Pepa Madrigal

**Pepa Madrigal** is a major character in 2021 animated film of Disney, Encanto. She is the middle child of Pedro & Abuella, sister of Bruno & Julieta and the mother of Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio, whom she parented alongside her husband Félix. Pepa’s gift allows her to control the weather via her emotions & mood or summon a weather anywhere she prefers without having to feel a certain emotion..

## Background

Pepa is one of the three children Alma and Pedro had, alongside her brother, Bruno, and her sister, Julieta. Some time later, she married Félix and they had a daughter (Dolores) and two sons (Camilo and Antonio) together. She is also the aunt of Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel. One of the main reasons why she and the townspeople don't like to talk about Bruno is that on her wedding day he told her that "it looks like rain". What worried Pepa so much that her gift went crazy and made her and Felix get married in a hurricane. During "All of You", Pepa is reunited with her brother and he reveals that the misunderstanding at the wedding stemmed from his desire to help her relax and embrace her emotions. In the end, Pepa doesn't hold a grudge against Bruno anymore and hugs him happily together with Julieta.

### Official Description

Carolina Gaitan, Pepa's voice actor, describes her character as being relatable to her: *"I’m a little bit crazy as well… overly dramatic and sometimes a little bit like a drama queen. But most of all, I think it’s about vulnerability. Like, not to be in control of everything… she’s emotional and she allows herself to be emotional and I think that’s very beautiful about a person, about a character."*

### Personality

Pepa's mood affects the weather, and she usually is anxious, that's why sometimes, according to Mirabel, when she's unhappy, the temperature "gets weird". Pepa can get nervous very easily and has frequent mood swings, going from being happy to angry or vice versa in a moment. Pepa also doesn't like to talk about her brother Bruno, like the citizens, because Bruno told her "it looks like rain" at her wedding and made her anxious to the point of causing a hurricane, quickly getting angry when Bruno is mentioned. But deep down, she truly missed her brother despite everything that happened between them, possibly harboring great guilt. When Bruno finally returned, she was overjoyed and ran to welcome him back with a hug. Although sometimes she can get angry with Félix and they have almost opposite personalities, Pepa loves her husband and always smiles when he supports or helps her, melting in Félix's arms when she is dancing with him.

When she gets extremely nervous, she rapidly strokes her braid as she repeatedly mutters "Clear skies, clear skies!". Like her mother Alma, Pepa has a tendency for things to be perfect, but does not strive on perfection too much like her mother does. Pepa wanted her younger son Antonio's gift ceremony to be perfect and worked to give herself a perfect image to her community by controlling her emotions. However, this is all caused by her mother keeping a tight grip on her and her siblings. Although she respects her mother, she is also not afraid to get angry with her when she reprimands her when her emotions were too strong for her to control. When Pepa reconciles with her mother and brother after the fall of Casa Madrigal, Pepa became allowed to express her emotions and powers however she likes.

Similar to older sister Julieta, Pepa is a caring, tendering mother towards her children and cares about them. She wanted her youngest son Antonio's birthday to be the best day of his life and expressed how proud she was of him before the ceremony. During his gift ceremony, she was shown approaching him to congratulate him when he received his magical gift. Pepa also trusts her children to help her whenever she has an emotional breakdown, such as when her oldest son Camilo attempted to calm her down after learning their family's magic was dying and was dismayed when accidentally hurt him with a spark of lightning. After the house collapses, Pepa's main concern was the well-being of her family rather than the loss of her home where she immediately rushed to Antonio who was crying over the loss of his gift.

Her affection also extends to her nieces, since although Pepa has some friction with Mirabel, she is close to Isabela. When Pepa’s stress threatens to ruin the floral arrangements for Antonio’s gift ceremony she immediately calms down when Isabela makes her entrance. Pepa celebrates Isabela’s proposal as if she were her daughter. In "We Don't Talk About Bruno", Pepa and Isabela dance and hold hands with genuine smiles on their faces (despite the fact that Isabela was not in love with Mariano), showing the affection that Isabela also has for her. Pepa was very upset because Isabela's proposal was going wrong and she had a sad look on her face when Luisa cried due to the loss of her super strength.

### Physical appearance

Pepa is a 50-year-old woman with fair skin, curly hip-length auburn hair in a braid, and green eyes. She also has a small gap between her two front teeth. She wears an orange-and-yellow dress with amber accents, a yellow ribbon on her head, golden sun-shaped earrings, and orange-and-brown sandals. Symbolizing her gift, Pepa's collar has suns on it, with raindrop patterns on her dress and lightning-bolt symbols on the bottom of her dress. On her wedding day she used the same sun earrings with an identical copy of her current dress, only white and instead of using a ribbon she wore a long wedding veil that reached her hips.

### Powers and abilities

Pepa can control the weather through her emotional state; happiness causes warmth, rainbows, sunshine, whereas frustration and sadness causes storms and heavy rain. If Pepa gets deeply upset or frustrated, she can cause snowstorms or hurricanes.

At the end of the movie, Pepa was shown creating a light hailstorm, one thing she does when she's frustrated despite being happy. It can be said that Pepa maybe can summon any weather anywhere she prefers without having to feel a certain emotion.

Despite her powerset, she is not all that powerful. When asked if it was possible for Pepa to stop a major natural disaster, Jared Bush responded "I bet she'd try. Doubt she'd succeed".