what if we don’t see Imelda in the scene where Miguel and Hector sing “Un Poco Loco” because she is not terribly worrying searching for her great-great-grandson, she staring at the stage in the look full of disbelief. 😭

No way she wouldn’t have recognised her husband’s voice

They're the same ship

her husband is gone.

he has left her and coco.

gone with the music.

he is gone, and he will remain gone.

his absence cuts deep.

imelda looks away from the cut.

still, it festers.

still, it weeps.

some wounds -

they cut too deep.

imelda's marriage has disintegrated.

her daughter is three.

she is only twenty two.

(her husband was twenty one. dead, but she does not know it.)

but she will not lay down.

she keeps on fighting.

(her husband does, too.)

(imelda will not learn the truth, not for almost a century.)

it is too late for forgiveness.

(a skeleton in the ground.)

it is no time for hope.

(he is never coming home.)

it is time to perserve.

our introduction to her is her reacting to her husband's disappearance, in early 1920s mexico, by starting her own shoe business with a young daughter

she loves fiercely. she is so traumatised by her husband's disappearance (which she thinks is abandonment) that she bans all music. yet she does an amazing job raising coco. elena loves her fiercely.

she is stubborn. she is WRONG, serving as an antagonistic force in the first half of the movie, a misdirect from the true villain. she is stuck in her ways, mired in hurt. and yet once she learns the truth and sings again and reunites with her husband she changes. literally overnight. she loves, she fights, she overcomes.

who could ever hate my flawed queen? her character development is delicious. her romance is tragic. widowed but thinking she was scorned.

'and that's for murdering the love of my life!'

'I'm the love of your life?'

'I don't know, I'm still angry at you!'

she has so many feelings. she is competent. her spirit guide is PEPITA. she intimidates everyone.

but oh, how imelda rivera loves her family. she listens. she grows. she heals.

Hector never made it home, and Imelda gave up waiting for him.