Conclusion: Félix's Work, Afterlife, and Legacy

Summary

María Félix's Brief animated appearances in the Disney-Pixar film, Coco (Lee Unkrich, 2017) synthesises her wardrobe, star persona, and performance style and, significantly, is a nod to her legacy. Hers is not a speaking part but demonstrates some of the nuances cultural consultants brought to the film. When the protagonist, Miguel, sneaks into a VIP ball to find his famous father in the land of the dead, indicating the stature of those in attendance a glamorous skeletal Félix walks up the red carpet, pausing only for the waiting photographers. She is dressed in a floor-length sequined purple gown with a slit up to her thigh, a cinched waist, and a sweetheart sleeveless bodice. Recognisable from her distinct eyebrows, long hair, graceful movement, her wardrobe emphasises her height, wide shoulders, and narrow waist. She is the epitome of stardom, both recognisable as Félix and an invention of the filmmakers. Like the versions of her found by other makers and creatives, what we see in Coco is a figure that does not adhere to fixed parameters. They have invented their version of Félix. She was excessive in life and often hard to pin down to precise details and hard facts, which results in extended and expanded interpretations of what is possible for Félix in this imagined afterlife.

Her companion in this scene is the masked wrestler, El Santo (Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, 1917–1984), and is an example of the potential to place Félix alongside someone with whom she did not socialise in life and for this not to require a total suspension of disbelief. Her persona was such that she invited projections of the widest sense of what it is to be a woman on screen and in public life. Their pairing is possible because she moved in wide circles that crossed class and artistic output. El Santo is a character who appeared in numerous low-budget films between 1961 and 1983 as a folk hero saving people from monsters such as, demons, vampires, wolfmen, evil wrestlers, and multiple iterations of exploitative capitalists. With low production values and cartoon-like performances, El Santo was in films that were distinct from the melodramas, thrillers, dramas, and comedies starring Félix. In life too they moved in different orbits.