Alma Madrigal

**Alma Madrigal** is the deuteragonist of the 2021 film Encanto.

Alma is 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.

## Background

At an undefined point in time in her past, Alma met a man named Pedro during a celebration for Day of the Little Candles in their village, where they fell in love and eventually got married a short time later. Much to her delight, Alma got pregnant and one day gave birth to triplets Julieta, Pepa and Bruno. But on the very day of the triplets' birth, a conflict called the Thousand Days' War struck her town. Alma and Pedro were forced to leave her home with their family. They escaped from their village along with some other citizens and left in search of a new home, but as they crossed through a river in the valley, the conquerors caught up with them. During the conflict that same day, Pedro said goodbye to Alma and sacrificed himself to the conquerors who were chasing after the escaping villagers, allowing her and her children to escape but at the cost of her husband's life. Having witnessed Pedro's death, Alma was heartbroken and unable to run when the conquistadors closed in on her. In her despair and pain, Alma prayed for a miracle and was immediately granted one. Magic was born from Alma's candle, and the magic created the Encanto where Alma and the rest of the citizens who escaped with her could live in peace. The miracle also vanquishing the invading army, created a mountain range to protect the Encanto, and also granted Alma a sentient house for her and her family to live in.

Losing everything in the span of one night, Alma never had time to properly process her pain and mourn as she had to raise her infant children alone and lead the refugees from her village. The responsibility that was imposed on her as guardian of the miracle made her a hardened woman and since the day she lost her husband she has been afraid of losing her home and family again. When Alma's children turned five, they each got their own unique magical gifts accompanied with their new room. Alma had her family use their magic to help the community as a way of paying back the miracle, believing that proving themselves worthy of the magic they were given would preserve it. Over time, Alma's daughters fell in love and married. Pepa met a man named Félix with a cheerful personality with whom Alma got along from the beginning and quickly accepted him as part of the family. While Julieta met a man named Agustín whom Alma was sceptical that he would fall in love with Julieta since he was probably not Alma's first choice to marry her daughter, but Julieta loved Agustín so much that they eventually got married and he became part of the family. To her surprise and delight, over the years Alma's daughters had children of their own, who would also receive gifts as their mothers and uncle had, and she became the grandmother of Isabela, Dolores, Luisa, Camilo, Mirabel, and Antonio, who all refer her as Abuela.

When it came time for Mirabel's ceremony, she reached for her door and touched the door knob, instead of getting a magical gift and opening the way to her new room like her sisters and cousins, Mirabel didn't get a gift and the door disappeared. Alma, fearful for the family's magic, asked Bruno to look into the future to see what this meant, as no Madrigal child had ever been denied a gift before. However, Bruno would never tell Alma about what he saw and disappear without saying anything. Alma never knew why her son abandoned the family and blamed Mirabel for Bruno's disappearance and pushed her away. Fearful that Mirabel's lack of a gift meant the family had not proven themselves worthy of the miracle, Alma increased the family's efforts to serve the community. Although she meant well, Alma also inadvertently put too much pressure on her family, with some of her grandchildren growing up with some emotional trauma from her expectations.

### Development

As with the rest of the Madrigal family, Alma was designed to reflect "family archetypes that are immediately relatable". The studio was initially going to make Agustín as the patriarch of the family, but this was changed due to a field guide on Colombia telling the studio that the local communities are matriarchal, which led to the creation of Alma as the matriarch. During the creation process, Alma originally had hair that transformed into a river that flowed for miles and the family would have had to follow it in order to connect to her emotionally, but this was discarded as it didn't fit the story correctly. She originated from the beginning as a severe and complicated person⁚ someone that has to always look out for the well-being of her family and the town, with a painful connection to the past. To create her appearance, Alma's costume design and colour palette had to feel much more subdued than the other characters in order to represent her stern and rigid personality.

María Cecilio Botero, Alma's voice actor, describes her character: "Abuela doesn't have a gift. She's the one… that keeps the family together… I think I am, too, in my family. So it was kind of myself."

### 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 favouritism 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 favours 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. Due to the problems of his gift, supposedly along with, unlike his sisters, being unmarried and childless, Alma often doubted Bruno's contributions to both the community and their family, causing her relationship with him to become so strained that her son through the years began to fear and avoid her.

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 neighbours that all is well and that there is nothing to fear, even when Casa Madrigal is cracking all around her. 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 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 unravelling 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 neighbours 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 conquerors) 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 grandmother 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 her granddaughter's 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 take all the blame for Mirabel and confront her before his mother warmly hugs and kisses him while calling him "Brunito", happy to have him back. Alma then becomes a happier and warmer person than she was before, freeing herself from her dark past. The first thing Alma does after her conversation with Mirabel 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 reconciles 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.

### Physical 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.

## Film Appearances

### Encanto

Alma first appears telling a five-year-old Mirabel the story of how their family was blessed with magic and how the Miracle Candle will grant her a magical gift during her birthday. When it comes time for her granddaughter's gift ceremony, she asks Alma what she thinks her gift will be, to which Alma responds that Mirabel is a wonder and whatever gift she gets will be just as special as her. In the present, it is the morning of Alma's youngest grandson Antonio's fifth birthday, and he's expected to get his gift by the end of the day. Alma helps Antonio prepare for his special day and in "The Family Madrigal", Alma can be seen walking and helping around town, as well as proudly watching her oldest granddaughter Isabela as she grows different roses in town. She eventually returned to the house and tells people it's time to get ready for Antonio's ceremony. When Mirabel was finishing telling the kids in town about the family, Alma visibly confused at the Casita's entrance, asked Mirabel what she was doing. Mirabel explains she was telling the kids about the family, and when Alejandra says the Mirabel was about to tell them about her gift, Alma walks away awkwardly after Dolores tells the kids that Mirabel didn't get one.

While preparing Antonio's gift ceremony, Alma saw Camilo leaning lazily against a banister and instructed him to help a townsperson named Jose with a banner over Antonio's door and she also tells Luisa to put the piano on the upper floor of the house. She can later be heard telling her family to clean their rooms saying that she didn't care how big they were. Alma catches Mirabel trying to decorate the outside of the rooms in the house, and although she acknowledges that Mirabel wants to help, she tells her that the best way for Mirabel to help would be to step aside (much to her frustration) and let the other members of the family do what they do best. Pepa then walks by, and Alma alerts her that she has a cloud hanging over her head, but Pepa tells her that she can't find Antonio. When their conversation is over, Alma runs into Julieta on the stairs who tells her to be nice to Mirabel because she knows Antonio's gift ceremony was going to be difficult because Mirabel's own gift ceremony didn't turn out well. Alma tells her that if Antonio's gift ceremony doesn't go well, it's going to be a difficult night for everyone.

During Antonio's ceremony, Alma gives a brief speech about how the Madrigal family was blessed with a miracle fifty years earlier. When Antonio approaches her and touches the Miracle Candle, Alma asks him if he will use his gift to strengthen the community. He nods his head and approaches his door, and Alma waits with bated breath as Antonio reaches for his door knob. Antonio successfully receives a gift much Alma's relief as she announces to the crowd that the family has a new gift. As the family celebrates inside of Antonio's new room, Alma gathers everyone, except for Mirabel, together for a family photo. Alma continues celebrating with the family and the townsfolk in Antonio's new room, even dancing with Félix for a few moments. As everyone is celebrating, Alma is shocked when Mirabel runs into the room announcing that the house was in danger. Alma wants Mirabel to show her, and Mirabel led everyone outside to show them that the house was cracking, however the cracks suddenly disappeared. Mirabel tried explaining to Alma what she saw, and Alma cuts her off and announces to everyone that the magic was strong and so were the drinks, and everyone goes back to celebrating. Later that night however, Alma talks to a picture of Pedro while looking out of her window. She expresses concern about the state of the magic and concern for what will happen to their home.

The following morning, Alma gathers everyone around for breakfast, and states that they are all grateful for Antonio's new gift. As she sits down she nearly sits on Antonio's animals. Antonio tells Alma that he asked them to warm up her seat, and she thanks him and she shoos the animals away saying that she's sure they can find a way to put his blessings to good use. While Alma continues talking, Mirabel starts shouting, and Alma has the Casita move Mirabel's seat from next to Luisa, to next to her. Alma tells everyone that they can't take the miracle for granted and that they will work twice as hard. When Mirabel tries getting up from her seat, Alma tells her to stop and has the Casita push the chair back in. Alma announces that she spoke to the Guzmán's about Mariano's proposal to Isabela and asks Dolores for a date on the proposal. Alma's very happy when Dolores says that Mariano was planning on proposing that same night and that he wanted five children, which makes Isabela sprout nervous flowers on her head. While removing an imperfect flower from Isabela's head, Alma comments that the pair would bring a new generation of "magical blessings" and make both families stronger. Alma then proceeded to tell the family that the community was counting on them before dismissing everyone from the table.

Later that morning, Alma and Isabela are walking hand-in-hand as Alma tells Isabela that she believes her and Mariano are a perfect match. As Mirabel finds different pieces of Bruno's vision, Alma can be seen cleaning different flower petals from the Casita before turning to look at the miracle candle as it acts strangely. Sometime after that, when Mirabel emerges from Bruno's room after having found pieces of his vision, Alma wants to know where Mirabel was coming from in a hurry. Before Mirabel could say anything, Luisa comes into the house and frantically explains to Alma that she was losing her gift. During her explanation, Luisa mentions to Alma how Mirabel told her that she shouldn't carry too much. When Luisa runs away crying, Alma asks Mirabel what exactly did she say to Luisa but Mirabel denies having said anything. Alma then tells Mirabel she has to go get the Guzmán's for Isabela's engagement and she instructs Mirabel to stay away from Luisa until she can talk to her because they can't have any more problems. Before she leaves the house, Alma tells Mirabel to stop doing whatever she's doing.

Towards the end of "We Don't Talk About Bruno", when most of the Madrigals are setting the table for dinner, Alma was escorting Señora Guzmán and Mariano to the Casita while announcing Mariano's arrival. When the Guzmáns arrive, Alma announces to everyone that it's time to eat dinner. Before everyone eats, Alma says that the union between the Guzmán's and Madrigals would be good for the families and for the Encanto. Señora Guzmán makes a joke about hoping that the night goes well and that it doesn't turn out to be a horrible disaster. Alma then makes a toast to a perfect night. As the night goes on, Alma tries to keep Señora Guzmán happy as members of her family become distressed when learning of Bruno's vision, such as Dolores acting strange, Camilo quickly shapeshifts into Mirabel and Bruno before his face distorts and his eyes look in different directions before he fixes it, Félix spitting out his water on Mariano and Pepa creating a storm cloud, which Alma tries to tell her to get rid of. As dinner starts spiralling out of control with the spread of Bruno‘s vision about the magic fading and Pepa started forming a thundercloud, Alma gets visibly distressed. When Mirabel, while trying to grab the vision that Antonio's animals had assembled, accidentally slides it to Alma, she is horrified by what she sees. When everyone leaves the dining room, Alma chases after Señora Guzmán and Mariano to try to get them to stay. When the townsfolk witnessed the Guzmán's running out of the Casita, Alma proclaims that they are the Madrigals and that the magic is strong and everything is fine before slamming the door shut and angrily shouts for Mirabel.

Later the failed dinner, Alma reprimands Agustín for keeping Bruno's vision to himself, saying that he should've thought of the family and told her as soon as he saw it. Agustín, however, angrily shoots back that he was thinking of his daughter. Before she can say anything, Alma notices that Pepa is creating a mini snowfall and tells her to calm down, which her daughter fiercely responds she's trying her best, with her husband backing her, and she's just fortunate that she isn't creating a hurricane. Julieta tells Alma that she's always been too hard on Mirabel, and Alma tells them they must protect their family and Encanto, going on to say that they cannot lose their home. When the townspeople come to the Casita telling her that people are worried about the magic, Alma goes into town, but before she leaves, she tells Agustín and Julieta that they need to find Mirabel because she was in Bruno's vision for a reason. While in town, Alma stops by the Guzmán's' house and tries to make amends for the ruined proposal dinner. However, during "What Else Can I Do?", while Isabela is growing a series of exotic plants, she accidentally breaks Mariano's nose a second time. Alma is shocked when she sees what Isabela and Mirabel both are doing back at the Casita.

When she returns home, Alma is visibly angry and demands to know what is going on. While Isabela is frightened by her presence, Mirabel, quite excited, tries to tell Alma that she was going to save the miracle. Mirabel tries to tell Alma that Isabela wasn't happy, and Alma says it's clear that Isabela's unhappy because Mirabel ruined her proposal. Alma gets increasingly more agitated as Mirabel tries to explain what she had been doing and how she was going to save the miracle (which explains why she was in Bruno's vision), but Alma cuts her off and tells her that she needs to stop. As Isabela, Luisa, Julieta, Agustín and later the rest of the family watch from a distance, Alma berates Mirabel and proceeds to blame her for all the family's problems, such as the house cracking, Bruno leaving, Luisa losing her powers and Isabela being out of control. She tells Mirabel that while it's not understood why she wasn't given a gift, it wasn't an excuse for her to hurt the family. Mirabel, after a moment of hurt and fed up with this treatment, questions if she, along with everyone else, would ever be good enough for Alma, no matter how hard they tried. As Mirabel defends her sisters, she tells Alma that Bruno really left because Alma only saw the worst in him, but Alma responds that Bruno didn't care about the family. Mirabel insisted everybody (including Bruno and herself) loves the family and Alma was the only one who didn't care, and that Alma was the one breaking their home. Angered by her granddaughter’s accusing words, Alma began to raise her voice. But before she can contradict her, Mirabel points to her as the true cause of the miracle dying, which causes Alma to become horrified and shocked.

By the time the heated argument dies down, the ground beneath them starts cracking and the house starts falling apart as the candle starts fading fast. Alma can only watch in horror as the candle begins to go out as half of her grandchildren try to make various attempts to save the candle. As the house starts collapsing more and more, everybody except for Mirabel is thrown out and Alma is caught by Luisa before she hits the ground. Alma watches in horror as Mirabel risks her life to get the candle as the house starts falling in on itself. After the Casita is destroyed and the candle dies along with the magic, Alma can be seen visibly terrified that she has lost her home as she has to be cared for by Dolores, who sits her on a small piece of debris to calm her down. When Julieta noticed Mirabel went missing, the Madrigals and the other townspeople spread out to search for her. The next morning, Alma finds a tearful Mirabel in the valley, sitting next to the river that she and Pedro had crossed while escaping from conquerors fifty years earlier. While releasing stress, Mirabel apologizes, saying that she didn't want to hurt the family, only trying to be something that she wasn't. Seeing how saddened her granddaughter was, Alma sat down next to her and told her that she never thought she would be able to return to the river, since it's where Pedro died and where they were given the miracle.

During the "Dos Oruguitas" sequence, she reveals more about her past and the full origin of the miracle. She goes on to explain to Mirabel that she thought that she and Pedro would have a different life together and she would be a different person. Gaining a miracle through her husband's sacrifice, a second chance that she was so afraid to lose that she ultimately lost sight of the people their miracle was for. Alma apologizes to Mirabel and tells her that Mirabel never hurt their family, realizing their fractured state is because her heart never healed from the trauma she went through. Mirabel takes Alma's hands in hers and acknowledges the loss and sorrow that Alma experienced as a young woman, and understands that Alma didn't want it to happen again. Mirabel proceeds to tell Alma that they were saved because of her, they were a family because of her and they were given a miracle because of her, and then assured her that nothing is so broken that they cannot fix together. Touched by her granddaughter’s words and wisdom, Alma tells Mirabel that she asked Pedro for help and Pedro sent her Mirabel and the two of them reconcile and hug after ten years since Mirabel's failed ceremony while golden butterflies flies around them. Just as they finish their embrace and emerge from the river, Bruno comes riding in on a horse, yelling that Mirabel didn't do anything wrong as he gave her a vision. As he rambles before simply saying all Mirabel wanted to do was help, Alma is shocked when she sees Bruno after ten years. As Bruno continues talking and prepares to argue with her, Alma rushes to her son and gives him a hug, much to his confusion. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and grabs his hand and pulls him onto the horse and all three of them ride on horseback to the Encanto.

When they get back to the Encanto and reunite with the rest of the family in the ruins of the Casita, during "All of You" Alma walks up to her surprised daughters and treats them lovingly while apologizing for holding onto the magic too tight and says the miracle isn't magic they possess, rather simply themselves, as she lovingly guides a timid Bruno to re-join the family when he is afraid to do so. Alma watches with joy as the triplets are reunited after a decade and as some of her grandchildren are confused or happy by Bruno's presence. With the family all together, Mirabel rallied them to fix the house and the entire town also pitched in as thanks for all the Madrigals had done for them, including Mariano and Señora Guzman, much to Alma's delight. When helping to rebuild the Casita, Alma can be seen working on some blueprints for the house. After completing the house, Alma guided Mirabel to Casita's entrance to add a doorknob the family made just for her to the front door, which to her surprise, caused Casita to spring back to life and the magic returned to the entire Encanto. As they enter the house, Alma watches with Mirabel and Bruno as the other family members recover their powers and begin to be themselves. The Madrigals then celebrated the return of their home and gifts with a family picture while Casita squished the whole family closer together unexpectedly.