On his way to the plaza, Miguel says hello to a woman who is whistling as she sweeps her stoop. Then he passes a lone guitarist playing a classical piece with lots of tremolo. Miguel nods with appreciation, and the man nods back. The closer Miguel gets to the plaza, the more music he hears and the happier he feels. Young girls sing while jumping rope, the slap on the sidewalk setting the tempo for their song. The church bells chime in harmony with a tune played by a street band, and when a radio blares a cumbia rhythm, Miguel does a few crossover steps to the beat.
He's humming when he reaches a pan dulce booth and grabs his favorite type of sweet bread, the cochinito, a gingerbread cookie shaped like a pig.
"Muchas gracias!" Miguel says as he tosses the vendor a coin. "De nada, Miguel!"
As he walks along, he feels something at his leg, and when he looks down, he sees the scraggly cat from Mamá Coco's window. It scurries off,
then glances back to see if Miguel is following. Where does that cat want me to go? he wonders.
He shrugs and moves on to a street vendor at a booth full of alebrijes,
colorful sculptures of fantastical creatures, like lizards with feathers, rabbits with horns, and giraffes with multicolored spots. Miguel stops a moment, tapping a rhythm on the table. He's about to take a bite of pan dulce when a familiar street dog sidles up. The dog is nearly bald, with a few hairs
sticking out here and there like thorns on a nopal. He goofily licks his chops because he's hungry.
Miguel breaks off the rump of the cochinito and holds it over the dog's nose. "Want some of this?" he asks, laughing.
"Roo, roo!" the dog answers.
Miguel goes through the commands he has taught the dog. "Sit, roll over, shake." The dog performs each trick perfectly. Miguel finishes with his favorite, "Fist bump," and he laughs as the the dog laps his long tongue against his closed hand. "Good boy, Dante!"
Miguel drops the pan dulce, and Dante gobbles it up.
There's a sense of celebration in the air because it's the eve of Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, when the community honors loved ones who have passed away. The streets are lined with strings of papel picado,
squares of paper with punched-out designs, brightening the space with their pinks, greens, golds, and blues. Children reach for decorated sugar skulls.
Some of the elderly, viejitos and viejitas, carry candles and vases filled with marigolds and mums for their ofrendas, while others rush to buy soda,
candy, fruit, cigars, or toys to leave at the gravesites.
Meanwhile, Miguel quickly makes his way to Mariachi Plaza with
Dante at his side. They finally reach their destination, and the plaza lives up to its name, for it is crowded with musicians. They're so lucky, thinks
Miguel, to play guitars and trumpets without getting scolded.
"I know I'm not supposed to like music," Miguel tells Dante, "but it's not my fault!" Miguel looks up and gazes at a statue of a handsome mariachi. "It's his: Ernesto de la Cruz, the greatest musician of all time." At the base of the statue is a plaque with the musician's most famous quote—
SEIZE YOUR MOMENT.
Just then a tour group makes its way to the statue, and Miguel eavesdrops as the tour guide tells them about the famous musician.
"And right here in this very plaza," the tour guide says, "the young Ernesto de la Cruz took his first steps toward becoming the most beloved singer in Mexican history."
As the guide speaks, Miguel imagines de la Cruz in his heyday, a young man in the plaza, swarmed by fans as he played his songs.
He glances down at Dante and pets him. "De la Cruz," Miguel says, "he was just…he was the guy, you know? He started out a total nobody from Santa Cecilia, like me. But when he played music, he made people fall in love with him." Dante wags his tail. Miguel's told this story a dozen times, and Dante always seems happy to hear it. "He traveled the world," Miguel goes on. "He starred in movies. Oh, plus he had the coolest guitar. And he wrote the best songs! But my all-time favorite? It's—"
Miguel closes his eyes and recalls an old clip of de la Cruz performing in a fancy nightclub. He can clearly hear de la Cruz's voice singing his most famous song, "Remember Me." It's a song about being remembered forever
—even after one is gone. And it has a very catchy tune.
Miguel hums along with the memory. Then he looks up at the statue of Ernesto de la Cruz, awestruck by his greatness.
"He lived the kind of life you dream about," he continues, "until 1942…" He can't finish the sentence, because it breaks his heart to repeat what happened, but then he hears Dante panting and sees the goofy dog waiting for the end of the story. "Until 1942, when he was crushed by a giant bell."
Dante barks as if to say "the end." Then he runs off, and Miguel remembers why he's in the plaza. He's supposed to shine shoes, so he finds a spot near the statue and takes out his shoeshine kit, using the box as a footstool for his customers. A few minutes later, a mariachi asks for a
shoeshine and Miguel gets to work, the whole time repeating the tale of Ernesto de la Cruz. "Sometimes, I look at de la Cruz," he says, "and I get this feeling…like we're connected somehow. Like, if he could play music, maybe someday I could, too." Then, in a voice full of sadness, he continues, "If only it wasn't for my family."
"Ay yai yai, muchacho!" the mariachi exclaims.
"Huh?" Miguel says, confused, because for a moment, he's forgotten where he is.
"I asked for a shoeshine, not your life story," the mariachi says. "Oh, yeah. Sorry."
Miguel goes back to buffing the man's shoe. Meanwhile, the mariachi plucks at his guitar strings.
"I just can't talk about any of this at home," Miguel explains.
"Look," the mariachi says, "if I were you? I'd march right up to my family and say, 'Hey! I'm a musician. Deal with it.'"
Miguel shakes his head. "I could never say that." "You are a musician, no?"
Miguel desperately wants to say yes, but then he remembers his family's past, how music tore them apart.
"I don't know," he admits. "I mean…I only really play for myself—" "Aah!" The mariachi seems frustrated by Miguel's lack of confidence.
"Did de la Cruz become the world's best musician by hiding his sweet, sweet skills?" He doesn't let Miguel answer. "No!" the mariachi says,
thumping his guitar for emphasis. "He walked out onto that plaza and he played out loud!" He points to the gazebo, where some men are setting up speakers and hanging a giant poster announcing a talent show. "Ah! ¡Mira, mira! They're setting up for tonight. The music competition for Día de los Muertos. You wanna be like your hero? You should sign up!"
Instead of excited, Miguel is shocked at the thought. "Huh-uh, my family would freak!"
"Look, if you're too scared, then, well…have fun making shoes." The mariachi does a quick rasgueado on the guitar, and Miguel admires the way his fingers flutter over the strings. "But the world belongs to the bold, m'ijo." Miguel silently mouths the words as he considers this. "C'mon," the mariachi urges. "What did de la Cruz always say?"
"Seize your moment?" Miguel phrases it as a question even though he knows the answer by heart.
The mariachi nods. Then he offers the guitar to Miguel. "Show me what you got, muchacho. I'll be your first audience."
Miguel's eyes widen and his brows rise with surprise at this gesture. He aches to hold the guitar, but then he hears Abuelita proclaiming the family rule—No music allowed! Every time he dares to play something, her
warning echoes in his head. But how can he resist a chance to touch a beautiful guitar?
He glances around to make sure the coast is clear. Then he reaches for the instrument and takes it with reverence, as if holding a holy relic. Once
it's in his arms, Miguel presses the strings and is about to strum a C chord when he hears: "Miguel!"
It's Abuelita's voice, and he laughs at himself. I must be paranoid, he thinks. But then he hears her voice again, this time much closer. He gasps and tosses the guitar back to the mariachi, but it's too late. Abuelita, Tío Berto, and Prima Rosa, Miguel's cousin, have found them. They march
straight over, their arms full of bags and supplies. "Abuelita!" Miguel says.
"What are you doing here?" she asks.
"Um…uh…" Miguel quickly packs up his shoeshine equipment, hoping his grandmother ignores the mariachi.
But she doesn't. She grabs a chancla from her purse. Many years ago, the strap on the sandal fell off, but since Abuelita hates to throw out shoes, no matter how tattered, she keeps it as a flyswatter. Apparently, it's a mariachi swatter, too, because she barrels up to the man, hits him with the shoe, and waves him away just like she does with the flies.
"You leave my grandson alone!" she shouts. "Doña, please. I was just getting a shine!"
"I know your tricks, mariachi!" Then, turning to Miguel, she demands, "What did he say to you?"
Miguel shrugs. "He was just showing me his guitar."
Abuelita gasps, Prima Rosa gasps, and Tío Berto gasps, too. "Shame on you!" the uncle says to the mariachi.
Abuelita approaches the musician, chancla aimed directly between his
eyes. "My grandson," she says, "is a sweet little angelito querido cielito. He wants no part of your music, mariachi! You keep away from him!"
She is a formidable woman, so the mariachi grabs his sombrero and scrambles away. Miguel can only watch with unspoken apologies and a
heavy heart. There goes a man who let him talk about music without feeling ashamed.
"¡Ay, pobrecito!" Abuelita says, hugging Miguel so tight he can barely breathe. "¿Estás bien, m'ijo?" When she releases him, he gasps for air.
"You know better than to be in this place! You will come home. Now."
Miguel sighs, and as he picks up his shoeshine box, he notices a sheet of paper. It's a flyer for the talent show—the one the mariachi told him about! Quickly, before Abuelita turns around, he pockets the flyer.
As they walk through the plaza, Abuelita can't stop commenting on
everyone's shoes. When she sees Señor Maldonado, she says, "Now there is an admirable man. See how the patent leather of his loafers gleams in the
sun?" When she sees Señora Diaz, she says, "I dyed those satin pumps myself, and look how they're fading." And to the señora, she calls out, "Don't store your shoes by the window! They're supposed to be red but now they're turning pink from all that sun." Señora Diaz gives her a thumbs-up and hurries away.
And then Rosa spots a small boy and points at him. "Look, Abuelita!"
Abuelita gasps. "His shoelaces!" Sure enough, the laces on the boy's tennis shoes are frayed and too short to be tied into a proper knot.
"Not his shoes," Rosa says. "He's crying!"
"Of course he's crying. I would cry, too, if my shoelaces looked like that." Abuelita stoops down to examine them. "What happened here?" she asks the boy, but instead of explaining what happened to his shoes, he says, "I'm lost."
Abuelita snaps to get Tío Berto's attention. "Go find his parents," she orders.
"Yes, yes, right away," Tío Berto says as he obediently rushes off.
"We'll find your parents," Abuelita tells the boy. "In the meantime, you can't go around with frayed laces. Lucky for you, I have extras in my purse." She pulls out three pairs of shoelaces, and the boy's eyes widen with delight. "Which color do you want?" she asks, and he studies them as if
choosing the right color is the most important decision of his life.
While Abuelita is busy with the boy, Miguel spots a paper airplane. It's crumpled from being stepped on. Thinking he can smooth out the crumpled parts and give it to the boy, Miguel picks it up, but he only half-heartedly unfolds it because he can't stop thinking about music. He really wants to perform. Except for Dante and Mamá Coco, no one's ever heard him sing. They don't want to hear him sing, because it's against the family rules. But what if he won the talent show? Maybe…just maybe they would accept him as a real musician.
He sighs, heavyhearted. Then he refolds the paper, making it a plane again, and throws it into the air. As it glides away, he thinks about his dreams. Will they glide away, too?
He's about to return to Abuelita when he hears clacking from around the corner. He sneaks over to investigate, Rosa following. When they reach the
sound, they find a group of ballet folklórico dancers.
"They're so pretty," Rosa says, admiring the full skirts with colorful petticoats and the hairstyles with ribbons and braids. The dancers are
warming up for a performance, their toes and heels clacking on the sidewalk. "And they have the prettiest shoes," Rosa adds wistfully.
It's true. The shoes are very pretty, but Miguel is most interested in the metal plates on the heels and toes, because that is what makes the pleasant sound. He lifts a foot, examines the soles of his boots, and wonders if he
could add his own metal plates. He's not allowed to play instruments, but maybe he could tap out rhythms with his feet.
"What are you doing?" Abuelita says, hands on hips.
Miguel lowers his foot. "We're just listening…I mean, looking at the dancers' beautiful shoes."
Abuelita has a skeptical expression on her face, but she lets it go. As they walk away, Miguel asks, "Abuelita, why don't we make those kinds of shoes, for the ballet folklórico dancers?"
When she doesn't answer, he asks again—and again.
"We just don't!" she says, and he knows better than to keep asking why.