Julieta Madrigal

**Julieta Madrigal** is a major character in Disney's 2021 animated feature film, *Encanto*. She is the eldest daughter of Alma and Pedro and the mother of Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel, whom she parented alongside her husband Agustín. A nurturing caretaker, Julieta was gifted with the power to cook healing foods.

## Julieta Madrigal

Julieta's gift is healing people with her recipes

### Relatives

Mirabel Madrigal
Luisa Madrigal

Isabella Madrigal

Bruno Madrigal

Pepa Madrigal

Alma Madrigal

Antonio Madrigal

Camilo Madrigal

Dolores Madrigal

## Background

Julieta is one of the three triplet children born to Alma and Pedro, with her brother, Bruno and her sister, Pepa. When she was just born, their home was attacked and her family was forced to flee. After her father's death, a miracle was created that blessed the family with an enchanted house and protection from the raiders. Growing up, Julieta was willing to help her mother take care of her family from a very young age because her father had died and Alma had no one else to help her. When she was five years old, Julieta and her two siblings opened their magical doors in the house, revealing their powers. Julieta gained the ability to heal anyone by the use of food. Compared to other members of her family, Julieta is the only Madrigal child who has no problems with her gift since her healing power is easy to control and she enjoys helping others.

Thanks to her healing gift, Julieta became the community's healer, helping other people when they have different wounds or injuries. Some time later she met a man named Agustín who constantly needed to be healed because he was accident-prone. Although Alma was skeptical that Agustín and Julieta would fall in love since he was probably not Alma's first choice to marry her daughter, Julieta loved Agustín so much that the two eventually married and they had three daughters: Isabela, Luisa, and Mirabel. Julieta besides becoming Félix's sister-in-law after Pepa married him, she also became the maternal aunt of Dolores, Camilo and Antonio. Unlike majority of the Encanto villagers or her own family, Julieta never spoke ill of Bruno after he left and lamented his absence. After a decade of separation, Julieta finally reunites with her brother again after the fall of the Casita, where she expresses great joy in seeing him again and hugs him happily together with Pepa.

### Official Description

*Julieta is warm and nurturing. As the town doctor, she uses her magical powers to heal others through food.*
*Julieta, one of Alma’s triplets, was blessed with the power to heal. Radiating warmth and kindness, she wields no magic wand, however her magic is found in the food she lovingly prepares for all who need it.*
### Development

As with the rest of the Madrigal family, Julieta was designed to reflect "family archetypes that are immediately relatable". The studio initially created Julieta with a more antagonistic role in the film and thus would have a complicated relationship with Mirabel, opposed to the caring and empathic Julieta in the final production. Director Jared Bush was inspired by his own mother to create Julieta's personality and her loving relationship with her kids. During the creation process, Julieta also was to have the ability to control the weather, but since Julieta had a maternal personality, this power was instead given to Pepa and Julieta obtained the power to heal others (which was originally going to belong to Dolores).

Angie Cepeda, Julieta's voice actor, describes her character as being relatable to her: *"Julieta’s very kind, she’s warm. I really fell in love with her. She cares so much about her family and for the people in her community. She has this gift and she heals people with the food that she cooks. She does that for all who need it. Julieta has this special relationship with Mirabel. She knows how Mirabel feels about not having a gift and the fact that she feels that Mirabel doesn’t belong and she’s always there for her."*

### Personality

Due to her magical gift of healing others with her cooking, Julieta is very nurturing to those she treats for their injuries or illnesses. Julieta is very supportive and, like her sister Pepa and her brother-in-law Félix, she is very affectionate with the youngest members of the family. She provides nourishment and healing to others (especially her accident-prone husband). Since she was always willing to help her mother Alma take care of her family since she was just a child, because her father had died after she was born, Julieta is a maternal, nurturing, and calm woman. She always prioritizes the welfare and needs of her family over her own. Julieta has a great deal of love for her family and she does her best to take care of them when they need it. But Julieta not only cares just about her family but the town as well. She enjoys helping the townspeople with her gift and making people smile with her food. Of all The Madrigals, Julieta seems to have the fewest issues with her gift. She gives the appearance of having it the most together and she’s a good caretaker for the town, as she does her job with warmth and professionalism that is also very befitting of her station. Despite that, there are also days when Julieta can get tired of constantly cooking every day, but she is ready to help when someone needs it.

According to Agustín, Julieta is equal to Mirabel when it comes to supporting others. Thanks to her personality, Julieta is close to several members of her family and is trusted by others. Julieta showers Mirabel with kisses, praises, and compliments to the point it embarrasses her daughter. She is caring and very supportive of Mirabel, because she understands how hard it is for her to be the only ordinary member of a magical family. She can also calm Agustín when he is angry and provides a voice of reason and comfort to the more emotional family members like Bruno or Camilo. Julieta is by far the most sensible and patient member of the family. Unlike her sister Pepa, Julieta never lets her temper get the better of her and never shows anger or rage even in times of stress. When the family learns of Bruno's vision and magic's imminent death at dinner with the Guzmáns, while she was shocked like the others, Julieta is the only one who doesn't lose her composure or jump to any conclusions. Julieta is also very patient and doesn't get upset when her husband repeatedly gets stung by bees due to his clumsiness. She is always ready to heal him when he has an injury with the food she makes.

Although her mother keeps a tight grip on her and her siblings to make them perfect, Julieta is not afraid to disobey her when she demands too much of both her and the family. Although she respects her mother as the matriarch of the family, Julieta never seeks perfection like her and dislikes Alma's controlling nature. Despite Alma's negative views of her affair with Agustín, Julieta still fell in love with and married the man. She is also not afraid to stand up to and reprimand Alma for her hard attitude towards Mirabel, as she knows her daughter doesn’t deserve such treatment. Although Julieta's insecurities are not shown very well, it is clear that her greatest fear is that her family is hurt both physically and emotionally. Julieta was heartbroken for years after Bruno suddenly disappeared and since then she has been afraid that the same thing will happen to another member of her family, telling Mirabel that Bruno lost his way in the family and expressing that she doesn't want the same for Mirabel, seeing the similarities in her brother and daughter. When Mirabel pointed out that she, Isabela, and Luisa were unhappy and that Alma put too much pressure on them, both Julieta and Agustín can only look on helplessly and sadly for not realizing sooner how miserable their daughters were.

The most important thing for Julieta has always been her family and she is very protective of them. She loves Agustín very much and her love for him is so great that she doesn't even care about Alma's negative opinions about their marriage. Despite the fact that Bruno abandoned both her and the family, Julieta never held a grudge or hatred towards him and was willing to mention his name, unlike Pepa. When Bruno finally returns home after ten years, Julieta is overjoyed and quickly embraces him, showing how happy she is to have Bruno back. Julieta cares deeply about her daughters and wants the best for them. After a heartbroken Mirabel runs away after Casita falls apart, Julieta is the first person to notice and immediately starts searching for her, showing she cares more about her family's welfare than the absence of their loss of magic. When Mirabel returns home, Julieta is relieved to see her safe and sound, and expresses how proud she is of her as she watches Mirabel help their family rebuild their home. Julieta shows she has a forgiving heart, easily reconciling with her mother as Mirabel and Bruno already had when she apologizes for her strictness. Her affection also extends to her nephews and niece. Julieta seems to have a soft spot for family prankster, Camilo, and treats him as if he were her son. During Antonio's gift ceremony, Julieta holds her nephew's hand and has her other arm lovingly around him like a mother would. She shows joy that Camilo enjoys her food and is visibly proud of Antonio when he gets his gift.

### Physical appearance

Julieta is a 50-year-old woman with tan skin and brown eyes that droop slightly downwards. Her hair is curly dark brown hair with silver and white highlights swooped up into a messy updo, with a bun. She is notably one of the family members who most closely resembles her parents. Julieta inherited much of her mother's physical appearance and her late father's facial expressions. Julieta wears a long-sleeved baby blue shirt with a tiffany blue long skirt and a cooking apron the same color, light brown flat shoes, and golden pearl earrings. Her apron is tied with a green ribbon, and its pockets have various herbs and plants inside them. The apron also has some stitched patterns: plants and, on the pockets, hands holding plants, mortar and pestle, representing her power of healing through her recipes. She doesn't wear her apron on special occasions, like Antonio's gift ceremony or Isabela's proposal dinner. Julieta's shirt and skirt have stitched patterns as well: plants, leaves, and flowers.

### Powers and Abilities

Julieta can heal people with her cooking; when a hurt or sick person eats food cooked by her, they are healed instantly. She was able to heal Mirabel's wounded hand with an arepa con queso. Other injuries that she has healed are a black eye, a fractured forearm, and her husband's bee stings. However, it is unknown to what extent her cooking can heal, if her cooking is specifically required to heal, or if she can only heal with food.

Julieta is knowledgeable about medicinal herbs and oils, and regularly uses them in her cooking.

## Appearances

### *Encanto*

Julieta first appears as a baby being held by her mother after being born. After her parents are forced to leave their home, with her father, Pedro Madrigal being killed by soldiers, Julieta and her surviving family members, her mother and her younger sister and brother watch their candle being blessed with magic which creates a new home for them. When Julieta and her siblings turn five, they are given magical gifts, where Julieta is given the ability to heal others through her cooking.

As the family was getting ready for Antonio's gift ceremony, she asked Mirabel if she wants to talk about her feelings, which she kindly turns the offer down. After she saw her mother talking to Mirabel, she tells her to be kind to Mirabel, knowing that tonight will be really hard for her since it sets off painful memories of her failed ceremony. After Mirabel purportedly saw their home developing cracks, showing a cut she'd received on her hand as proof, Julieta comforted Mirabel, reminding her that she was just as special as anyone else in the family, and healed her hand with an arepa.

During the dinner that the family held for Mariano's proposal to Isabela, Julieta sat next to Pepa, who passed along to her that Mirabel had discovered Bruno's last vision. When a furious Alma confronted Julieta and Agustín about it, Julieta rebuked Alma for always being too hard on Mirabel.

When the family's home began to fall, Julieta tried to save her daughter, but was pushed out of the house by Casita. After the incident, Julieta found Mirabel shielded under some rubble and asked her if she was hurt. Believing she wasn't, Julieta instructed Mirabel not to move while she answered Pepa's panicked cries for her. When Julieta turned back to Mirabel, she saw that Mirabel had disappeared and panicked as she searched for her daughter.

When Mirabel returned, Julieta was overjoyed to see her again, sweeping her into a tight hug and telling her how worried she was. When Alma guided Bruno to the family, Julieta gasped in shock and ran to hug her brother. She assured him that she was just happy he was there and safe. Julieta then joined her family and community in rebuilding their home, admiring Mirabel's leadership skills. Agustín told Julieta that their daughter took after her. When the house was rebuilt and the magic restored, Julieta joined her family to celebrate and to take a new family photo.