Free SDSU Showing presented by the School of Journalism and Media Studies
Student Union Theatre | October 26, 2022 | Starting at 4PM
4:00p.m. - Doors Open. Gathering in Montezuma Hall with Mariachi Dinastia appearance, Cultural Art, Student Orgs, Free Snacks & Beverages, JMS Merch, Raffle Prizes & More!
4:45pm - Enter the theatre for a special performance by Ballet Folklórico Xochipilli de SDSU followed by a Q&A talk with guest speaker, Herbert Siguenza
5:30pm - Screening of Disney/Pixar's Coco
- Amplify voices of traditionally marginalized communities.
- Encourage participants to engage in respectful and thought-provoking conversations about race, class, sexuality, and social issues.
- Motivate allies to take action against the horrors of racism, classism, and homophobia.
A Summary-Celebrating Our Past, Even As We Look To The Future
Despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel (voice of Anthony Gonzalez) dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz (voice of Benjamin Bratt). Coco tells the story of Miguel Rivera, a 12-year-old Mexican boy who dreams of becoming a famous troubadour like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz — a guitar hero and movie star inspired by midcentury luminaries like Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete. Miguel’s family sharply disapproves of music, leading to a fateful act of rebellion on the Day of the Dead that plunges him into an incandescent netherworld of walking skeletons, winged spirits and long-buried family secrets. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Héctor (voice of Gael García Bernal), and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history. Coco is a beautiful and endearing story filled with excitement and adventure. At its core, it’s a theme that everyone can relate to; a story about family and about making your dreams come true despite challenges. It’s a movie about coming of age and following your own path and about understanding who you are and where you come from as part of finding your own place in the world.
Special Performances by:
MARIACHI DINASTIA
BALLET FOLKLÓRICO XOCHIPILLI DE SDSU
Guest Speaker: Herbert Siguenza
Herbert Siguenza is a founding member of the performance group Culture Clash, along with Richard Montoya and Ric Salinas. Culture Clash is the most produced Latino theater troupe in the United States. He is also a visual artist and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. His film and television credits include performance on the Cartoon Network, Larry Crowne, and Coco. Siguenza recently concluded a Residency at the San Diego Rep as their Playwright in Residence and wrote and performed critically acclaimed plays like A Weekend with Pablo Picasso, Manifest Destinitis, and the Narco comedy, Bad Hombres/Good Wives. Herbert served as one of the cultural advisors on Coco and is the voice of Miguel's late twin uncles (Tío Oscar and Tío Felipe).
If you want to get involved with Herbert's residency, participate in his creative projects on campus, or just hear updates and opportunities, please join the Arts Alive mailing list.
"Seize Your Moment": The Importance of Cultural Expression in the Film
Pixar made sure Coco was culturally conscious. His anxiety was personal. The story of Coco centers on Día de los Muertos — the festive holiday celebrated in Mexico to honor the dead — and Mr. Unkrich, who grew up outside Cleveland, is white and has no firm connections to that country or its traditions. He worried that he would be accused of cultural appropriation and see himself condemned to a Hollywood hall of shame for filmmakers charged with abusing ethnic folklore out of ignorance or prejudice.
“With me not being Latino myself, I knew that this project was going to come under heavy scrutiny.” Mr. Unkrich faced a dilemma. On the one hand, he believed that artists should not be restricted to “only telling stories about what they know and their own culture.” But he also needed to safeguard against his ineluctable biases and blind spots, and ensure that his film didn’t “lapse into cliché or stereotype.” The choices made by the director and his collaborators suggest one model for culturally conscious filmmaking at the blockbuster level. On Coco, Pixar’s 19th film and the first to feature a minority character in the lead role, Mr. Unkrich largely dispensed with the playbook used to create immersive fictional worlds like those in Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc.
Instead he relied on several research trips to Mexico and the personal stories of Latino team members, which helped ground his fantasy realm with specific geographic and sociological roots. By seeking input on everything from character design to story early on, the studio hoped to make the movie feel more native than tourist. At the same time, executives trusted that non-Latino audiences would be drawn in by the story’s universal themes of familial legacy and solidarity. The result is brimming with small nods to daily life in Mexico, including a slack-tongued Xolo (a Mexican breed of hairless dog) as Miguel’s loyal sidekick and a two-dimensional prologue animated to look like papel picado (traditional tissue-paper art).
Signaling Change & Hope for Future Generations
Throughout the film, several main characters — voiced by a nearly all-Latino cast that includes Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt and the young Anthony Gonzalez as Miguel — slip in and out of untranslated Spanish, a rarity in commercial American cinema.
“The original idea was to have the characters speak only in English with the understanding that they were really speaking in Spanish,” said Octavio Solis, a Mexican-American playwright who was a consultant on the film. “But for us, language is binary, and we code-switch from English to Spanish seamlessly.” Mr. Unkrich and his team based the Rivera family — a multigenerational matriarchy headed by Miguel’s formidable abuelita, or grandmother — on real-world families with whom they embedded while visiting the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Guanajuato between 2011 and 2013. The consultants, including Mr. Solis, the cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, the media strategist Marcela Davison Avilés and a wider network of 30 to 40 volunteer advisers, played referee.
For example, in early drafts of the film, Miguel’s grandmother was a coldblooded disciplinarian who kept him in line using a wooden spoon. The advisers said she felt discordant, so Mr. Unkrich softened the character and changed her chosen implement — from a spoon to well-worn flip-flops, or “las chanclas.”
“We found whenever we were made aware of these nuances and addressed them, it helped in terms of representation, but it also just helped in terms of storytelling,” said Adrian Molina, who was promoted from screenwriter to co-director of Coco in 2015 and is Mexican-American.
The Theme of Music
Coco is about family, connecting with loved ones and pursuing your dreams. And according to director Lee Unkrich, it’s all rooted in music. Coco has music in its DNA,” says Unkrich. “Music shapes the film. Some characters are musicians, while others want nothing to do with it.”
Co-director Adrian Molina says that the Rivera family’s ban on music did not deter the Coco filmmakers. “Our main character, Miguel, is so passionate about music and he is really talented,” says Molina. “So his journey to pursue his dream is naturally filled with music. We have traditional Mexican music, original songs written for the film and a beautiful score by Michael Giacchino.”
According to Unkrich, the filmmakers wanted the film to honor its setting, but with an unexpected quality. “We encouraged the team to be true to traditional Mexican music, but gave them the freedom to embrace new sounds,” he says.
“Our main goal is for the audience to walk away from the film feeling like they visited Santa Cecilia and spent time in the Land of the Dead,” adds Tom MacDougall, executive vice president of music at Disney. “If we can give them an authentic musical experience, it will help them make a lasting connection to the film.”
Fortunately, the Rivera family’s ban on music doesn’t extend to the film itself. “I love the irony,” says producer Darla K. Anderson. “We have a family with this inexplicable objection to music who live in a country that’s rooted in it. In ‘Coco,’ we pay homage to all different styles of Mexican music.”
World Design Research
“As soon as we decided that we wanted to tell a story that takes place in Mexico, we immediately booked our first research trip,” says director Lee Unkrich. “Over the course of three years, we visited museums, markets, plazas, workshops, churches, haciendas and cemeteries throughout Mexico,” says Unkrich. “Families welcomed us into their homes and taught us about the foods they enjoy, the music they listen to, their livelihoods and their traditions. Most importantly, we witnessed the importance they place on family.”
That, according to Unkrich, is what ultimately sparked the story. “We really wanted to explore the family bonds that tie us to the generations that came before us,” he says. “This story is about celebrating our past—even as we look to the future.”
Inspiration for the Land of the Living
“Santa Cecilia is inspired by real villages in Mexico,” says production designer Harley Jessup. “We stayed grounded in reality in the Land of the Living. It’s sun-bleached and dusty, but the color palette is accented by the brightly colored decorations for Día de los Muertos. There’s a town square where people gather, the Rivera compound where Miguel’s great-great-grandmother built the family’s shoe business, and the local cemetery is prominently featured.”
Inspiration for the Land of the Dead
For the Land of the Living and Santa Cecilia, filmmakers were able to find inspiration in the vibrant towns they visited in Mexico. But when it came time to create the Land of the Dead, the rules were much less defined. “I didn’t want to have just a free-for-all, wacky world,” says director Lee Unkrich. “There needed to be some logic to it. We realized that it would need to be ever-expanding because new residents would arrive regularly, if you think about it. So we asked ourselves, ‘What would a world look like that was being added onto constantly?’”
Filmmakers looked to Mexico City’s ancient history. The city was originally built on the site of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán, which was surrounded by water. And while that water has mostly disappeared, artists found the idea very compelling—a city literally sprung from the water. “That lent itself to this idea of towers,” says Unkrich. “Almost like coral growing up and out representing layers of history.”
The Cultural Significance of Día de los Muertos
Connecting Dia de los Muertos to Coco
“I had always been drawn to Dia de los Muertos, the idea of the celebration, the folk art, the iconography of it,” Unkrich explains, describing his earliest inspiration for "Coco".
LAS OFRENDAS
During the Día de los Muertos celebration, families create altars which honor the spirits of loved ones who have passed. Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 2 to coincide with All Souls Day in Christianity. In Mexico, families start setting up altars up to a week before. "You leave offerings of food and drink and things that your loves ones enjoyed in life to greet them and nourish them once they come home," said co-director, Adrian Molina. Candles help guide the spirits back to this world. While it is not required, more elaborate altars can have at least three levels to represent heaven, earth, and purgatory. Other elements include bright orange marigold flowers, sugar skulls, Day of the Dead bread, colorful perforated paper and incense. Photos of deceased loved ones are a central part of ofrendas. The photos on the altar play a key role in the movie.
CEMETERY
As the locals prepare for Día de Muertos, the Santa Cecilia cemetery is filled with brilliantly colored marigolds and celosia blossoms, as well as handmade decorations and hundreds of candles. “What we saw in Mexico for the holiday really redefines the idea of a cemetery,” says Danielle Feinberg, director of photography - lighting. “It’s not dark and sad; it’s festive. Thousands of candles put off this beautiful orange glow, which creates a wonderful mood—romantic, warm, and interesting. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
MARIGOLDS
As filmmakers created the two worlds of Coco, they knew they’d need to connect the worlds in a very magical way. Their research trips sparked something spectacular. “When we were invited to take part in Día de Muertos in Mexico,” says director Lee Unkrich, “we saw paths made of marigold petals that started out in the streets and ended at ofrendas—altars with family pictures, favorite foods and special objects. We learned that it was all done to help guide the spirit of a family’s loved one home.” If there is a color of the Día de los Muertos, it has to be orange (the color of the cempasuchil or marigold flower). In Aztec times, the bright orange flowers represented the sun. The distinctive smell of the flowers is said to guide the spirits back to the land of the living. The flowers bloom just in time for the celebration and are used to decorate altars. While visiting Mexico, Coco filmmakers saw marigold petals scattered at cemeteries and used to make crosses in altars. That made a lasting impression that made its way into the movie. "They felt so iridescent, even at night," said Coco story artist Dean Kelly, who liked the way the flowers combined with the glow given off by candles. "The marigold bridge literally connects those two worlds and that is building on the mythology of marigold petals representing the path to family," said Harley Jessup, Coco production designer. There are no flowers depicted in Coco's Land of the Dead, except for marigolds brought back by the ancestors.
PAPEL PICADO
Papel picado is the colorful perforated tissue paper that is usually found hanging in Mexican restaurants to provide a festive atmosphere. It also plays an important role in Day of the Dead celebrations. In pre-Columbian times, Aztecs hung paper over altars to represent the wind. Those papers may have included images of deities. Papel picado is now used in modern-day altars. They include images of skulls or flower designs. The paper comes in many colors, but purple is said to represent mourning and yellow signifies purity. Papel picado plays an important part in Coco.
CALAVERAS
Among the first decisions Coco filmmakers had to make was how to depict the deceased. Mexican culture has many depictions of skeletons, known as calaveras. They first gained prominence through the art of Jose Guadalupe Posada, an illustrator, and satirist who depicted political figures as skulls in the late 1800s leading up to the Mexican Revolution. Calaveras is now one of the most popular forms of Mexican folk art. The characters in Coco don't stray too far from this style. The bodies were modified slightly to keep clothes from falling through stacks of bones and skulls were designed to show more expression. In contrast to Mexican folk art, which usually depicts the eyes of calaveras as black holes, Coco's characters have eyes and big brows to show more emotion. The faces of the ancestors have colorful designs etched into them around the eyes and chin, much like people in Mexican communities draw on their faces during Day of the Dead celebrations.
ALEBRIJES
Magical realism—a Latin American literary tradition that incorporates fantastical elements into realistic settings—informs much of the film’s visual narrative. Pepita is an alebrije who fills the role of Mamá Imelda’s spirit guide. Brightly colored and fiercely loyal, Pepita is a formidable presence in the Land of the Dead. An imposing wildcat with eagle talons and impressive wings, Pepita is an alebrije brought-to-life. “Alebrijes are traditional brightly colored and handcrafted Mexican folk art,” says story supervisor Jason Katz. “They’re dreamlike animals—lizards with rabbit ears, elephants with butterfly wings—beautifully rendered with striking colors, and we knew from the moment we saw them that they needed to have a place in our story.” Coco took the biggest license with alebrijes. These are wood carved figurines created by artist Pedro Linares in the 1930s when he fell very ill. Linares had hallucinations and after he recovered, he began creating unusual creatures that blended aspects of distinct animals, like lions and eagles, and donkeys and butterflies. The brightly colored figurines are collected to display in homes. Pixar character artist Alonso Martinez fell in love with the figurines as a child and has a collection of them in his office. He helped incorporate them into Coco. Alebrijes do not have mythology associated with them but they were given one for the movie. They are depicted as spiritual guardians.
True Representation and Ethnic Pride
"This celebration isn't about letting go, it's about keeping memories alive and celebrating life," said Adrian Molina, who co-directed the film.
The Importance of Family Values, Traditions, and Belonging
For Latinos, Coco is not just a visually resplendent animated film with a poignant story about the importance of family. It’s also a rallying cry.
“I am certain that Disney/Pixar did not set out to make this a political film, but that is exactly what they have done,” said Benjamin Bratt, who provides the voice of Ernesto de la Cruz, "Coco inspires love around the world, and for Latinos in particular. It’s a reminder that we are worthy of loving ourselves. And if this isn't a revolutionary act, I don’t know what is.”
“We really wanted to explore the family bonds that tie us to the generations that came before us,” director, Lee Unkrich notes.
A tribute to Mamá Coco...
According to Director Lee Unkrich, filmmakers were touched by so many of the Mexican homes they visited in which multiple generations lived under the same roof. “Babies were at home alongside their great-grandmothers,” says Unkrich. “We wanted to embrace that. Even as her own memory is slipping away, Mamá Coco will always be surrounded by people who love her.” Ramírez Caballero's death was confirmed by Michoacán’s Secretary of Tourism, Roberto Monroy, who on Twitter referred to Ramírez Caballero as “a tireless woman and life example who inspired this beloved character that went around the world.” The similarities led many over the years to declare she had indeed been the template for Mamá Coco, and tourists were known to go to her home and take photographs with her.
Changing the Narrative
“It’s been painful for me and a lot of people that there’s been so much negativity in the world, specifically and unfairly having to do with Mexico,” Mr. Unkrich said. “We’re just honored and grateful that we can bring something positive and hopeful into the world that can maybe do its own small part to dissolve and erode some of the barriers that there are between us.” Gael García Bernal, who plays Héctor, believes people should take the ethnic pride the film engenders and act on it.
“If I could dedicate this film to someone, it would be to those kids growing up in the United States who are first-, second- and third-generation Latin American that are just starting to vote,“ García Bernal said. “They come from a very complex culture that is far more sophisticated than the picture that is being drawn by those in power. Let’s not minimize it. Let’s not let it pass. Let’s not have this be like a little gesture.”
“It’s unbelievable what this film has meant to so many Mexican Americans,” said Alanna Ubach, who voiced the character of Mamá Imelda. “I truly feel that we really have been pushed aside. Our heritage has been so challenged these past couple of years. People forget what a rich, sophisticated culture the Mexican culture is. It’s not just about tacos and sugar skulls.“
“It validated the notion that I’m increasingly believing in more and more: When change happens for the better, it’s because something happens in the zeitgeist that pushes popular culture and contemporary attitudes to a place of empathy and greater acceptance," said Marcela Davison Aviles, Pixar’s lead cultural consultant. Not only does Coco provide much-needed cultural validation, Aviles said, but it could also help minimize, or even erase, prejudices, much the same way positive depictions of the LGBT community have changed attitudes on a widespread basis: “I think storytelling with regard to issues of race and ethnic groups and communities of color and equity is going to get us to a place where, unfortunately, policy hasn’t been able to go.” The filmmakers at Pixar are proud that their picture has drawn such impassioned reactions both with Latinos and in Mexico, where it is the top-grossing movie of all time. The message of Coco is simple: home is not defined by borders or place, it’s where your family and the people who love you are.
Link to Extra Credit
Webpage + Photo Credits: Disney's Pixar Animation Studios