Today, thanks in no small part to Coco, Día de los Muertos is a de facto aspect of Halloween festivities across the United States.Ĭhicano artists in East Los Angeles helped to popularize the celebration starting in the 1970s, expanding on an Indigenous tradition that had been melded with Catholic observances of All Saints Day and All Souls Day on November 1 and 2. The film is steeped in the cultural aesthetic of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, replete with calaveras, or sugar skulls, and marigold flowers. Released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2017, Coco follows the adventures of a young Mexican boy named Miguel who finds himself in the Land of the Dead. Screenings of the popular Pixar film Coco have become commonplace across the United States during the fall season. “We all suffer three deaths, and the first death is the day that we die. The second death is the day that we’re buried, never to be seen on the earth again. And the third, but the most dreaded death of all, is to be forgotten.”-Ofelia Esparza, artist, recounting her mother’s words on Día de los Muertos
