Maria Salud Ramirez Caballero, Who Inspired 'Coco' Character Mama Coco, Dead at 109

By Alexandria Reeves

María Salud Ramírez Caballero, the inspiration of Disney Pixar in creating "Coco" Mama Coco, died. She was 109.

A news outlet delivered the saddening news, citing Roberto Monroy, the Secretary of Tourism for the Mexican state of Michoacan. It reported that Caballero died in Santa Fe de la Laguna, where she was also born.

Her cause of death was not revealed to the public, but the secretary called her a "tireless woman and life model."

"I deeply regret the death of Doña María Salud Ramírez Caballero, 'Mamá Coco,' a tireless woman and example of life, who was the inspiration for this beloved character who went around the world," Monroy wrote, as quoted by Yahoo! Entertainment.

Disney never confirmed that Caballero inspired the character, but her family repeatedly said that a team from Pixar visited their town and photographed the 109 years old while living with them for a short time.

Caballero's death led "Coco" fans to honor her while slamming Disney for not paying her and helping her community when it used her image for the film.

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Mama Coco Is Not María Salud Ramírez Caballero, Says Disney Pixar's Team

Coco is a 2017 film that explores the life of a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who accidentally enters the Land of the Dead. He asks for his great-great-grandfather's help to return to the world of the living and remove his family's ban on music.

Mama Coco, voiced by Ana Ofelia Murguia, is Miguel's great-grandmother, who notably appears in the film in a wheelchair.

In 2017, The New York Times (via Entertainment Tonight Online) revealed that the film's production team based the movie's family "on real-world families with whom they embedded while visiting the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Guanajuato between 2011 and 2013."

Director Lee Unkrich also shared a tweet in 2018, saying that Mama Coco came from their imagination and was not based upon any real person they met.

However, Caballero said the production team took pictures of her.

"Coco" scored wins after its release, including the 2018 Oscars' Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez's "Remember Me."