Alma Madrigal

Alma Madrigal (often referred to as **Abuela**) is the deuteragonist of Disney's 2021 animated feature film, *Encanto*.

A woman whom was blessed with a gift-granting Miracle Candle, Abuela is the matriarch of the Madrigals, the mother of Julieta, Pepa, and Bruno, and the grandmother of Isabela, Dolores, Luisa, Camilo, Mirabel, and Antonio.

As the original source of its magic, Abuela also serves as the head of the enchanted village in which she and her family resides.

She is the closest character to being the Main Antagonist of Encanto.

## Appearance

Abuela Alma is a 75-year-old elderly woman with grey hair with streaks of black in it.

She has brown eyes and very few wrinkles.

She wears a long maroon/magenta dress with butterflies (symbolizing the moment the Encanto was created) and streaks embroidered on it and mountain designs at the bottom of he dress, orange teardrop-shaped circles on her collar, and flower-like symbols on certain parts of her clothing like ones that appear slightly above her elbows (which all represent the candle), a chatelaine belt with a key and two pocket watches, and black high heels.

Alma also has small pearl earrings, which almost show a slight glint of her younger happier self.

She initially wore a dark black mourning shawl on special occasions, like a Madrigal child's gift ceremony or Isabela's proposal dinner, but stopped wearing it after making peace with her past.

When Alma was younger, she was slightly taller with a slim build and had a more smiley and cheerful appearance, complete with dark brown middle swept bangs and her hair braided on both sides with red bows tying the ends of both braids which are both over the front of her shoulders.

She also has a white shirt with a frilly white collar that all the Madrigal women excluding Julieta have, with an ankle length indigo-blue skirt with black sandals.

During the escape from her village, she wore a magenta shawl.

## Personality

As the matriarch of the Madrigal Family, Alma is dedicated to doing what in her eyes is best for her family and initially hoists expectations on her children and grandchildren in how they use their gifts to help the community, often taking the form of a demand for perfection.

Due to her desire for perfectionism, Alma has a certain favoritism towards some members of her family without realizing the damage and insecurity it causes to other members of the family.

Out of all her grandchildren, she favors her oldest granddaughter and golden child Isabela; this doting placing a lot of pressure on her while at the same time making her sisters and cousins feel inadequate living in her shadow, which would negatively affect her relationships with some of them.

As far as sons-in-law go, Alma preferred Félix over Agustín, due to not approving of the latter nor in him marrying Julieta, partly because she judged him harshly for his clumsiness and unwillingness to understand why her daughter chose him.

Alma's expectations and desires for perfection also extended to her own children, keeps a tight grip on the to make them perfect.

Unintentional, Alma is quite neglectful with Pepa due to the problems of her gift.

Alma not only ignores her when she needs help, she also often negatively criticizes her daughter for her emotional tirades and often pesters Pepa to keep her emotions under control instead of supporting her properly.

Alma tries to be patient and understanding, but from her point of view, she feels some should just step aside and do nothing without her express approval.

As a result, she is very controlling and denies there is anything wrong, assuring her neighbors that all is well and that there is nothing to fear, even when Casa Madrigal is cracking all around her and the townspeople are nervous.

But the truth is, Alma knows that her home and perhaps even her family is in danger, as she privately revealed to herself, as Alma spoke as though she were speaking with her late husband, Pedro, revealing that Alma is afraid for her home, her family, and losing everything as they did before, and she cannot bear to go through that again, and she prays to her Pedro to help her.

This displays Alma's vulnerability that she is too afraid to reveal even to her family and that Alma feels the burden of trying to preserve her family, her community and their miracle and their Encanto, and explains why she does everything she can to protect them.

Unfortunately, this fear of losing everything again often causes her to assume the worst in a situation or even in others, including her own family.

Alma would particularly doubt her only son, Bruno, since his often negative visions which tended to cause trouble lead her to believe he didn't care about their family after he left, and youngest granddaughter, Mirabel, as being the only member without a gift made Alma look down on her and exclude her from family activities at best or, upon seeing Bruno's vision, fear her destroying the magic at worst.

When she sees how her expectations of her family are unraveling because of Mirabel, Alma, misinterpreting her attempts to help as jeopardizing the magic according to Bruno's vision, jumps to conclusions without hearing her out and unfairly blames her for everything, accusing her of hurting the family out of jealousy for not being given a gift.

Alma unleashes her fury on Mirabel as she reveals that she also sees her as the cause of Bruno's disappearance, as well as getting angry when Isabela tarnish her perfect image by being herself and Luisa begins to lose her super strength, showing that Alma views them no different from the way she views Mirabel.

Finally fed up with this treatment, Mirabel angrily snaps at Alma and stands up for the family, stating that no matter how hard any of them tries, magical gifts or not, *none* of them will ever be good enough for her or her expectations, and that Bruno left only because she saw the worst in him.

When Mirabel angrily snaps and goes as far as to say that Alma is causing the miracle to fade, the older woman, initially denying this, can only be silent and shocked at these words before the Casita collapses as a result of their heated argument.

Taking in the destruction of their home, Mirabel's words, and half of her grandchildren putting themselves in danger to save the candle would cause Alma to realize the pressure and even unintentional misery she had been subjecting her family to.

In a sincere heart-to-heart with Mirabel by the river where her husband perished, Alma reveals more insight in their family beginnings.

In the memories of her youth, Alma was once a cheerful young woman full of life and hope, but when her husband Pedro sacrificed his life to buy time for his family, friends, and neighbors to escape from the marauders who were after them after having to leave their home, Alma was left devastated and broken.

Losing the love of her life, her home, and everything she knew and loved traumatized Alma so much that she swore it would never happen again, determined to preserve what had given them a fresh start.

But over time, she lost sight of what truly mattered and unintentionally took their miracle for granted (despite previously stating they should not take it for granted), and forgot who it was for, and what made their family so special was not the magic but the fact that, in spite of tragedy, they are a family.

It was because of this, that Alma was constantly looking outwards for a problem or even a threat (similar to the Soldiers) to all she held dear, that she never thought to look inward until it was too late, which is when she finally realized, her family had been broken because of her, not Mirabel or Bruno, and why she never once considered that her well-intentioned actions were the problem.

Now understanding the pain and loss Alma had never fully healed from, along with the burden she had long carried, Mirabel assures her that it is because of her that they were saved, that they were granted a miracle, that they are a family and nothing is so broken that they could not fix together.

Touched by these words, Alma finally realizes, after asking Pedro for help, that Mirabel was the answer to her prayers all along and they reconcile.

At the same time, Alma also reconciles with her lost son when he suddenly appeared to confront her after a decade before she warmly hugs and kisses him while calling him "Brunito", happy to have him back despite previously having a low opinion of him for leave their family.

Alma then becomes a happier and warmer person than she was before, freeing herself from her dark past.

The first thing Alma does after realizing her past mistakes and returning to the ruins of the Casita, is to affectionately treat her daughters Julieta and Pepa before bringing Bruno back into the family.

Alma apologizes with the rest of her family, apologizing for how she held on too tight out of fear she would lose them all as well, but now understands that they alone are the true miracle, not the gift of magic itself.

She also happily works alongside her family and community as they rebuild the Casita, helping to strengthen the bonds of the family to become stronger than ever and causing the magic to be restored later in the Encanto.

## Powers, Skills & Abilities

Abuela Alma doesn't possess any particular gift, due to being the one who found the miracle that blessed the Madrigal family in the first place.

Instead, she is in charge of all magic of the family.

She takes care of the magical candle that gives the family their magical gifts, although she herself has no individual gift, as she merely makes sure the family magic is used carefully.

Becoming the leader of the Encanto since she was very young, Alma has leadership skills as she leads an entire village by herself and directs most of the activities that occur in the Encanto such as the construction of various houses or different events.

Being the person with the most authority in the Encanto, her family and the entire town of Encanto, turn to her in moments of uncertainty and communal anxiety.

Like Mirabel, she also has a stronger affinity with the Casita than most of her family; Alma communicates with the house like it is a real person, and Casita responds to her prompts.

## Family

* Pedro Madrigal † (Husband)
* Julieta Madrigal (Daughter)
* Pepa Madrigal (Daughter)
* Bruno Madrigal (Son)
* Félix Madrigal (Son-In-Law)
* Agustín Madrigal (Son-In-Law)
* Isabela Madrigal (Grand-Daughter)
* Dolores Madrigal (Grand-Daughter)
* Luisa Madrigal (Grand-Daughter)
* Camilo Madrigal (Grand-Son)
* Mirabel Madrigal (Grand-Daughter)
* Antonio Madrigal (Grand-Son)

## Voice Actress

* María Cecilia Botero (speaking)
* Olga Merediz (singing)