- “Never forget how much your family loves you.”
- ―Imelda blessing her great-great-grandson.
Imelda Rivera (also known as Mamá Imelda) is a major character of the nineteenth Pixar animated film, Coco.
She is the wife of famed musician Héctor Rivera, the mother of Socorro "Coco" Rivera, the sister of Óscar and Felipe, the maternal grandmother of Victoria and Elena Rivera, the mother-in-law of Julio, the great-grandmother of Berto, Enrique and Gloria Rubbers and the great-great-grandmother of Abel, Rosa, Miguel, Benny, Manny and Socorro Rivera.
In the film, Imelda is voiced by Alanna Ubach, who portrays Serena in the Legally Blonde Franchise.
Background
Imelda was born in 1899 and had two younger brothers, Felipe and Oscar. As a young woman she met and fell in love with Héctor Rivera. They married, and had loved music together, as much as they loved another, often singing with each other. Eventually, Imelda became pregnant and gave birth their daughter, Socorro at nineteen, who they nicknamed him "Coco." Imelda wished to settle down with her husband and daughter. However, Héctor left the family to travel with his friend, Ernesto Da La Cruz. He never returned. Imelda became embittered to her husband and was left with a child to raise. She tore his face off their family portrait of her, him and their daughter.
Needing to support her child, Imelda became a shoe maker and banned music in her family because of the incident with her husband. She became rather good at shoe making and made it the family business, teaching her daughter and son-in-law, Julio and they taught it to Imelda's granddaughters.
Imelda eventually died of old age, at around seventy years old[1]. When she was a spirit in the land of the dead, Imelda still held a grudge against her husband, who was also a spirit there. She refused to acknowledge him as a member of the family, but she couldn't bring herself to hating him. Still, Imelda looked after the deceased Riveras when they arrived and thrived in a shoe-making business even in death.
Official Biography
- “Mamá Imelda is Miguel's great-great-grandmother, the matriarch of the Rivera family and the founder of their successful shoemaking business. Miguel meets Mamá Imelda in the Land of the Dead and discovers she does not share his passion for music.”
- ―Disney
Personality
- “The Riveras glance at one another, all of them thinking that he's as stubborn as Mama Imelda”
- ―Narration, A Story About Music, Shoes, and Music
A matriarch of the Rivera family, Imelda is a woman who puts her family above everything else.
At a young age, Imelda was a lover of music and it was that common interest that led her to falling in love with Héctor. However, when she had their daughter, Imelda became a quite responsible mother, wanting to take care of her child and put down roots. She wanted to have a happy life with her family, especially hoping their family would grow. (Imelda probably wanted to have more children but Héctor left before this could be accomplished) Héctor seemingly abandoning their family turned Imelda embittered to her husband. Though she was once tender, she made looking after her daughter her top priority and retained a stern personality. Afterwards, Imelda always believed family was more important than her own personal interests and developed a deep hatred for music. Her family’s needs led her to building up a shoe-making business that would ensure her future descendants’ lives. Indeed, her granddaughter, Elena later enforced the music ban that her grandmother had enforced through her family.
Seen in the present day, Imelda was bitter, strict and stern (things that would be passed down to her granddaughter, Elena). She was extremely stern with Miguel was in the land of the Dead and intended for him to accept her blessing by force, even smiling confidently for him to accept the blessing. Despite her strictness, Imelda is a warm and motherly figure, who is only concerned for the well-being of Miguel. Eventually through her great-great-grandson, Imelda finally realized Miguel's love for music when she sang a song with her husband played in the background.
Imelda was also quite hot-tempered and impatient, shown when she began beating a family reunion officer's computer with her boot. When she met Miguel for the first time, she came off as somewhat desperate about not crossing over (similar to her husband) and angry to learn that he had taken her photo off their ofrenda.
Imelda was also stubborn, a trait she shares with her descendant, Miguel. It is noted that she was stubborn against music when he was for it when they first met in person. Her stubbornness is shown even more when she met Héctor again, but after learning from Miguel that da la Cruz murdered Héctor while he was trying to get back to his wife and daughter, she found it hard to forgive him but could not bring herself to hate him. This caused her to even slap Ernesto for murdering the "love of her life" and for attempting to murder her grandson.
Physical Appearance
While she is a human and a skeleton, Imelda is a very beautiful woman. She had olive skin, brown eyes and black hair. Noticeably, her black hair has grey streaks on her left side. Her hair is very long and is tied behind her in a bun decorated with purple ribbons.
Imelda is tall with her skull decorated in purple and golden yellow markings. The purple ones are around her eye sockets and her golden ones are decorated near her cheek bones. She also wears short, black boots often using it as a weapon and has a long purple dress with a floral pattern.
She has a brown apron that has an R on the left side of her apron pocket and a pink belt-like sash that presumably keeps her dress together. The edges of her dress also are dark purple embroidery with a floral design that has light purple stems and leaves and gold flower pedals. Her dress was also short-sleeved, and she had a small necklace with a purple stone in the center.
Appearances
Coco
Imelda is first seen in a prologue via the banners with her family. She is shown throwing all the music from her life and starting the family business. Dante accidentally causes Imelda's and Coco's photo to fall off, where Miguel learns the mysterious man's guitar is similar to Ernesto de la Cruz and has reasons to believe this is Imelda's long-lost husband.
She first appears in person, where Imelda insists her family always puts her photo on the ofrenda and proceeds to call the computer a devil box and begins beating it with her shoe, yelling to the clerk that it tells her nothing but lies. Suddenly, she is encountered by Papá Julio and the rest of her family and begs for them to tell the clerk that she is on the ofrenda. However, Julio reveals that they never made it to the ofrenda and reveal Miguel to be there. Imelda is immediately shocked at seeing her living great-great-grandson in the Land of the Dead and demands to know what is going on. The Riveras are taken to a clerk's office, where he reveals that Miguel is cursed. Imelda, still furious at not crossing over, exclaims that this doesn't explain why she couldn't leave. Imelda is infuriated to learn that Miguel accidentally took her photo off the ofrenda. A frantic Imelda asks the clerk how to send Miguel back home, revealing he needs a family member's blessing to return him to the Land of the Dead.
Imelda takes the pleasure of doing the blessing, on the condition he is to put her photo back on the ofrenda, to be a good boy and to never play music again. Not being able to find a way out of this, especially after the clerk points out Imelda can add any condition she wants, a despondent Miguel accepts Imelda's blessing. However, a couple seconds later, her grandson appears again, having break his promise to Imelda by stealing Ernesto's guitar again. Imelda berates him but the boy refused to listen and begins skiing the other ancestors in the room, but they each refuse. Imelda refuses to give Miguel the blessong unless he accepts her conditions. When he asks if she really hates music that much, but Imelda refuses to allow her grandson to go down the same path her husband did . Miguel gets an idea to get his grandfather's blessing . He manages to run away from his family. Imelda spots Miguel running away with another skeleton. A frantic Imelda worries that Miguel will get himself killed and calls for her spirit guide, Pepita to track him down. They manage to track him near Plaza de la Cruz and orders her family to find him.
Imelda rides upon Pepita and has her track down Miguel. The two female companions corner him. Imelda forces him to take her conditions again but Miguel runs away again and she begins chasing her grandson on foot since Pepita can't fit. Imelda cannot get to Miguel, who is several feet away from the door that she cannot pass. Imelda insists she is trying to save his life, but Miguel blames her for ruining his life by making him give up music and says she will never understand. To show her previous love for music, Imelda sings to Miguel her favorite ballad, which is something that shocks her descendant. When he points out that he tought she hated music, Imelda says she loved the music, as her husband would play and she would sing. However, when Coco came along, Imelda wanted to settle down and raise her daughter, but Héctor left to play for the world. It becomes clearer that she banned music to protect the family rather than out of hatred. Miguel runs away, knowing that Imelda will never accept his love for music, leaving behind Imelda with a broken heart.
Imelda catches up with Miguel when Dante leads her and Pepita to an abandoned cenote near Ernesto de la Cruz’s house. Though Imelda and Miguel are both happy to see one another, Imelda is less pleased when she sees that Héctor is with him. After joyously embracing Miguel, just thankful he is safe and that they found him in time, Imelda turns on Héctor, thinking he got their great-great grandson in trouble. However, Miguel takes up responsibility and makes it clear that Héctor was just trying to get him home but he didn’t listen. He decides that nothing is more important than family, which immediately shocks his grandmother. It surprises her even more when Miguel says he will accept her conditions and her blessing, as long as she helps him get Hector's photo back from de la Cruz, as Hector still belongs on their ofrenda. However, Imelda reminds Miguel that her husband left the family. However, she learns from her twelve-year-old grandson that Hector was trying to get him to her and Coco but that Ernesto murdered him before he could. Immediately shocked, Imelda quickly covers it up and continued to let go of her anger. However, she stops and gasps when Héctor suddenly shimmers gold and shakes violently. Imelda realizes that her husband is reaching the Final Death, as Coco's memory of him is deitering. Miguel says to Imelda that she doesn't have to forgive Hector but they shouldn't forget him. Imelda puts aside her anger towards Héctor and agrees to help Miguel get Héctor’s photograph. She asks how they get to de la Cruz, to which Miguel replies that he “might know a way."
Imelda, Miguel, Héctor and the other Riveras sneak into Ernesto's Sunrise Spectacular by pretending to be one of the dancers in the show. It turns out that Frida helped them with their plan. When they suddenly come across de la Cruz, Imelda confronts him alone. As de la Cruz begins wondering if he has seen her before, Imelda immediately takes her shoe and slaps him for murdering the love of her life. Ernesto is confused what she means until Héctor comes out, meaning that Imelda was referring to him. He is touched by Imelda's last statement but his wife immediately brushes it off. Imelda then slaps Ernesto with her shoe for attempting to murder her grandson. It causes the singer to grow even more confused until Miguel comes out, and mentions that Imelda is referring to him.
Ernesto is shocked to see that Héctor and Miguel are related but the young boy sees Héctor's photo in Ernesto's pocket. The entire Rivera family confront Ernesto but he quickly runs away and Imelda and the others chase after him. During the chase, Hector again points out that Imelda called him the love of her life. Though she denies it again, Miguel cheekily says that he heard her say it too. Imelda begins fighting de la Cruz to get her husband's photo while the rest of the Riveras fight off de la Cruz's security guards. Miguel sees his grandmother and Ernesto fighting each other, so he comes to her defense, which allows Imelda to get away from Ernesto. She tells Miguel that she has the photoo but before Imelda can give it to her great-great-grandson, she doesn't realize she is on an hydraulic lift that takes her up on stage. Imelda suddenly has stage fright, unsure of what to do, but Miguel encourages her to sing. Imelda takes a deep breath and begins singing and begins evading the guards while trying to protect Hector's photo. After more encouragement from Miguel and Hector playing the guitar, Imelda easily overcomes her stage fright and continues singing the song. As she is about to give the photograph to Miguel and Hector, she is suddenly grabbed by Ernesto, who briefly manages to get a hold of Hector's photo. Fortunately, Imelda is able to stomp on Ernesto's foot and steals her husband's picture back.
Feeling a happy rush, Imelda joyously hugs her husband, which immediately shocks Héctor. Recomposing herself, Imelda says she forgot how it felt like, hearing her husband again and how she sung to his guitar playing. Héctor tells her that she "still [has] it." Miguel interrupts them, holding out a marigold petal to Imelda. Falling in love with music again, Imelda adds a different condition: to never forget how much his family loves him. However, as he reaches for the petal, Ernesto holds Miguel hostage. Imelda goes to attack de la Cruz but he quickly deflects her. Imelda watches helplessly as Ernesto throws the living child off the roof. However, as Pepita rescues Miguel, Imelda embraces her grandson with the rest of her family. Later, as Héctor begins to fade from the Final Death, he and Imelda both give Miguel their blessing to return home. Imelda adds no conditions this time and they manage to save their grandson before the sun rises. Luckily, Miguel makes it to Mamá Coco and helps her remember Héctor, thus helping him be saved from the Final Death.
One year later, Imelda and Héctor have fully reconciled and are reunited with Coco, their now-deceased daughter. She and her husband begin dancing to their great-great-grandchildren, Miguel, Abel and Rosa perform and enjoy watching and listening as music has finally brought their family together again.
Disney: Emoji Blitz
Imelda appears as an emoji in Coco: As Told by Emoji, part of the Disney Emoji Blitz series.
Coco: A Story about Music, Shoes and Family
Gallery
Relationships
Trivia
- According to the film novelization: A Story about Music, Shoes and Family, Imelda and Miguel share the same stubbornness.
- Imelda and her granddaughter, Elena both use their shoes as a weapon.
References
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