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Guanajuato walking tours
Guanajuato
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Compare toursAn animated film · Pixar · 2017 · real places in Mexico
Coco
Nothing in Coco was filmed on location, because it is animated. Its makers went to Mexico to look, and the places below are the ones the sources tie to it. AFI says the Land of the Dead takes its look from Guanajuato’s hillsides, seen here at sunset.
Sources
The petal path
Lay the petal path
UNESCO describes families laying petals, candles and offerings from the cemetery to the home. Here the petals run from stop to stop: eight real places the sources tie to the film, or to the tradition behind it.
Sources
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Lay the first petals to open Guanajuato.
Sources
The film is animated, so no stop is a filming location. Where sources disagree on which town matches which scene, each line says who says it.
Sources
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Pátzcuaro and Lake Pátzcuaro tours
Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán
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Whose night it is
The festival came first
UNESCO lists Mexico’s Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead, inscribed in 2008, as marking the temporary return of deceased relatives to the earth, held from late October to early November.
UNESCO says families lay flower petals, candles and offerings along the route from the cemetery to their homes.
Its Day of the Dead observance runs from 31 October to 2 November; the climax is the Alumbrada on the evening of 2 November, when the cemetery round the church is lit by thousands of candles.
Infobae says night tours of the cemetery on Janitzio are possible, where residents light their relatives’ graves.
Being a guest
- Reached by boat across Lake Pátzcuaro. On the night of 1 and 2 November the graveyard is a family vigil: keep back, keep quiet and ask before taking photographs.
- A village church and cemetery in south-east Mexico City. On 2 November the cemetery fills with families and the candle-lighting is theirs first; arrive early, stay behind the graves.
- The Zócalo is a public square in the historic centre. In the days around 1 and 2 November the city is busy with family observances; be a quiet guest.
Sources
Go and see
Eight real places
All eight are open to visit. The Guanajuato pin marks the historic centre and the Parangaricutiro pin is the nearest mapped locality to the ruin. Each place has its own pace; the festival days belong to the families who keep them.
Sources
Where it is now
8 places you can visit in Guanajuato, Oaxaca, Michoacán and Mexico City.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working city you can walk. The steep alleys and stairways climb away from the Jardín de la Unión; allow for hills.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The Zócalo is a public square in the historic centre. In the days around 1 and 2 November the city is busy with family observances; be a quiet guest.
Guanajuato at sunset, houses stacked up the valley sides, 2012. Oescalona · CC BY 4.0 Guanajuato and Oaxaca · Historic centre, Guanajuato (pinned at the Jardín de la Unión)
Guanajuato
AFI says the look of the Land of the Dead is inspired by Guanajuato, whose colourful houses are built on hillsides so they look almost stacked.
A working city you can walk. The steep alleys and stairways climb away from the Jardín de la Unión; allow for hills.
Sources
The Zócalo in Oaxaca de Juárez, November 2013. LBM1948 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Guanajuato and Oaxaca · The Zócalo, Oaxaca de Juárez
Oaxaca
AFI says the filmmakers visited Oaxaca, with Guanajuato, Mexico City and Morelia, on research trips: thousands of photographs, talks with locals, meetings with families.
The Zócalo is a public square in the historic centre. In the days around 1 and 2 November the city is busy with family observances; be a quiet guest.
Sources
Stay
A room by the hillsides.
A hotel on the Jardín de la Unión in Guanajuato’s historic centre.
Posada Santa Fe
Posada Santa Fe
Historic centre, Guanajuato
A hotel with a restaurant and free parking on the Jardín de la Unión in Guanajuato’s historic centre, at the foot of the stacked hillsides. Pictured: Guanajuato at sunset, 2012.
Visit the hotel siteGo there
Walk it with someone who knows it.
Walking tours of Guanajuato and Oaxaca, and tours round Lake Pátzcuaro.
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Guanajuato walking tours
Guanajuato
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Pátzcuaro and Lake Pátzcuaro tours
Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán
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Oaxaca city walking and food tours
Oaxaca de Juárez
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Compare toursWhat’s on
No dates yet.
Nothing dated for the film is listed at these places now.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The archive
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
8 of 8 places · 13 of 13 stories
Guanajuato
Historic centre, Guanajuato (pinned at the Jardín de la Unión)
The Land of the Dead
AFI says the look of the Land of the Dead is inspired by Guanajuato, whose colourful houses are built on hillsides so they look almost stacked.
A statue for a star
Infobae says the Plaza del Ropero holds a statue of the singer Jorge Negrete, who inspired the character Ernesto de la Cruz.
Oaxaca
The Zócalo, Oaxaca de Juárez
Embedded with families
Wikipedia says that between 2011 and 2013 Pixar staff embedded with families in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Guanajuato.
The night of 2 November
Infobae says that on the night of 2 November neighbourhood parades in Oaxaca run until morning, and families open their homes to share offerings, food and drinks.
Santa Fe de la Laguna
Santa Fe de la Laguna, Quiroga municipality, Michoacán
A director’s base
Wikipedia says director Lee Unkrich used Santa Fe de la Laguna as his base while making Coco.
The Rivera home
Infobae says the Purépecha village inspired the Rivera family’s home and that its church is one of the film’s first settings.
The route
Infobae says Enrique de la Madrid, then head of the national tourism ministry, announced the Coco route in 2018 at the Feria Nacional de Pueblos Mágicos in Michoacán.
Paracho
Paracho de Verduzco, Michoacán
The mausoleum guitar
Infobae says the guitar Miguel finds in Ernesto de la Cruz’s mausoleum was inspired by Paracho’s guitars, and that many families there make stringed instruments.
San Juan Parangaricutiro
Old San Juan Parangaricutiro, Michoacán (pinned at the OSM locality)
The church in the lava
Infobae says the town was buried by lava from the Paricutín volcano in 1943, that only its church survived, and that the filmmakers drew on it for the building at the end of the movie.
Tzintzuntzan
Yácatas of Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán
The monastery
Cultura Colectiva says the Monastery of San Francisco in Tzintzuntzan is said to have inspired the film’s church.
Janitzio
Janitzio island, Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán
Lit graves
Infobae says night tours of the cemetery on Janitzio are possible, where residents light their relatives’ graves.
San Andrés Mixquic
Parroquia San Andrés Apóstol, Mixquic, Tláhuac, Mexico City
The Alumbrada
Wikipedia says the climax of Mixquic’s Day of the Dead is the Alumbrada on the evening of 2 November, when the cemetery round the church is lit by thousands of candles.
Petals home
UNESCO says families lay flower petals, candles and offerings along the route from the cemetery to their homes.