Several days before this year’s El Día De Los Muertos (or The Day of the Dead) begins, thousands of people around the world got their hearts broken over the demise of Maria Salud Ramirez Caballero; the Mexican woman fondly called Mama Coco and believed to be the inspiration behind the well-loved grandmother in the hit 2017 Pixar film Coco.
Remember her. 🤍 Maria Salud Ramirez Caballero, the woman who reportedly inspired Pixar's Mama Coco, has passed away at the age of 109. https://t.co/8bF91OGfic pic.twitter.com/8cLZHnYE8q
— E! News (@enews) October 17, 2022
In a tweet, Roberto Monroy, the tourism secretary for the Mexican State of Michoaca, confirmed the passing of 109-year-old Mama Coco.
“I deeply regret the death of Doña María Salud Ramírez Caballero, ‘Mama Coco’, a tireless woman and example of life, who was the inspiration for this beloved character who went around the world. My prayers for his rest and for his family to find resignation,” read the English translation of his tweet.
The animated film Coco revolves around the story of Miguel, an aspiring musician confronted with his family’s ancestral ban on music, who enters the Land of the Dead during the celebration of The Day of the Dead and meets the dead musician Hector. Miguel will eventually realize that Hector is actually his great-great-grandfather and his Mama Coco is the latter’s daughter and the only living person who still remembers him.
According to Decider, The Day of the Dead, which originated in Mexico, is an annual three-day holiday to honor the deceased. The celebration begins at midnight on October 31 and runs through November 2.
While Pixar did not formally acknowledge Mama Coco as the inspiration behind the movie character, the similarities between the two were undeniable; making a lot of people honor her as the template for the latter and leading tourists to her home to take photographs with her next to a Coco poster, as reported by Billboard.
her being mama coco was something she was very proud of so its ok to acknowledge both coco and Disney not paying her. heres her at her birthday pic.twitter.com/jazXvCbqV8
— tb-3 (@cIeodegaria) October 17, 2022
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