Sources: TennisTV, TennisChannel, Mutua Madrid Open Youtube, POWER by Kanye West, Robbie Koenig for the voiceovers thanks king, and of course, Roger Federer via Andy Roddick's Served Podcast
Hello! ;) I was wondering about your Coco OC Rafael. Who is he? How does he know the Riveras? I think you mentioned once that he's Rosita's love interest? Basically, I just want to know more about him. (Assuming it doesn't give away spoilers for anything, of course!)
Hello, hello! Rafael is actually an OC originally created by my dear friend B who was known as heyheyitsjuju or now known as @sheepwithspecs . They're no longer active in the fandom, but I was given permission to use their OCs in my stories too and I will always credit them as the original creator. He first appeared on Chapter 9 of a fanfic titled "Echar Agua Al Mar", but unfortunately that fanfic is no longer available online. However, thankfully B and I talk about him still along with other OCs related to him, so here is a list of things about him!
Rafael Herrera Meza is a musician-turned-talent scout/music producer from Jalisco who died in the 70s. He was originally going to take over his father's oil company (the Herreras are extremely rich), but turned down the offer to focus on his music career much to his father's chagrin.
Rafael and Papá Herrera reconciled in the main timeline, though! His father was the first face he saw in the Land Of The Dead after he woke up.
He had a tiny Holland lop named Chavela whom he loved dearly throughout his childhood, and when she passed away when Rafael was around 15 or so he was inconsolable for days. Fortunately for them both they reunited years later in the Land Of The Dead, and Chavelita is now his alebrije! She is even tinier now, as she can now fit in the palm of his hands and can hide inside his sombrero.
He only had two friends growing up: Chavela and his cousin Samuel. Samuel and Rafael look similar to each other (like Marco & Miguel-level similar), but Samuel is a lot more outgoing and extroverted. He is also more angular than Rafael who has softer features. Samuel was also the one who ended up inheriting the oil business. The both of them are still very close.
Him having only two childhood friends was due to his upbringing. He was homeschooled for most of his life, and the only social interactions he had outside of his family and the family staff was with his teachers who would come to the Herrera residence to teach him lessons like math, music, and languages including but perhaps not limited to English, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, etc. Due to this, he is also extremely book-smart and speaks or at least understands multiple languages.
He loves to read and watch adventure movies. His favorite film is "Los tres mosqueteros", and I'm sure he loves Indiana Jones and Tintin too!
Meta fact: if one is to compare him to any fictional character, he is most similarーif not identical by natureーto Geronimo Stilton.
He's known Héctor for a very long time in LOTD, and it was one of his best-kept secrets. When the Sunrise Spectacular Confrontation happened in 2017, he was all the way in Jalisco and only found out about it after receiving multiple messages in his answering machine from Ronaldo (another one of B's OCs), a mutual friend of his and Héctor. The three of them met at a cantina belonging to another friend of theirs named Toño.
He connects with Héctor due to their shared disdain towards how the mainstream music industry had become filled with music that is too polished. Due to this, Rafael takes his job very seriously and insists on discovering the "diamonds in the rough" and other musicians who love music just as much as they do.
He is an extremely talented and charismatic singer/performer with a stage presence only rivaled by de la Cruz (and later Héctor Rivera), and a baritone voice that is so strong that nobody could expect such a voice coming from a body like his . According to this post, he could have ended like de la Cruz easily since he also recorded some albums and even has a cult following in both realms, but really he only ever performs for other people's enjoyment. Plus, that is just his onstage persona and he prefers the business and backstage side of music.
He is actually extremely shy and introverted, and also has social anxiety disorder. His shyness goes up by the tenfold if he comes across women he has never met. Instead of going out to parties for high society or whatnot, he would much rather stay at home. "Here" by Alessia Cara and "party" by Dodie Clark represent his feelings towards such events.
It gets worse if he comes across a woman he loves. Those who had been involved romantically with him would describe him as very gentleman-like and softspoken, but the one complain they all have is that it would take him MONTHS to PUT HIS HANDS ON THEIR SHOULDERS. Well. A certain rosy lady has a different story, however :3c
When it comes to romance, he wants a a woman who is alright with moments of silence, is trusting & trustworthy (he travels quite a bit due to his job), and isn't afraid to make the first move sometimes. He is a gentle lover who tends to shower his lover with gifts and sweet nothingsーor in Ronaldo's more crass comment: he is a sugar daddy with a thigh fetish.
He has always had a weak heart, and even in death he can still feel the side effects thus he cannot do too much physical activities outside of jogging or stretching. He passed away some time in his late 50s due to heart failure. His cousin's daughter whom he treated like a niece was the one who found his body.
Don't let his shyness, small stature, and "wimp" nature fool you, though. He eats spicy foods like they're candy and he is well-respected in the production company he works at. He has a silver tongue and has what the kids nowadays call "big dick energy" in corporate settings.
He also has a dry sense of humor which is somewhat contrasted with an extremely contagiously bright laughter, though he usually only chuckles most of the time.
You don't want to see him angry. Héctor, Ronaldo, and Toño can atest to this. His silver tongue can be extremely sharp.
As a musician, he can play multiple instruments but his favorite is the piano.
Rosita and Victoria first saw him performing at the plaza, as told in Chapter 9 of "Echar Agua Al Mar", but they never interacted. Until a faithful day when Rosita took a trip to the plaza with Coco. He was singing "Hermoso cariño" and winked at Rosita in his performer persona when their eyes met. All flustered after listening to and gazing at Rafael and seeing him wink at her (these darn músicos!), Rosita quickly left the plaza with Coco following behind. After the performance, he couldn't help but think of that lady he just saw. She was... beautiful. The way she looked at her made his heart flutter, to the point that he winked at her! There's no way that he would meet her again.... (or was there?)
Héctor was the one who introduced Rafael to Rosita and the rest of the Rivera family. After a few shots of tequila, Rafael finally confessed to Héctor on what was bothering him that evening. Seeing this as a golden opportunity after hearing a similar story from Rosita, he dragged Rafael to see his family, much to Rafael's embarrassment (and perhaps, lowkey, to his delight).
There are so much more to him than this, but I can't post them all now because the content can and does get ✨spicy✨ at times and because there really is a lot, but he is a loveable boy and I hope you'll get to love him too! He also appears as a character for an original project B and I are working on under the working title "Project Marigold". Rosita isn't in the story for obvious reasons, but we created an OC inspired by her so that way he can always be with his beloved rosy lady regardless.
