San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
MY WORK ON ‘COCO’ WAS LIFE-CHANGING
Iwas in the Aztec metropolis of Mexico City for the Mexican premiere of the Day of the Dead-themed Pixar film, “Coco.” The charity event was held at the resplendent Palacio de las Bellas Artes, the Palace of Fine Arts. An orchestra played and singers sang the songs of the movie, and I got to see my name in the credits presented on screen at one of Mexico’s top cultural landmarks. As a child, I once shook hands with Mexican President Luis Echeverria on the front steps of the Bellas Artes, when spending one of many summers we visited family in el Distrito Federal. I felt like my life had come full circle.
It had been quite a journey for me. I was one of the three main cultural consultants hired by Pixar to give feedback on the authenticity of the movie. Authenticity and representation have always been thorny issues in Hollywood, and they are now coming to a head in 2020, but three years ago it felt like a novelty that I didn’t quite believe was happening.
It started with the trademark issue. Some Disney lawyers had filed a federal trademark application for the term, “Día de Los Muertos.” A fan had found out and innocuously posted about this on a blog, and then all La Raza broke loose. The Chicano/mexican-american community found out and the uproar could have raised the dead. How could a giant corporation dare to trademark another culture’s holiday? This was clearly cultural appropriation, and unearned ownership.
A petition was started, and I even drew a political cartoon to personify my backlash. Muerto Mouse was born. My faux movie poster image presented a giant calavera Mickey Mouse “coming to take your culture.” The whole incident lasted a week, and Disney surpris