Tia Victoria

Tia Victoria is one of several deceased relatives of Miguel Rivera who appear in the 2017 movie, Coco. The sister of Miguel's grandmother, she resides in the Land of the Dead.

Physical appearance[]

Tia Victoria wears an a light blue short-sleeved shirt with green lace, a low brown apron, a yellow and white skirt, and black boots. She has black hair and brown eyes and she has moon-framed glasses.

Background[]

In life, Tia Victoria was a shoemaker like the rest of Rivera family, and apparently specialized in crafting huaraches (a type of sandal). She wore glasses and - if her personality carried over to the afterlife - was prim, respectable, and intelligent. She was the first of Miguel's deceased relatives to realize that he was neither dead nor alive when he first appeared to them.

She also apparently had something of a no-nonsense attitude: When Miguel first glimpses the Land of the Dead, he recounts how he always thought it was just a story that adults told children, just like how he didn't believe their stories about vitamins. Tia Victoria dryly remarks, "Miguel, vitamins are a real thing."

Victoria apparently died quite young, predeceasing both her parents and younger sister, and joined her late relatives in the Land of the Dead. A photo of her when she was alive is mounted on the family ofrenda, but she makes her first physical appearance as a spirit in the cemetery when Miguel literally runs into her father, knocking him apart and forcing her to help put him back together. In contrast to the other family's overly dramatic reactions to seeing Miguel able to see and talk to them and the news that Imelda was unable to cross over with the rest of them, Victoria is calm and rational, immediately deducing that Miguel has to be responsible somehow. Whilst escorting Miguel across the marigold bridge to the Land of the Dead, Victoria is irritated to discover that Miguel didn't believe the Land of the Dead existed, thinking it was made up like vitamins, prompting her to tartly inform him that vitamins are indeed real. In the Department of Family Reunions they find Imelda arguing with a clerk over her failure to cross over and even Victoria looks nervous about approaching her in her present rage.

The Riveras are informed that Miguel was cursed because he stole an item from the dead on the sacred Day of the Dead and the only way to return him to the Land of the Living is to grant him a blessing from one of his deceased relatives. Miguel's refusal to accept the conditions Imelda places on her blessing (no music) leads him to approach the others for their blessing, but is refused as none of them would dare disobey Imelda; Victoria is the last to be asked and, in contrast to the others terrified dramatics, stoically shakes her head in response and urges him to listen to Imelda. This only prompts Miguel to run off, determined to find his lost musical ancestor, and the Riveras give chase. Victoria is shocked and horrified to learn later on that the reviled ancestor, Hector, was in fact murdered when he tried to return home and participates in the plan to retrieve his photo from the one who murdered him, Ernesto de la Cruz, helping to fight his guards when they confront him. When Imelda ends up on stage and begins singing, Victoria and Rosita's jaws drop in shock at the sight of it. When Ernesto threatens to throw Miguel to his death, Victoria and Rosita are the ones who expose him to the audience when Rosita notices a camera and points it at him and Victoria switches it on, broadcasting his rant and subsequent murder attempt live and vilifying him to the entire Land of the Dead.

After Miguel is sent home and Hector is saved from the Final Death, he is shown to have been accepted back into the ranks of the deceased Riveras, who have also been joined by Coco, Victoria's mother. They cross the marigold bridge together on the next Day of the Dead and watch happily as the living Riveras celebrate the return of music with Miguel, who leads them in song.