Imelda was strong. There was no doubt about that. But there was one thing she was never strong enough to do. She could never tell Coco that her father abandoned her. Perhaps it would have been kinder to tell her rather than let her cling to her hope that he was coming back. But every time Coco asked when Papa was coming home, Imelda couldn't tell her "never." It would crush her and Imelda simply couldn't deliver that heartbreak to her little girl.
Over time, Coco brought up her father less and less until she stopped asking completely. She grew accustomed to her life with Imelda. There wasn't much money at first, and Imelda went to great lengths to make sure Coco still had everything she needed. There were nights where Imelda went without much, if any dinner so that Coco could have a full meal. She borrowed from her brothers and kept a meticulous record of every last coin, determined to pay it back in full.
Imelda still had friends who were dancers and for a time, she scraped together money by repairing their costumes. Shoes became her specialty. Her friends told their fellow dancers of her handiwork, and soon, she opened a shoe-repair business. She worked on every type of shoe and became more skilled which each repair. Her single-minded determination to build a good life for Coco drove her to relentlessly practice her craft. Eventually, she began making and selling shoes while still offering repair services on the side. Rivera shoes became renowned for their quality and business boomed. Gone were the nights when she pretended to be busy so that Coco wouldn't notice that she wasn't eating dinner. Finally, she was granted the simple pleasure of sitting down for a meal with her daughter.
She was able to move her business from her living room to a bigger venue with a proper workshop and a large living area for her family. She paid her brothers back double and invited them to join the family business. She taught them everything she knew about shoes and, when Coco came home from school, Imelda would teach her too. There was only one rule. No music was allowed to be played in the workshop.
Imelda still offered dance shoes despite the music ban. It was where her business started after all and it brought in a good amount of income in the beginning. Although, she didn't like the way Coco would eye the dancers when they came to pick up their orders. She especially didn't like catching Coco trying on the shoes. So, she made a new rule. Coco was not allowed to work on the dance shoes. The excuse she made was that custom dance shoes were too complicated and Coco needed more experience to work on them. Her brothers would side-eye her on this point and raise their matching eyebrows, but she felt she owed them no explanation. Coco was her daughter and it was her business and she could do as she liked.
The true reason came out one day when Coco was 12. Imelda sent her out on a delivery after school and she hadn't returned for super. Imelda feared the worst and set out, determined to break down every door in Mexico until she had her daughter back. Her fury was redirected, however, when she found Coco not an hour later in Mariachi Plaza. While she barreled about town in a cloud of anger and worry, Coco was there, dancing with her classmates without a care in the world.
"Coco!" Imelda shouted from across the Plaza. Her voice put a stop to the music and everything around turned silent and still. Coco stood in the center of it all, trying to hide her face. Imelda marched up to her daughter, people parting as she did so.
"Mama, I was just…"
Imelda only had to look at Coco to silence her weak excuse. "Come. Home. Now."
Coco looked around at her classmates who all stared at her. "Mama, please. You're embarrassing me."
"Embarrassing you? Oh, I haven't even gotten started. Are you going to come home, or do I need to drag you?" Imelda looked down at her daughter and spotted a pair custom-made Rivera dance shoes on her feet; a pair that had mysteriously gone missing a week before. Imelda pointed sharply at Coco's feet. "Is that the Romero order?" she shouted.
Coco hung her head in defeat. "I'm coming Mama," she said, beginning to shuffle foreword.
Imelda held up her hand to stop her. "Shoes off first."
"But Mama…"
"Now!"
Coco groaned and unceremoniously kicked off her shoes. She then went to the bench where she left her school bag and put on her own shoes. Imelda didn't care that the entire plaza was watching. It was Coco's choice to steal the shoes and it was Coco's choice to go dancing when her mother expressly forbade it.
The walk home boiled with tension. Imelda rehearsed over and over in her head what she was going to say as soon as they got home. She decided on a punishment and a way to prevent this from happening again. No daughter of hers was going to hang around those good-for-nothing musicians. She raised Coco to be sensible and she was going to make sure Coco stayed that way.
"Mama, let me explain," Coco said, as soon as they stepped into the workshop.
"No. I don't need you to explain what I saw with my own eyes. I was worried sick when you didn't come home and I find you there, dancing, without a single thought about your Mama. You let me wander around town thinking you were hurt or worse, but that didn't matter. Not if you could have your fun."
"Mama, I'm sorry." Coco pleaded. "I wasn't thinking."
"Exactly. You weren't thinking," Imelda snapped. "I might have sent the police out looking for you. Anyone else would have since you're a thief as well." She held up the stolen shoes and Coco looked down in shame.
"Are those?" Oscar asked, pointing.
"The Romero order we've been looking for all week? They most certainly are." Imelda answered before turning her attention back to Coco. "And to think, you kept silent while your uncles and I ran around frantic looking for them. I had to give senorita Romero her money back and make her a replacement. Do you know how much custom shoes cost? How much work goes into them?"
Coco looked away and mumbled "No…"
"No, but you're about to find out," Imelda said, putting the shoes down on a work bench. "Starting tomorrow, you will work in the shop every day to pay me back double. You will come straight home after school, finish any school work you have, and go straight to work until supper. After supper you will go straight to your room. Every peso you earn will go straight to me. Then, for two week after you've paid me back, you will follow the same routine. You will not see your friends. You will not go out alone. And, you will never go near the plaza again."
"Never? Mama, that's insane!" Coco shouted, getting the courage back to look into her Mama's eye. "You can't keep me away forever!"
"I can as long as I'm alive. You know how I feel about music. I forbid it."
"You can't forbid music. It's everywhere. It's impossible!" Coco argued.
"They said it was impossible for a single mother to build a successful business, but I did it anyway," Imelda retorted. "Don't doubt me, Coco. I am very familiar with doing the impossible."
Coco crossed her arms and looked away again, face twisted with anger. "Papa would have let me," she grumbled.
The room went silent except for the clang of a dropped tool. "What was that?" Imelda asked, fuming.
"I said, Papa would have let me!" Coco shouted. "He would have encouraged me! He wouldn't have tried to make me hate something I love!"
Imelda was rendered speechless for a moment, but she quickly recovered. "After all I've done to support you, you dare mention him? Where is he? What has he done for you? Nothing!"
"He would have if he was here!" Coco argued back, her eyes brimming with tears. "He loved me!"
"I'm here! And I love you! He's gone, Coco. He left us. You need to forget him." She went in for a hug but Coco pushed her away.
"He didn't leave! Something happened to him, I know it. But you don't care. You never even tried to look for him."
"I did try! I wasted too much time chasing that pendejo. I found Ernesto the year after he left. He told me all about how your father ran off."
"I don't believe that! Ernesto's a liar! He plays Papa's guitar, he sings Papa's songs, and says they're all his!"
Imelda paused. Did he? She knew he'd gained celebrity status since he left Santa Cecilia, but she didn't pay attention to his career. He was a family friend once upon a time, but he cut ties with almost everyone since then, probably too busy with his new movie star friends. He only further cemented her belief that musicians eventually abandon everyone to chase fame. Whatever the case was, it didn't matter now. "This isn't about Ernesto and this isn't about your Papa," she said, getting back on topic. "This is about you disobeying me. Your punishment is set and we won't discuss it further." She gave Coco her stern look which meant the conversation was over.
"You're crazy!" Coco exploded. She turned on her heals and stormed out "I wish Papa were here instead!"
The twins gasped and Imelda was left sputtering with fury. "Go to your room!"
"That's where I'm going!" Coco slammed the door and she & Imelda barely spoke for five days.
Coco went through with her punishment, but did not directly address her mother. Imelda would only remind Coco to do her school work and start working, which Coco would answer with a grunt or a huff. Oscar and Filipe acted as go-betweens for the two of them. They'd take turns talking to either Coco or Imelda, trying to coax an apology out of at least one of them. However, both mother and daughter were matched in their stubbornness. Finally, one day Imelda asked Coco how school was, and Coco answered "fine." Imelda began speaking more casually to Coco and Coco began using multi-word answers again.
Neither ever outright apologized, but they did reconcile through their actions. By the end of Coco's punishment, the Rivera home was more-or-less back to normal with the exception that Rivera Shoes no longer offered dance shoes. However, there was something of an unspoken arrangement between the mother and daughter. Coco did not bring up her father, and Imelda pretended not to hear Coco singing to his picture every night. Coco did not argue with her mother's music ban, and Imelda did not say anything about the dance-induced scuffs on Coco's shoes. Coco followed the rules at home. Imelda silently allowed Coco to keep her Papa's memory in her life.