Can I count Coco for December 2nd?

Because I’m gonna. 

I saw Coco today with a friend that I hadn’t seen in over a month. I lived with Host Family for about a year and a half, only moving to the dorms for this last year of graduate school because I wanted to be closer to my friends and family members in the next county.

I’d made plans to stay in their lives because I truly love the family and without them, I couldn’t have lived in Miami since 2016.

Host Daughter, a younger woman who’s like a little sister to me, is one of the aspects of living with this family that I missed. And when Host Mom offered me a chance to spend a few days with them, I took it. 

Same goes for seeing Coco.

 Coco was like… Everything. 

Now, I’m not Latinx so there are probably problematic aspects to the film that I missed (but I did catch a bunch of stuff thanks to reviews from Mexican reviewers who posted on Twitter and that I’ll link to once I’m not heading to bed and am on my laptop), but I loved Coco.

I loved the bright colors. The family dynamics. The twist to the plot. The soundtrack.

I wasn’t expecting to wind up ugly crying in the theater alongside Host Daughter. It was… A lot. 

Host Daughter, whose family is from the Dominican Republic, recently lost her grandmother. And she said her grandmother reminded her a lot of Miguel’s. So… Crying.

And me? Well I literally can’t handle the thought of elderly people dying in media (because I’ve always had anxiety about my elderly parents dying and I don’t manage that anxiety very well)  and I mean… This is an entire movie about death and like I was extra messed up y’all. 

Like I cried for maybe 45 minutes straight.
But I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I loved the experience of seeing Coco. I loved Miguel and Hector, the way that Miguel’s family (both living and dead) just love him so much, his sweet little great-grandma Mama Coco, and that dang dog.

I didn’t even mind crying because all of those enters weren’t sad tears. They were just mad overwhelmed.

I’m glad that I could watch Coco with someone like Host Daughter and that we could ugly cry together. Like… What a great day.

(Also, despite the fact that I’m generally weirded out by the fact that Jesus clearly exists in the Frozen universe for them to celebrate Christmas, the short was cute and it also made me cry a bit. I have been soggy all day, to be honest.)