvador Brau y Asencio’s play Héroe y Martir (1871). And even though in 2016 it was converted to a cinema, today the Excélsior and the art school next to it housed in a building dating to 1903, strike me as welcomed flashbacks to more romantic and humanitarian times.

 

But the day that I planned to watch Coco began with an early evening black-out that lasted over 30 hours. Black-outs, or simply no electrical service, is the new normal months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2017. In fact, since September 6th, when Hurricane Irma passed just north of the island, my parents who live near San Juan, have not had electrical power.

 

Living with these difficult circumstances, I had really been looking forward to watching Coco, and also because I had read reviews that spoke about its positive depiction of Hispanics. But with the black-out all around me, I was reluctant, no afraid, to brave the dark road to the theater.

 

THE DIFFICULT ROAD TO COCO

 

I finally got to see Coco in January 2018, in Germany’s largest cinema, Nuremberg’s Cittecita. It was a midday show on a weekday and the film was screened in its original English-Spanish version. But here we were, a group of people still wanting to see Coco sitting in an underground theater within the medieval walls of a city-state that has had its own seismic struggles.

 

Coco is a beautiful re-telling of Theseus’ myth, a descent into “Hell” to fight a “monster” and steal a “treasure.” In this case, the “monster” is Ernesto de la Cruz, a person willing to kill his own friend to achieve celebrity status. The “treasure” is young Miguel’s recovery of his lost legacy, a rich tradition of art, and close family ties. Miguel’s journey to the “underworld” definitely brings back “balance” to his family, especially to the character Coco who is reunited with her father, Héctor, even if only after death. But many of us can take consolation from the thought that we will be reunited with lost loved ones after this life.

 

Coco also cemented its wide appeal by incorporating into its story human beings’ best friend, the dog. Miguel’s spirit-companion is a hairless Mexican Xolo dog he names Dante. This dog can travel between the world of the living and the dead. In fact, Dante actively serves as part of the bridge of memories for the dead. In the film, skeletal-after-life-Frida Kahlo recognizes him as her own favorite dog when she was alive, Mr. Xolotl. Dante also serves as a bridge between cultures as he is an ancient breed with ties to the Aztecs and Asia, and by his name, a reference to Italy’s poet Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy, which like Theseus’ story, also entails a trip to a hellish place.

 

MOVING BEYOND SHARKS TO ALEBRIJES

 

Also during part of the film, Dante turns into a lively and colorful alebrije. When I visited Mexico City some years ago, I couldn’t resist these creatures and bought an alebrije painted in aqua green and shocking pink with big eyes, long eyelashes, wings, and a scary fire-red long tongue. After watching the film, I brought out my alebrije from a forgotten glass case in my house, dusted her, and placed her in my living room where I can look at her every day. Now I think my alebrije is a she-dragon, a powerful and protective magical being similar to the one in the film, Pepita, and I feel protected by her as I write this commentary on Coco.

 

It is a positive step forward that Coco respectfully represents Latin American culture. Now I just ask us to find a way to re-evaluate and re-imagine West Side Story. For decades this “beautiful” production has grossly tainted the way the world looks at Puerto Ricans. Besides academic studies, I have a personal story that prompts me to state this: My mother and father met in London, England in the late 1950s. At the time when the theatrical version of West Side Story was being performed in a West End theater from 1958 to 1961. My mother was born in London and my father was born in Puerto Rico. When my mother announced she was getting married to my father, a friend of hers told her that all Puerto Ricans were criminals. Of course, this friend had watched or read about West Side Story and the Sharks. The fact is West Side Story, film, and drama versions, are still very popular and continues to reinforce very negative stereotypes of Hispanics in “America.”

 

We need to keep working on a more balanced representation and portrayal of all minorities in the media. The year 2017 was earth-shattering in many ways. But now this is 2018 and a new year always brings hope. And in Hollywood, this is the time to take aggressive steps on key issues like sexual harassment and pay disparity. The journey ahead of us will still be filled with obstacles, but if Miguel found his way home, so can we.