Héctor

Héctor is the deuteragonist from Pixar's Academy Award winning film, Coco. Héctor was a musician in life who died and became a resident of the Land of the Dead. He is also the great-great grandfather of the film's protagonist, Miguel Rivera. When Miguel gets lost in the Land of the Dead, Héctor acts as his main guide in his quest to find the famed singer Ernesto de la Cruz and return to the world of the living.

He is voiced by Gael García Bernal in both the English and Spanish dub.

Background
Héctor has been trying to be honored for many years since his death, but as he died distitute he was never able to receive last-rites from his family. Being recognized on Día de los Muertos is what gives one prestige and fortune in the afterlife Land of the Dead. Héctor has been without honor for so long he in danger of fading away, as his last living immediate family is close to dying and senile, so they no-longer even recall him and he is in danger of dying his second death. When a spirit dies their second death they fade away into nothingness. Héctor is desperately trying to find someone, anyone to honor him before he fades away. He has even assumed a new alias, "Frida Kahlo", in order to be retroactively adopted into a family via the family ofrenda during Día de los Muertos, thushonored among their ancestors.

Personality
Héctor is quirky and merry by nature but due to his lack of family he must balance his natural merriment with a desperate need to be honored before he fades away for good. Héctor is found of song, music and uses his angst as muse. His need to tend to his own affairs adds a very real ticking-clock element to his unlife as his central motivation, yet he still tries his best to balance this against doing right by others.

Role
Miguel meets Héctor while making his way through the Land of the Living. Héctor introduces himself as Frida Kahlo. Miguel is alive but was cursed for removing a guitar from a memorial and now needs the blessing of his family to return to the Land of the Living. Miguel hears that Héctor knows Ernesto de la Cruz and asks Héctor to take him to Ernesto to receive his blessing so he can go home. Héctor agrees if when he returns Miguel will add him to his family's ofrenda, Miguel accepts and Héctor acts as Miguel's guide through the Land of the Dead.

Trivia

 * Héctor is one of the six characters in the movie to be voiced by the same actor in both the English and Latin American Spanish dubs of the film, the others being Julio Rivera, the Departure Agent, the Security Guard, Tío Berto, and Luisa Rivera.
 * Héctor was 21 years old when he died.
 * The officer (who let him off with a warning) must have felt sorry for him after Ernesto's actions were exposed.
 * He was born in 1900 and is a year younger than his wife Imelda.
 * This suggests that he was married and had a child by the age of 18, since Coco, his daughter, was born in 1918, and his wife was 19 then.
 * Héctor's last name was Rivera and his wife's was the same. His daughter later took up the name and her daughter, in turn, passed it on. Even if the society were matriarchal, then Hector's last name must not have been Rivera.
 * However, this may hold true if Coco had decided to retain her birth name and Abuelita had followed suit.
 * This may also be if the family intermarried with their own cousins.