Luisa Madrigal

**Luisa Madrigal** is one of the main characters of Disney's feature film, *Encanto*. She is the second-born daughter and child of Julieta and Agustín, as well as the younger sister of Isabela and the older sister of Mirabel. Her magical gift is super-strength.

## *Encanto*

Luisa takes care of all the family's chores and her friend's chores with her super-strength and is relied upon a lot, but not a lot of people ask for how she feels about doing all the chores. She is outwardly tough and strong and does not care about the expectations set on her, and only shows her positive sides such as her kind side, her brave side, and her obvious strong side. However, Luisa also has anxiety about what will happen when she messes up and can no longer be relied on, which she hides from people around her.

### Physical Appearance

Luisa is a tall and muscular young woman with light tan skin, brown hair and hazel eyes. Her hair is braided on one side and is tied back in a bun by a red ribbon in a bow. She wears a white short-sleeved shirt with a long indigo skirt. There are also dumbbells embroidered into the bottom of her skirt, representing her gift of super-strength. She has a top that has short puffy sleeves, and the bottom and neckline is hemmed by a red string. She wears blue shoes with straps, and purple felt bracelets with denim on the left one.

### Personality

Luisa is a dutiful and hardworking young woman, committed to serving her family and community. Luisa is shown to be very tolerant doing anything anyone asks of her with no complaint despite people rarely ever showing her appreciation. She's also very patient, this being shown when she was putting out food to set up for Antonio's gift ceremony and the younger children were hanging off of her arms and back while she was holding a plate of snacks. She also kept her patience with Mirabel when Mirabel kept asking her about what was going on with the magic while Luisa was busy with her work helping people in the community. When Luisa snapped at Mirabel, and yelled at her while trying to insist the magic was fine, Luisa's outburst was a surprise to the both of them.

Despite her outward projection of confidence, Luisa has her insecurities and is very self critical. In the song "Surface Pressure", she expresses concern about not being able to handle her duties. In the same song she also says "I'm pretty sure I'm worthless if I can't be of service". This shows that Luisa places her value on the usefulness of her gift and without it she believes she's nothing. In the same song, Luisa says "Give it to your sister your sister's older, give her all the heavy things we can't shoulder", which shows that despite the stress, she's willing to take on the burden because she believes it's her duty, although she also expresses a desire to be able to relax and not have to bear the "crushing weight" of everyone's expectations.

Luisa also has a soft spot for things that might be considered either cute or childish such as unicorns and collecting stuffed animals.

## Relationships

* **Alma Madrigal:** Alma is Luisa's maternal grandmother as the mother of Luisa's own mother Julieta. They don't interact much during the film, but it is shown that Luisa will do what her grandmother asks of her without question, such as getting ready for Antonio's gift ceremony, or moving the piano. When Luisa realizes that she's losing her gift, she immediately tells Alma. Luisa is also shown to care for Alma's well being since when the house was collapsing, Luisa catches Alma when everyone, except Mirabel, was pushed out by the house.

* **Agustín Madrigal:** Agustín is Luisa's father. Although as the father-daughter duo are not seen interacting too much during the film, Luisa is noticeably closer to Agustín than her mother Julieta. Luisa obediently follows Agustín's orders when he needs something. When her father asks her for a piano to try and help lighten the mood after Mirabel initially interrupted Antonio's party, Luisa immediately runs to deliver it. Agustín cares deeply for Luisa and tries to help her when she needs comfort or emotional support. An example is at dinner with the Guzmán family, although Agustín initially along with Mirabel were afraid that Bruno's vision would be revealed to the family, he immediately diverted all his attention to Luisa the moment he saw her depressed. After the failed dinner, Agustin's first priority was to try to run after Luisa to emotionally support his daughter when she runs out of the house devastated because her gift vanishes, showing that he knows when Luisa cares about her magical gift.

* **Isabela Madrigal:** Isabela is Luisa's older sister and is constantly close to her, such as when they are often seen posing next to each other in family pictures. Throughout the film, Luisa and Isabela don't really interact much, however it is clear that Luisa thinks highly of Isabela and even admires her. Luisa's admiration for her sister can be briefly seen when they work helping the townspeople with different jobs and in the graphic novel Luisa smiles happily when Isabela arranges the Casita with different roses for Antonio's gift ceremony. Over time, Isabela and Luisa become closer to each other at the end of the film. When they rebuild the Casita in "All of You", Isabela praises Luisa's strength and, along with Mirabel, gives Luisa a comforting hug when she reveals that she cries sometimes. In the family photo after the magic returns to the Casita, Luisa stands next to Isabela for the photo.

* **Mirabel Madrigal:** Mirabel is Luisa's younger sister. Luisa is much nicer to Mirabel than their sister Isabela was previously. Her kindness to Mirabel is shown during the song "The Family Madrigal" when she smiles and gives Mirabel a thumbs up. Luisa is shown to be very protective and affectionate towards Mirabel. During the song "Surface Pressure", Luisa protects Mirabel when they come across different dangerous obstacles, and at some point she even fixes Mirabel's crooked glasses. After the end of the song when Mirabel gives her a hug, Luisa hugs her back, squeezing her so tightly that she cracked Mirabel's joints. She is also shown hugging Mirabel in a family photo. Despite this, Luisa, like some other members of the family during the movie, has expressed irritation towards Mirabel at one point, becoming visibly irritated with Mirabel when she kept asking her if she knew anything about what was wrong with the magic, even raising her voice at Mirabel when trying to insist that nothing was wrong, but apologizing immediately after.

## History

### Past

Luisa was born nineteen years before the events of the movie on November 14th, and is the second daughter of Julieta and Agustin Madrigal. In the early years of her life, Luisa lived in the nursery of the Casita with her sister Isabela, and cousin Dolores who are two years older than her. When Isabela and Dolores received their gifts and moved into their own rooms, Luisa was left in the nursery by herself until the births of her cousin Camilo and sister Mirabel. On the night of Luisa's fifth birthday, she received the gift of superhuman strength and she subsequently moved out of the nursery and into her own room.

### *Encanto*

At the beginning of the film, on the morning of Antonio's gift ceremony, Luisa, during the song "The Family Madrigal", can be seen helping around the town such as carrying around construction equipment and moving a bridge, before rushing off to help Alma get ready for Antonio's gift ceremony.
Later that night, Luisa can be seen putting out snacks in preparation for Antonio's gift ceremony while small children hang off of her back and arms. As Alma gives her speech before Antonio walks to his door, Luisa stands with her family as everyone listens intently. When Antonio receives his gift, Luisa claps and celebrates with everyone.

After Mirabel interrupted Antonio's party to warn everyone of the house being in danger, Mirabel led everyone out of the room to show them the cracks but there weren't any. While trying to brighten the mood, Luisa held the piano for her father as he played a song, and although she was smiling, she had a nervous look on her face.

The following morning, Luisa sets out the table for breakfast. During breakfast, Mirabel tries to ask Luisa what she knows about the issues with the magic and Luisa's eye starts twitching. Mirabel pounds the table in excitement and starts yelling, which prompts Alma to have the Casita move Mirabel's seat from Luisa's side to her side. When the family announcements were over, Luisa left the table in a hurry to go into town.

She moved the town's church, and was requested to reroute the river as well as put the donkeys back in the barn. As Luisa was picking up the donkeys, Mirabel follows her and starts asking her what she was hiding about the magic. Luisa says that she isn't hiding anything, and she just has a lot of chores to do so Mirabel should just go home. As Mirabel continues to press the issue, Luisa gets visibly irritated but continues to insist that there isn't anything for her to tell Mirabel. When Mirabel points out that Luisa is clearly worried about something, Luisa snaps at her that there isn't anything wrong, much to the surprise of both Luisa and Mirabel, the former of whom apologizes to Mirabel for her outburst.

Luisa continues to insist that there isn't anything wrong and she isn't nervous, although she says this with a forced smile and with her eye twitching. Luisa then leads the conversation into the song "Surface Pressure", where Luisa expresses her fears about not being able to handle her responsibilities, as well as her anxiety about the exorbitant amount of pressure she's always under, and her desire to be able to not have to deal with the weight of everyone's expectations.

When she was done, Mirabel gave her a hug and told her she thinks she carries too much, and Luisa hugs Mirabel back, squeezing her so hard that she cracks her joints. Luisa states that she thinks she overdoes it sometimes, and confides in Mirabel that when she saw the cracks the previous night she felt weak. When Luisa is reminded of the donkeys, she puts Mirabel down and starts to recollect the donkeys. When Mirabel asks Luisa to expand on what she's talking about, and again asks her what she thinks is hurting the magic, Luisa says she doesn't know. However, she did tell Mirabel that at some point she heard the elders in their family talking about Bruno, and she heard them say that Bruno had a "horrible vision" about the magic before he left. Luisa then tells Mirabel that if she wants to know what's going on with the magic, she needs to go into Bruno's tower and find his vision. Luisa urges her sister to be careful, telling her that Bruno's room is off-limits for a reason.

Shortly after this, after Mirabel had run into Alma after having collected Bruno's vision from his room, Luisa came running into the house and hysterically explained to Alma that she was losing her gift. Luisa states that her and Mirabel had a talk about how Luisa shouldn't carry so much, and so she tried not to but then she realized she was going to let everyone down, and when she picked up the donkeys and threw them back into the barn the donkeys were actually heavy. Luisa then started crying and ran into her room.

While getting ready for dinner with the Guzmáns, during the Madrigal part of the song "We Don't Talk About Bruno", Luisa is seen struggling to lift a plant pot, and at the end of the song she's seen crying about it.

During dinner, Señora Guzmán says that Mariano wanted to sing a song and requests that Luisa bring over the piano. Luisa agrees but she gets up from the table crying. When she comes back into the dining room, Luisa struggles to drag the piano across the floor and she cries about her inability to be able to lift the piano. When the dinner starts spiraling out of control, Luisa runs out of the dining room crying that she was a loser.

Later that same day, Luisa stands with Isabela and eventually with the rest of the family and watches sadly as their grandmother blames their sister for all the family's problems. As they to continue to argue, the house starts cracking and the candle starts fading. When the house starts collapsing, Mirabel tries to save the candle while the Casita forces everyone back and Luisa catches Alma as they're all thrown out of the house.

After the house collapses, and the magic fades, Mirabel ends up running away and Luisa helps the rest of the family look for her missing sister.

When Mirabel returns with Alma and Bruno, Mirabel leads the family into the song "All Of You". When Luisa tries to lift some rubble from the house, Mirabel tells her that she's more than just her gift which makes Luisa emotional. The rest of the Encanto arrive to help the Madrigals rebuild their house. While rebuilding the Casita, Luisa works together with her younger and older sisters. When Isabela says it's a dream when they work together, and compliments Luisa's strength, Luisa admits that she cries sometimes, and Isabela and Mirabel give her a comforting hug while saying they cry too. Luisa acknowledges that she isn't as strong as she used to be, but she's getting smarter, and she helps her sisters plant new cacti.

After some time, when the Casita is almost complete, by the end of the song "All Of You", Luisa and Isabela acknowledge Mirabel's bravery. Luisa, along with her family, and the rest of the town, watch as Mirabel attaches the door knob to the front door and restore the magic.

Luisa moves a plant pot that she struggled to move earlier, and is happy that her strength is back. The donkeys then lift her up and throw her into a hammock and give her a drink which she enjoys even with the hailstorm coming from her aunt Pepa. Luisa then gathers with the rest of her family for one last family photo.

## Powers and Abilities

Since the age of five, Luisa has had the power of superhuman strength. Her strength is so great she is capable of moving sizable animals such as donkeys, large objects such as barrels, a bridge and a piano, and people such as Osvaldo, her sister Mirabel, as well as small kids, with no effort. She can also lift an entire church, as well as kick a tilting house back into place.

Luisa is never shown losing control of her powers, as she has never been shown accidentally breaking objects or hurting people with her immense strength.

Luisa also has increased durability and endurance. Luisa's durability is shown when she throws a boulder up in the air and it lands and breaks into pieces on Luisa's shoulders without hurting her. Also in the beginning of the film, Luisa was shown running on a treadmill that the Casita made while carrying heavy weights in her hands. She was able to do this while keeping a consistent speed and not slowing down.

## Trivia

* Luisa's birthday is on November 14th.
	+ This means that her star sign and zodiac is Scorpio.
	+ Her birthday falls on Day of the Colombian Woman.
* Luisa twitches her eye whenever she is nervous.
* Luisa was originally named Lydia.
* Despite being the middle child, her voice actor, Jessica Darrow is the youngest of the three voice actresses.
* The animators struggled to animate Luisa's model with the correct muscle mass throughout the animation process.
* Luisa's favorite food is Bandeja paisa .
* According to the books *Disney Encanto: The Deluxe Junior Novelization* and *Disney Encanto: A Tale of Three Sisters*:
	+ Everyone loves Luisa's hugs.
	+ Luisa was given a flower crown by Isabela when she had her gift ceremony.
	+ Luisa is afraid of the dark.
	+ Luisa's room has weights, pulleys, ropes, and bars in it.
	+ Luisa likes hummingbirds.
	+ After Luisa got her gift, she spent the rest of the night doing tricks with it for the townspeople.
	+ Luisa does not care what she wears as long as it's comfortable.
	+ Luisa's ears turn red when she's embarrassed.
	+ Luisa never took naps before the events of the movie, believing that "nighttime is for sleeping, daytime is for getting things done."
	+ Luisa loves bright colors.
	+ Luisa has panic attacks.
* Luisa is ambidextrous.

## Gallery

* Posters
* Stock Art
* Concept Art
* Screenshots

Luisa's Poster

Luisa carrying a bridgeLuisa carrying the churchLuisa loses her patienceLuisa lets a boulder break on her shouldersLuisa dancing in "Surface Pressure"Luisa and Isabela watch as Alma berates MirabelLuisa fixing Mirabel's glassesLuisa hugging MirabelLuisa holding Mirabel in "Surface Pressure"Luisa happy her strength has returnedLuisa and Isabela acknowledge Mirabel
## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/thejaredbush/status/1468685739969814528
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://twitter.com/thejaredbush/status/1510687610548613123
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/thejaredbush/status/1538583134228209665
4. ↑ https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/the-brunos-underwear-blog/672601800162131968
5. ↑ https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/the-brunos-underwear-blog/672647114000580608
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/DisneyAnimators/status/1582066567239458817