Ernesto de la Cruz

"I have to sing! I have to play! The music, it's not just in me, it is me!"

- Ernesto in the trailer. "Seize Your Moment/Vive tu momento"

- Ernesto's famous quote Ernesto de la Cruz is the main antagonist of Pixar's 19th full-length animated feature film, Coco. He is Hector's former music partner and friend, Miguel's former idol, and a famous singer and musician who dazzled the audience with his good looks and his charm, and was a source of Mexican pride due to his handsome looks, strong morals, and his standing up for his fellow Mexicans. After dying of being crushed by a giant bell, he resides as a soul in the Land of the Dead. At the end, it is revealed that he stole all his most famous songs and compositions from Miguel's real great-great-grandfather, Hector.

He is voiced in english by Benjamin Bratt who also voiced El Macho and portrayed Antonio Pope in Ride Along 2 and El Topo in Snitch and in spanish by mexican singer Marco Antonio Solís a.k.a "El Buki" on his first villanous role.

Personality
At first glance, Ernesto presents himself as a charming, wise, sensible, and intelligent individual who encouraged others to follow their dreams no matter what, making him seem like a good role model. However, it is later revealed that Ernesto is nothing more than a two-bit, selfish, worthless, and overambitious ne'er-do-well who poisoned his best friend, Hector and stole his song book to achieve fame and glory and will resort to even hurting a child to preserve his evil and treacherous nature.

COCO
The film starts with Miguel a kid living in the ville "Santa Cecilia" narrating the story his great grandparents and how his great grandfather a musician left his wife and daughter, Coco to follow his dream but when he never returned his great grandmother "Mamá Imelda" decided to never allow any member of his family to have anything to do with music nor her husband, resulting on generations of her family hating music (specially Coco's daughter, Abuelita) and instead started a family of cobblers. In the present day Coco is still alive as a very old woman who suffers from Alzeheimer, but his great-great grandson loves her because she's the only one in his family who doesn't hates music, Miguel also secretly loves music and hopes to one day be as famous as the late Ernesto de la Cruz, his hero and the ville's pride. Ernesto was a popular singer, songwriter, and film star. On one of his concerts while singing his most famous song "Recuerdame" (Remember Me) an accident happened and he was crushed by a church bell killing him.

THE DAY OF THE DEAD
In Santa Cecilia there's going to be a Talent Show on the Day of the Dead and Miguel wants to participate singing with a guitar he made and painted inspired on Ernesto de la Cruz guitar, but Miguel's family want him to continue the tradition of being a cobbler, Miguel trying to hide his guitar from his grandma he accidentally breaks Mama Imelda's portrait, which depicts her and Coco as a baby but her father's face have been ripped out, Miguel discovers Ernesto de la Cruz guitar on the hand of the faceless father and immediately thinks Ernesto is his great grandfather, surprised and full of joy he tells his family about this and that he wants to go to the talent show however Abuelita destroys Miguel's guitar to prevent him to end up like his great grandfather, abandoning his family, Miguel gets angry and escapes to the show, he looks for a guitar but when he doesn't find anyone he decides to take Ernest de la Cruz's guitar on his mausoleum and use it in the concert, in the moment Miguel plays the guitar, he becomes a type of ghost unable to be seen or heard by the living except for Dante, a street dog he pets often. In the cemetery Miguel mets his deceased relatives who are shaken that Miguel can see them and is there with them.

LAND OF THE DEAD
Meanwhile in the Land of the Dead, Mamá Imelda is unable to cross to the world of the living as Miguel took her portrait from the ofrenda, they discover from an officer that Imelda can help Miguel return to the world of the living before he turns into an skeleton at sunrise by a relative "blessing" a petal of aztec marigold, Mama Imelda agrees to let Miguel back home but with the condition that he must forget about his musical dreams for good. Refusing to give up on music, a desperate Miguel run away from his family and allies with a lonely and forgotten jokester named Hector so he can find Ernesto de la Cruz and return without giving up his dreams; in exchange, Miguel will have to put Hector's portrait in his family's ofrenda in the Land of the Living allowing him to cross the bridge as Hector is part of the "forgotten". During their journey to De la Cruz's palace, they are being tracked down by Mama Imelda's spiritual guide, an alebrije called Pepita; Miguel also discovers that when someone in the Land of the Dead is completely forgotten by their living relatives they completely fade, they also meet famous mexican artist Frida Kahlo who tells Miguel she is the opening show for De la Cruz's sunrise show, after participating on a contest to win an entrance to the palace, an argument breaks between Miguel and Hector after Hector discovers Miguel could have returned to his home all the time (Miguel had previously lied to Hector by claiming that De la Cruz was his only family). In response, Miguel leaves Hector and Dante, determined to sneak to Ernesto de la Cruz's palace on his own.

MEETING WITH MIGUEL AND HECTOR
Miguel manages to enter the palace with the help of a band and looks for Ernesto, however Hector followed him disguised as Frida Kahlo and also enters the palace, Miguel gets Ernesto attention by singing, then Miguel reveals to an astounded Ernesto that he is his great-great grandson, surprised and happy Ernesto welcomes Miguel and introduces him to everyone on his party, they spent some time together and then Miguel tells Ernesto about his situation, Ernesto is willing to give his blessing to Miguel but they are interrupted by Hector, it is revealed that Hector used to be De la Cruz's partner in the music business, with Hector being a talented songwriter and composer. After Miguel points the similarities between Hector and De la Cruz's argument with one of De la Cruz's films where the villain attempts to poison him, Hector remembers the day of his death. That day, after Hector had decided to abandon the music industry and stay with his family, De la Cruz poisoned Hector and stole all of his songs and ideas, thereby achieving fame. His true colors revealed, De la Cruz takes away Hector's portrait, and has Hector and Miguel imprisoned in a pit in order to keep the secret. In the pit Hector begins to fade as his daughter is starting to forget him, it is then revealed Hector's daughter name: Coco, Miguel surprised deduces that the man in Mama Imelda's portrait isn't Ernesto but Hector, therefore Hector is Miguel's real great-great grandfather, they are then rescued by Mama Imelda and Pepita who were guided by Dante to them.

FINAL SHOWDOWN
Miguel, Hector and Miguel's relatives sneak on Ernesto's sunrise show with the help of Frida Kahlo to find Hector's portrait so Miguel can put it in the ofrenda and Hector can cross, Mama Imelda, Miguel and Hector surprise Ernesto and try to take the photo but Ernesto calls his security staff, Miguel's relatives fight them and Imelda tries to take the photo but accidentally ends up on stage instead of Ernesto, Miguel encourages her to sing as Hector plays the guitar, Imelda starts singing "La Llorona" surprising her dead relatives, the security team rey to take the photo but she prevents them from doing it while still singing, Ernesto then comes in stage singing and tries to take the photo trying to make everything seem as part of the show, Imelda frees herself from Ernesto and gives Miguel her blessing but before Miguel can touch the petal Ernesto takes him and the photo, Hector tries to stop him but is too weak to do it as sunrise is almost upon them, Miguel's dead relatives secretly record Ernesto confession as everyone in the show watches, then Ernesto throws Miguel and the photo to the lake, Miguel is saved by Pepita but couldn't save the photo, Ernesto returns to the stage but is booed by everyone, then after seeing Miguel's safe they cheer as Pepita sneaks upon Ernesto and lifts him up before throwing him away from the stadium, Ernesto falls on a bell tower and watches in horror as the bell falls on him crushing him once again.

MIGUEL RETURNS
Is almost sunrise and Imelda accepts Hector's musical legacy on the family and they give Miguel their blessing, Miguel wakes up on Ernesto's mausoleum and rushe towards his house, without the photo Miguel tries to mak Coco remember her father with the guitar but it's useless, Coco doesn't respond, Miguel then remembers Hector told him he used to sing "Recuerdame" to Coco when she was a child (as the song was originally written only for Coco) so Miguel starts singing and eventually as their family watches Coco starts remembering and singing along, when the song is over Coco tells Miguel she saved all of Hector's lyrics and also the ripped piece of portrait, Miguel puts this on the ofrenda and Hector is saved.

EPILOGUE
A year later the lyrics Coco had have served as evidence to dethrone Ernesto as the ville's pride, now Hector is recognized all over Mexico as the true artist as he and Imelda finally reunite with Coco in the afterlife and a "forgotten" sign is put on Ernesto's mausoleum.

Trivia

 * Ernesto is the fifth main antagonist in a Pixar film to actually die at the end of his film, after Hopper from A Bug's Life, Syndrome from The Incredibles, Charles Muntz from Up, and Mor'du from Brave. Though in Ernesto's case, he actually dies twice, in both the human realm and in the Día de los Muertos realm.
 * Ernesto de la Cruz is a tribute to the singer/actors of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema like Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante, Jorge Solis and many others.
 * However, Ernesto de la Cruz is actually phisically based on the beloved mexican icon Pedro Infante (in fact, the second last name of Infante was "Cruz").
 * Ernesto De la Cruz is the 5th Character in a Pixar film to be a Surprise Main Antagonist, where he may not seem bad at first but would later reveal his true colours later on in the film towards the climax. The other 4 Pixar films to have a character with similar qualities are Toy Story 2 (1999) with Stinky Pete the Prospector, Monsters Inc. (2001) with Henry J. Waternoose III, Up (2009) with Charles Muntz and Toy Story 3 (2010) with Lotso.
 * Ernesto de la Cruz is voiced in the spanish version by an actual mexican singer and actor, Marco Antonio Solís a well-known songwriter and singer, also known as "El Buki".
 * Ernesto bears similar qualities with Gaston from Beauty and the Beast as both of them were portrayed initially with good qualities and reputation: (Ernesto being portrayed as famous singer and musician as an inspiration to Miguel; Gaston being looked as a famous hunter in order woo Belle) only to reveal their true colors with the use of its charismatic, egotistical, arrogant, and deceptive qualities to achieve their goals and had the protagonists imprisoned to keep them from stopping their agendas. (Ernesto stole all of Hector's songs and compositions to achieve fame and had Hector and Miguel imprisoned to keep the secret from being uncovered; Gaston had planned to sought Belle for marriage only for the latter to chose the Beast which was viewed by Gaston as a man-eating monster and had Belle and Maurice imprisoned to prevent them from warning the Beast of Gaston's plan of killing him.)