Do you have any headcannons for the security lady that works at the bridge gate at the beginning, and end, of the movie? She’s my favorite (very) minor character but I can’t find anything about her anywhere. It’s fine if you don’t lmao, keep up the great work!!!
- Helena López has only worked as a flower bridge crossing agent for the last 34 years, meaning that by the time she comes along Hector Rivera’s already an infamous name in the department. She doesn’t believed much of the outrageous stories she hears, assuming “Hector Rivera” had to be a joke other agents tried to get new hires to fall for.
- But her very first Dia de los Muertos is the “painted alebrije year.”
- She no longer doubts the stories
- Helena devours all the Hector stories she could find after that, fascinated that this legend of a man would be SO desperate to cross the flower bridge after so many failures. None of the agent’s stories quite agree about why exactly he needs so badly to get across, or why he hasn’t ever been able to do it (his crazed shouted reasons always shift and change depending on what disguise he’s trying to use that year).
- Everyone loosely agrees that “his girl” is the common thread in most of his stories, and the prevailing theory is that he must have cheated on a fiancee in life. Those who belong to the alternate “Rivera conspiracy” group say that no, he’s got to be involved with the terrifying shoemaking matriarch of Rivera Shoes.
- Well Helena was a social worker in life and knows a few things about tracking down records, so she spends way too many sleepless December nights trying to find anything she can about Hector Rivera. She finds a verrrrry long criminal record, mostly bridge crossing attempts, but with a bit more digging she finds a very old restraining order made out between a Hector Rivera and an Imelda Rivera.
- A LOT more searching finds the declared Rivera family tree of those who haven't passed yet (a very restricted file), meaning that at 4am on New Year’s day she’s sitting at a table of paperwork, tears dripping down her cheekbones, having pieced together Hector Rivera’s real story.
- But she isn’t some PI, she isn’t a crazy busy-body, and she really wasn’t meant to be in those records, so she never pitches in on the Hector conversations, keeping the tragic and personal feeling things she now knows about Hector to herself.
- No one ever really understands why Helena never makes jokes at Hector’s expense like the others, why she always volunteers to take whatever booth Hector’s approaching when they spot him coming (which is always easy) and how on earth Helena is ALWAYS patient with Hector, year after year, lie after lie. How she cheerfully plays along every single time. Even when she and Hector both know how useless it all is.
- Over the years Helena never approaches Hector or the Riveras outside of work (because she’s a professional) but she does do research on her own time to see if there REALLY isn't ANY way he could maybe make it across the bridge. It keeps her up some nights that she never finds a way. As time goes on she starts being up at night wondering if Hector Rivera will even make it to the bridge this year. He’s getting more loose boned and yellowed, meaning “his girl,” his daughter Coco must be finally forgetting him.
- Helena’s relieved that year when she spots “Frida Kahlo” approaching, but her heart aches to see how far gone Hector looks. She knows there can’t be much time left for him at all, this might be the last time she ever seems him. And she can see in his eyes that he know it too. So she doesn’t move to stop him when he makes a final frenzied dash for the flower bridge, she has to look away as Hector’s dragged back through the gates by security.
- She thinks about him all night as she works the rest of her shift, as she gets off work and joins her husband for their own trip to the land of the living, as they return, as they make their way to the Sunrise Spectacular (they go every year.)
- But this Sunrise Spectacular is different. So, so different. And Helena is on her feet screaming the loudest as the incomprehensible drama is unfolding on the jumbotron screens above the stage. She is ugly crying with joy when Hector doesn’t disappear with the second death, when he stands with his estranged wife supporting him, and again a few months later she hears of Coco’s arrival on the local news (the Rivera family are now celebrities in Ernesto’s absence).
- And you can bet she beats away all the agents suddenly eager to help Hector when he shows up with his family the next November. It’s an absolutely surreal moment for them both when Hector’s face scan clears, and Helena is finally able to congratulate this old young man as he joins his family on the other side of the turnstiles.
- She’s crying again to herself as we watches him step onto the petals that hold his weight and she watches him as long as she can, crying and laughing as he disappears out of sight over the top of the flower bridge.
- Helena never tells Hector that she knew, but her decades-old reputation as “The Rivera Wrangler” stands strong as the years go by, meaning every year it’s the highlight of her Dia de los Muertos to scan Hector through her booth. It’s always a joy for her to see him successfully make his annual trek to the land of the living, head held high and holding hands with his wife and daughter.