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As I understand, one condition has to be met, by dead people, in order to not disappear: to have at least one alive person that remembers you.

There is one person that disappears due to being forgotten, and then Hector explains Miguel that there must be at least one alive person that remembers you (and insinuating that Miguel does not count, right now, as an ALIVE person).

When Hector was about to being forgotten by Coco, they gave Miguel their blessing without conditions, and Miguel was back alive, and hurried to meet Coco and tell everything with the hope that she does not forget her father.

My question is did he actually need to hurry? after all, he was back alive, and he remembers Hector. Wasn't enough to be (Miguel) alive and remembering him (Hector)?.

On the other hand, I was explained that people who knew you while being alive, must remember you in order to not disappear (and so, it was useless whether Miguel could remember Hector). If that scenario is the right one, and only counts whether Coco remembered him (since Imelda was dead, and is not stated whether another person knew Hector besides Imelda and Coco) then... Why didn't Hector Disappear when Coco finally died?

Otherwise... What am I missing here?

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Stories have to be passed down through those who remembered you in life.

From the script:

HÉCTOR

He's been forgotten.

(beat)

When there's no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world. We call it the "Final Death."

MIGUEL

Where did he go?

HÉCTOR

No one knows.

MIGUEL

But I've met him... I could remember him, when I go back...

HÉCTOR

No, it doesn't work like that, chamaco. Our memories... they have to be passed down by those who knew us in life -- in the stories they tell about us. But there's no one left alive to pass down Cheech's stories...

Miguel never knew Hector in life, and no one who did had passed down his stories--Imelda didn't, and Coco was forbidden to. It's not until Miguel plays her Remember Me that she tells anyone stories about her father. After that, Miguel and the rest of his family become part of that chain of memories, and can help keep Hector from disappearing even after Coco is gone.

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  • Such explanation is slightly lost in the transition. It becomes not so clear that a strict chain must be formed like that.
    – Luis Masuelli
    Jan 8, 2018 at 20:50
  • But Imelda did, and so did Miguel's grandmother, Miguel himself, and the rest of his family several times through the movie: he was a man that abandoned his family to follow his dream of being a musician and never came back. And that story must have been told through generations as an excuse not to allow music and teach about how mamá Imelda started the shoe shop.
    – Alvaro Montoro
    Jul 22, 2018 at 19:20

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