Joaquin Mondragon

Joaquin Mondragon
Vital statistics
Title	Joaquin Mondragon, Joaquin, Joaquin Emilio Mondragon Jr. (full name)
Gender	Male
Film	The Book of Life (2014)
Status	Alive
Hair Color	Brown
Eye Color	Hazel
Family	Captain Mondragon (father; deceased), Gertrude Mondragon (mother), Matilda (sister)
Friends	Manolo Sánchez, Maria Posada, General Posada
Enemies	Chakal, Chakal's bandits

Joaquin Emilio Mondragon Jr. is a main character in the film The Book of Life. He is also the childhood friend of Manolo Sánchez and Maria Posada.

Appearance

Joaquin is a young man dressed in a blue uniform reminiscent of the uniform clothing from the Mexican Revolution. He bears brown epaulettes decorated with gold stars and gold strings. He wears two bandoliers around his chest and has many different medals covering his chest. He has white trouser pants and black knee high boots. He also wears a detachable black cape with blood-red lining and a sombero hat. He has a dual sword holder on his back which holster two silver and gold swords with a brown handle.

Joaquin has short brown hair, a very handsome mustache, and a goatee. He has an after shade shadow with a more worn wood texture. He has olive-fair skin with a wood texture that has silver joints in his points of articulation. He has wooden joints at his hips and knees. His eyes are hazel green or green with white highlight from the top of his cornea to the middle of his pupil. At the end of the film, he wears an eye patch.

Personality

Joaquin is a friendly, duty-driven, authoritative, and confident soldier. His greatest dream is to be a great hero like his father was. However, Joaquin can be very selfish as he sees himself as the greatest man to ever live, to the point where he starts putting his own ambitions before the feelings of his two best friends. Additionally, while he does perform many heroic acts, his bravery and heroism mainly stems from the fact that he (as a child) was given a mystical medal that made him completely invincible, ensuring Joaquin’s complete victory in each fight. Not only had this given Joaquin a ridiculously unfair advantage, but it made him so reliant on his invincibility that he refused to fight unless he had the medial on him, as he knew he would fail in a fight without it.

Though, Joaquin is not completely uncaring or self-centered. He is capable of realizing when his actions have gone too far or caused people sadness. And, by the end of the film, Joaquin realizes he has misused the medal’s power when he uses it one last time to save Manolo’s life… which unfortunately costs Joaquin his eye and other injuries without it. However, in spite of this, Joaquin still values the lives of his friends above his own, so he parts with the medal willingly, now knowing that he does not need it to perform a truly heroic, selfless deed.

Relationships

Manolo Sánchez

Manolo and Joaquin have been best friends since they were young boys. Joaquin does understand that Manolo lives under the great shadow of his family of bullfighters and sympathises because he, himself, feels the pressure of living in his late-father's shadow. Their friendship has shown to remain strong throughout their lives. While Joaquín was learning to march he briefly stopped to wave hello to 'Manny', and when they were young adults, he stopped his crusade of fighting bandits to see Manolo's first bullfight.

But Joaquin's friendship seems to end at their mutual understanding. Joaquin uses every advantage he has to gain Maria's love and heart, even when he sees her smiling as Manolo sings for her. Instead of talking to Maria immediately afterwards Joaquín goes and instead talks to her father General Posada to get his permission to marry Maria without Maria's knowledge and get her to marry him. He fights (almost) with Manolo when the two of them point out the other's family issues and storms out of Maria' grand welcome back party afterwards.

Later when he sees his best friend carrying back Maria's (comatose) body, Joaquin angrily blames Manolo saying her death was completely his fault. Even going so far as to say it should have been Manolo who had died instead of Maria. Joaquín shows some sadness when he tells an awakened Maria that Manolo is dead. The death of his best friend Manolo is somewhat the catalyst to Joaquín realizing that his very selfish actions have caused terrible unhappiness onto his two best friends.

When Manolo returns, Joaquín remains in the fight and battle against Chakal and his army of banditos by aiding Manolo and Maria. Joaquín even secretly sneaks the Medal of Everlasting Life unto his best friend Manolo at his own expense to ensure he will come out alive.

Maria Posada

Like Manolo, Joaquin had a crush on and infatuation with Maria when they were young kids. He still remembers her as the three of them grow older and is stunned by her beauty upon seeing her again. Joaquin begins to see Maria as just another young woman, forgetting that Maria has a rebellious and independent personality and nature in favor of how he sees a mortal woman who just worships him. However, when Joaquin realizes and sees that Maria had only agreed to his marriage proposal in the first place in order for him to remain in San Angel in order to protect the town of San Angel from Chakal and his army of banditos, because Maria's father General Posada was pressuring his daughter Maria to agree to Joaquin’s marriage proposal in order for Joaquin to stay. Maria is deeply, truly, genuinely heartbroken when she learns and hears of Manolo's death, Maria agrees to marry Joaquin in great sorrow since she would only ever truly love Manolo, Joaquin begins to realize Maria's love for Manolo. Joaquin realizes that he is being very selfish for putting his own happiness and joy before Maria's.