Tourists making a pilgrimage to a modest Mexican residence throughout Day of the Dead festivities depart with little question: Mama Coco, the character of the Oscar-winning animated film, used to stay there.
“It looks a lot like her! When you look at the nose in the drawing and hers, the shape of the face and the hair, or the wheelchair, it’s too much of a coincidence,” mentioned Spanish vacationer Paula Colmenero, 52.
The candy previous lady in “Coco,” winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2017, was a fictional character created by Pixar Animation Studios.
But her good-natured smile, squinting eyes and braided white hair have been additionally notable options of Maria Salud Ramirez, who died on Oct. 16 aged 109.
Mama Salud, as she was recognized domestically, is remembered as being an unbiased and talkative lady who frequently visited the city sq. in Santa Fe de la Laguna, residence to members of the Purepecha Indigenous group.
There she purchased contemporary fish and sat absorbing the ambiance, mentioned Patricia Perez, 38, one among her granddaughters. One afternoon, residents of the lakeside city in Michoacan state went to inform Perez that guests have been taking photos of her grandmother.
More than a yr later got here the premiere of “Coco,” impressed by Mexico’s Day of the Dead pageant, which facilities across the perception that the souls of the useless return on the evening of Nov. 1-2.
Like the vacationers, Perez is definite: “It was based on her, on her image,” she mentioned. Pixar has at all times denied that Mama Coco was primarily based on anybody in actual life and mentioned that it was a product of its creators’ creativeness.
Although Perez mentioned she now not needs to “get involved in that controversy,” the film has reworked the Ramirez household’s life. Mama Salud’s residence turned a spot of pilgrimage for vacationers who come to pay tribute to her, and maybe purchase souvenirs resembling T-shirts, cups, piggy banks, key rings and magnets.
Colmenero, visiting together with her husband and two daughters, welcomed the household’s efforts to earn some cash from Mama Salud’s fame since “it is very clear that they have copied her.”
As within the movie’s remaining sequence, this yr Mama Salud is just current within the images positioned by the household on her wheelchair and the altar that they’ve ready to obtain her spirit on the Day of the Dead.
Adorned with marigolds and candles, the household will lay out her favourite dinner – fish, beans, tortillas and a Pepsi to drink. Allowing guests to proceed to go to her residence after her dying is what Mama Salud would have needed, mentioned Perez.
“She always wanted to receive people. She was always happy. That’s why we decided to keep the doors open,” she mentioned.
It made the lengthy journey price it for 36-year-old South Korean vacationer Taehyun Kim, who mentioned “Coco” was one among his favourite films.
“I quit my job, and my wife (did too), and came here to see Mama Coco,” he mentioned. For Mexicans, the world-famous grandmother is a supply of nationwide satisfaction. “Thank you Mama Coco for representing our culture with dignity,” wrote one customer.
