Timeline / Somos Familia

Somos Familia is a story with a meticulous timeline for the family which develops in near real time, so it's important to keep track of things as they happen. Beware. As per timeline rules, spoilers are off.

Before the story

1879

• Gaspar Rivera is born.

1884

• Domingo Cavellero is born.

1886

• Nieve Mendoza is born.

1896

• A woman dies giving birth to a little boy. On her death bed, she names him Ernesto De La Cruz.

1899

• Imelda Rivera is born
• Domingo Calavera visits his uncle to learn more about silver mining. During his time, he falls for a young peasant girl named Nieve. When his uncle finds out, they're forced to break off, only for Nieve to find out she got pregnant.
  • Rejected and cast out by her family, Nieve tries to return to Domingo, but is summarily rejected.

1900

• Nieve gives birth at the Orphanage of Santa Cecelia to a little boy she names Hector after a pet pig she had. However, as a teenage girl with no real prospects, she feels she cannot give her son any prospects or hope given her own mistakes. So, she drowns herself on New Year’s Eve.

1904

• Gaspar and Mirasol Rivera unfortunately die of Malaria. With no other known living family, Imelda takes herself and her 2 brothers to the orphanage. While the other children dislike that she got 5 years with real parents, Hector and Ernesto accept her without reservation, thus beginning their lifelong relationships.

1906

• Miguel Morales is born.

1911

• Hector hears Imelda singing La Llorona by the creek, and on recognizing its beauty, has hormones kick in, falling in love with her.

1914

• On her quinceanera, Hector makes a joke to Imelda after accidentally spilling punch on her dress, but this does unintentionally fulfill her wish to have a purple dress that day. And thus, Imelda fell for Hector as well.

1917

• After accidentally getting Imelda pregnant, Hector marries her, taking on her surname since he lacks one.

1918

• Coco Rivera is born.

A twist of fate

1921

• Ernesto and Hector begin their music tour to play for the world. Imelda and Coco watch him go, but Hector continues to write to them, trying to keep them in touch with their successes.
• Stressing about how Hector hasn't written in weeks, Imelda begins planning out a new path forward for herself in the event Hector never returns. She settles on the idea of making shoes.
• After months of touring and trying to get their names out Hector finally can't take it anymore and resolves to return home.
  • Ernesto plots to kill Hector for his songs right before he leaves, but Hector tells Ernesto that they can find a way to make things work. That he would write more for him if he gives him a chance to recuperate. Shocked, then shamed, Ernesto stops Hector from drinking the poison he'd intended for him, though he never tells him the full truth. But Ernesto allows him to leave in peace.
• Hector returns to Santa Cecelia, getting a ride back with his neighbor Facundo.
  • Finally returning, Hector reunites with his Coco, makes up with Imelda, and gives Oscar and Philipe the shock of their lives.
    • Thanks to this timely return, the Rivera household is allowed to keep music in their lives.

1922

• Rivera Zapatos is founded.
• Ernesto returns to the Rivera family's lives, having found the manager Fredo to take care of promoting them.
  • Despite some initial misgivings, Ernesto's insistence on Hector's happiness allows him to stay at home while still writing for their manager.
• On September 3, Leticia and Mateo Rivera are born.

The "Salad" years

1923

• Ernesto is made Mateo and Leticia's godfather.

1924

• Coco begins regular school with her best friend Rosita and her seemingly awkward brother Julio.
• As the successes of Ernesto begins trickling down to Hector and Imelda, the Riveras become among the richest citizens of Santa Cecelia. But they use their wealth to build new schools, new roads, and repair the church. Becoming famed but beloved members of the community.

1927

• The rivera children begin learning instruments. Coco takes up the Violin, Leticia the Accordian, and Mateo the Trumpet.
• After finding out their boss is a pedophile, Ernesto sets up a sting operation to get Fredo caught confessing and allowing them to create their own business.

The first family crisis

1930

• The twins get an 8th birthday that was a glorious city wide celebration to boost moral during the depression.
  • As part of the surprise, Hector gifts them a Xolo dog. Who Mateo immediately names Dante after Ernesto's horse from their first big picture.
    • Of course, what nobody realizes at this time is that Dante is in fact a spirit guide, who will watch over the Rivera family for the rest of his natural (and unnatural) life.
• Leticia is diagnosed with Leukemia.
• Going for some experimental chemotherapy, Leti, Imelda and Hector spend some time in Mexico City, trying to combat the Cancer. Unfortunately, in the end, the treatments fail. Despite Hector’s stubbornness, Imelda convinced him to take their daughter home to live out whatever time Leti has in peace.

1931

• Returning home for her final days, Leticia Rivera dies surrounded by her family on January 5th,1931.
• Leti's death is a great blow to the family, scarring the Riveras in various ways which will effect them down the road.
  • Imelda, Matty and H Ector gain a certain mistrust of modern medicine for failing to save their child.
  • Ernesto is given a chance to perform Remember ME as Hector doesn't want it associated with the death of his child.
  • Matty is traumatized into a lifelong struggle with mental illnesses. Whether in becoming emotionally stunted or depressed through various parts of his life.
• 2 weeks later, an earthquake hits Santa Cecilia, damaging the town, and endangering the Riveras
  • Coco is saved by Julio from a falling branch, finally beginning her warming up to him.
  • Hector protects Imelda from a falling beam, but takes a bad injury to the back in the process.
  • Matty is pinned by a tree for hours by the river, but thankfully, Dante leads Hector to him, saving his life.

A growing romance

1931

• At Dia de las Muertos, Coco takes Julio some mole: her first romantic gesture toward the shy boy who she'd known all her life.
  • Leticia returns home for the first time alongside her grandparents, getting her accordian back thanks to offertory rules, and finding out how Matty has managed to grow and survive without her.

1933

• At Coco's Quincinera, Julio is finally given a chance to dance with Coco. And so begins their formal courtship as years of practice allows Julio to sweet Coco off her feet.

1936

• Coco is seemingly dumped after expecting a marriage proposal from Julio.
• After a week, Julio and Coco meet in the market, and they find out the truth: Ignacio had intimidated Julio to back off. Coming together, Coco swears Ignacio off, Hector and Matty give Ignacio a thrashing, and the romance of Coco and Julio is finalized with an engagement kiss in a fountain.
• Julio and Coco are finally wed.

2 pregnancies

1939

• Dia De Los Muertos: While the Riveras were suppose to go perform, Imelda has a premature birth. Thankfully, as it's day of the dead, Leticia and Dante work together to bring them back, saving Imelda and the baby, though the new doctor needed to perform an emergency surgery to save Imelda in the process. In honor of this man, Hector names his son Miguel after him.
• One month later, Coco gives birth to her first child: Victoria Leticia.

1941

• Coco decides its time to join Ernesto in show business, getting a manager named Teresa, but also putting some strain in her family due to all the travel and busyness it involves.

The harrowing of the Rivera Clan

1942

• Barto dies in a surprise attack from Germany, bringing Mexico into WWII, and beginning a time of crisis for the family.
• Matty leaves home to join the US army in a desire to protect his home and avenge his best friend.
  • However, in outrage and shame, Imelda almost disowns him on leaving, and kicks Hector out of the house for failing to stop him.
    • At nearly 12 years old, Dante returns to the Land of the Dead to wait for Matty to either arrive or return home.
  • Hector moves in with Coco, Julio, Victoria and Ernesto. Unfortunately, his leaving on bad terms ends up hurting him creatively, leading to months of drinking.
    • He's also assigned a personal assistant named Vicente to attend to his needs.
• On day of the dead, the entire family congregates to celebrate Ernesto's big concert with him and Coco. There's still fraying between Hector and Imelda though.
  • Hector finds out about Ernesto's self harming tendencies. Unable to prevent him from going onstage, he goes out to confront him on stage, only toto watch a giant bell crush him to death.
• The death of Ernesto causes dramatic changes immediately with the family.
  • Seeing how she almost joined in his fate to sing alongside Ernesto, Coco resolves to quit the business.
    • Teresa objects to this course of action, but due to Vicente finding out about her exploitative methods with Coco, Teresa is fired, and her objections sidelined.
    • Also through this, Julio has his fears about Vicente allayed after having a serious talk with each other about Vicente's attitudes toward Coco.
  • Hector, in manic grief, goes into Delirium Tremors, forced to fight for his life in semi-consciousness due to his condition.
    • He almost dies, but thanks to an intervention by Leticia from the other side, he's guided back to the land of the living.
    • On reawakening, he and Imelda finally get to talking out what's being going on all year between each other, and reaffirm their love for each other.
  • With Hector lacking the business sense Ernesto had, and as the only owner now, he appoints Vicente the new CEO to take over the day to day running.
  • Due to the negative correlation with Ernesto's version of Remember Me, Hector gains a crippling PTSD related to music, beginning the music ban in his presence.
• Around the same year, Fredo Barrera died after 15 years in prison.

1944

• After being critically wounded alongside his friend Martin at Anzio, Italy, Mateo returns to Mexico alongside Martin and Wanda. Thanks to the heat of the moment, he receives a legal marriage to Wanda.
• On return, Martin begins a whirlwind romance with Rosita, whose photo kept him going in the hopes of getting to know her after the war.
  • In less than 2 weeks, he proposes, beginning a wild family life that will produce a high number of children.
• Mateo finds out about the music ban. Though frustrated, he's smart enough to recognize not to push Hector in this still fragile time in his life.

1945

• Dahlia Reyes was born

1946

• Margarita Reyes was born.

1947

• Anselmo Reyes was born.

1948

• Osvaldo Reyes was born.
• A few weeks later, Facundo died and Rosita and Martin conceived a child while “consoling each other in their moment of grief”.

1949

• Facundo Reyes was born.

a Dia de Las Muertos to remember

1951

• In March, Mateo accidentally breaks his son Charlie's arm due to PTSD accidentally mistaking a car backfire for a gun.
  • In shame and shock, Mateo finally realizes that he needs to deal with what the War did to him, and so begins seeing a therapist to heal. It proves very helpful, giving him coping mechanisms, as well as beginning to address the root causes of his personality problems.
• The day before Dia de Las Muertos, Miguel makes his regular visit to Coco's house, getting a chance to hang with his best Niece, before being surprised by Coco that they're gifting him a chance to perform for the town on Dia de Las Muertos.

Day of the Dead

• Much to Martin's shock, his wife Rosita gives off signs that she's pregnant... again.
• On Miguel's birthday, Hector proposes to send Miguel off to boarding school for business, though the whole family has...misgivings about the idea.
• Little Elena, Coco's second daughter accidentally tattletales to Hector about playing in the Plaza. In his anger and adverse reactions, Hector accidentally breaks Miguel's guitar.
• Hector then alienates himself from his whole family, with the final blow being him driving away Imelda.
• Taking Ernesto's custom guitar from his grave to stop Miguel from using it, its cursed energy instead makes Hector a spirit. And thus, he unites with dead family and friends to get uncursed.
• Hector meets his birth mother for the first time in Shantytown.