The Madrigal Family Tree In Disney’s Encanto, Explained

When people decide that they want to start a family, it is often said that it takes a village to make it happen. Luckily, for the Madrigal family from Walt Disney Pictures’ global phenomenon “Encanto,” there is a small village living in their casita (or “little house” in Spanish) to help each other with anything that may arise. But for those of us who don’t live in the Madrigals’ idyllic Colombian town, it may be difficult to keep track of each magical member of the family.

In the opening number of the acclaimed animated feature titled “The Family Madrigal,” musical juggernaut Lin-Manuel Miranda of “Hamilton” and “Moana” fame did his best to outline the different branches that make up the family tree. The song, inspired by “Belle” from the 1991 classic “Beauty and the Beast,” follows Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) as she introduces the audience to each member of the household while outlining their unique gifts with this catchy tune. However, in an effort to get to know these beloved characters better, we have compiled this handy guide to help “Encanto” fans navigate the relationships between them. So without further ado, let’s meet la familia!

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for “Encanto.” Please, proceed with caution.

The first Madrigal we meet in “Encanto” is Mirabel. In the film’s opening moments, we learn about the origins of the Madrigals’ superhuman powers, alongside Mirabel, as her Abuela Alma tells the youngest granddaughter about the family history right before she gets a gift of her own. However, it’s quickly revealed that the well-meaning yet clumsy Mirabel is the only family member without a character-defining ability. This caused her to feel alienated from her relatives for nearly a decade. But she eventually discovers that she has a greater purpose in the family after all.

When it appears that their home is mysteriously falling apart and their gifts are fading, Mirabel decides to restore the magic by investigating their past to fix the present. The 15-year-old pulls back the curtain on the multigenerational trauma that each family member harbors, even the uncle who supposedly abandoned them.

By the end of the journey, the foundation of the Madrigals’ house and lives are in complete shambles. But thanks to Mirabel’s unwavering empathy and acceptance, the family reignites the mystical candle that represents their miracle and rebuilds the casita with a new understanding that the real miracle is having each other under the same roof as they learn to live as their true selves. In a way, Mirabel ends up being the wrapping paper that keeps the gifts of the Madrigal family together.

While Mirabel is the protagonist of “Encanto,” her grandmother is essentially the antagonist. This doesn’t mean that Abuela Alma (voiced by María Cecilia Botero) is a literal villain. She just actively opposes her granddaughter’s mission throughout the story. But in her eyes, Abuela believed everything she did was to protect her family and their miracle. 

Many years before she was the stern, overprotective matriarch, Alma was a young woman who fell in love. During her 20s, she met Pedro at a celebration for the Day of the Little Candles, a Colombian holiday that marks the unofficial start of the Christmas season. After a brief courtship, the two got married and Alma became pregnant with triplets. Unfortunately, their happiness didn’t last long as they were forced out of their village and Pedro selflessly sacrificed himself to protect his family.

At that moment, Alma’s candle repelled their attackers and created a safe haven surrounded by mountains to protect her, her children, and other refugees from harm. Over the next five decades, Alma became Abuela, the leader of this tight-knit community that was born out of tragedy. Under her guidance, the Madrigal family harnessed their special abilities to help the town survive and thrive.

However, her position in the community caused Abuela to become too hard on the Madrigals. Some of them started to feel the pressure of keeping up with the perfect image of the family that was upheld for many years. But in the ending of “Encanto,” Alma’s eyes were opened to the unrealistic expectations that she was projecting upon her loved ones, and it was thanks to Mirabel’s pursuits to save the family, their miracle, and the casita,

While he may be gone, Pedro Madrigal is not forgotten. Alma’s dear husband didn’t live to see his family grow up to be the stewards of a thriving village, but they keep his memory alive by sharing themselves and their abilities every chance they can (for better or for worse).

Since he only appears in flashbacks, we don’t know much about Pedro. Although, writer and co-director Jared Bush clarified some details on X shortly after the movie was released. For example, the filmmaker revealed that the Madrigal patriarch was only 26 when he died. This is the same age that singer Sebastian Yatra was when he recorded “Dos Orugitas,” the song that played over the flashback where Abuela tells Mirabel about the real events of their family history.

We also know a little bit about the real-life circumstances surrounding Pedro’s death thanks to anthropologist Andrés Góngora. While speaking to Art and Object, the Disney Colombian Cultural Trust member shared that the violence was kept intentionally vague, but still mirrored two significant events in Colombia’s history: The Thousand Days’ War, a civil war that lasted from 1899 to 1902, and La Violencia, a period from 1948 to 1958 where attacks and displaced citizens were commonplace. These periods match up with the clothing and technology found in the movie, so it would make sense that Pedro was one of the many victims of these tragic moments.

However, one of the main themes of “Encanto” is, as Góngora puts it, “the complicated process of healing from violence,” and Pedro is the face of that message. Following his loss, we continue to see elements of his personality generations later when his descendants are being silly, loving, or selfless.

Despite the hardships suffered by Alma and Pedro at the beginning of their lives together, they still managed to bring three wonderful children into the world. Julieta Madrigal (voiced by Angie Cepeda) is the oldest of the triplets. Possessing the ability to heal wounds with her cooking, she is a nurturing and caring presence in the casita. Or as Mirabel puts it in the opening song of the movie, “Her recipes are remedies for real.”

When she’s not healing the citizens of their encanto with baked goods, Julieta is the wife of Agustin and the mother of Isabella, Luisa, and Mirabel. The audience gets a closer look at her miracle in action when her youngest daughter cuts her hand on a tile from the roof of the casita. By cooking up and serving an arepa con queso, the wound is magically healed. She is also called into action when her husband suffers a bee sting and starts to get an allergic reaction, something that seems to come up a lot for poor Agustin (voiced by “That 70s Show” star Wilmer Valderrama).

Speaking of Agustin, not much is known about Mirabel’s dad. In addition to his run-ins with bees, he is seen playing the piano at Antonio’s celebration. But regardless of his accident-prone nature, he is also a dedicated father who sympathizes with his youngest daughter because he doesn’t have a special gift either. Both Julieta and Agustin do their best to shield Mirabel from Abuela’s suppressed disappointment that one of her grandchildren wasn’t given a gift like the rest.

Each member of the Madrigal family is strong in their own way. However, Luisa Madrigal (voiced by Jessica Darrow) is the strongest in the most conventional sense. At 19 years old, she is the second oldest daughter of Julieta and Agustin and middle sister to Isabella and Mirabel. Luisa’s gift is super strength, which she uses to help the townspeople move buildings, raise bridges, and round up donkeys. But under her physical and emotional resilience, she is struggling to keep up with the facade.

As seen in the song “Surface Pressure,” Luisa tells Mirabel that she is worried about being able to do everything that is expected of her. While she can handle the literal weight of her duties without breaking a sweat, the emotions that come with thinking only about others over herself are causing her to buckle. Then, when the magic candle begins to flicker, her physical strength starts to fade and she goes through an identity crisis.

After some encouragement from her younger sister to engage in some self-care, Luisa gives Mirabel some clues about their family to help solve the mystery and stop their way of life from completely crumbling. Eventually, after the casita is rebuilt and some generational trauma is put on the right track toward healing, Luisa takes time for herself and relaxes in a hammock for a bit before helping the village and her family again.

From the brawn to the beauty, Julieta and Agustin’s eldest daughter is Isabela Madrigal (voiced by Diane Guerrero). Her little sister Mirabel describes her in “The Family Madrigal” as “a perfect golden child.” But as Abuela’s first grandchild, the 21-year-old with the ability to grow beautiful, vibrant flowers anywhere has to deal with the pressure that comes with living up to that description.

Because of this perceived perfection, Isabela puts up a facade similar to Luisa. However, instead of losing herself under acts of service, the character only acts how she thinks her family and society expect her to behave. She is prim, proper, and cordial at all times (even when she’s butting heads with Mirabel). In professional wrestling terms, Isabella is trying to live the gimmick. She even goes so far as to commit to marrying the hunky Mariano Guzmán. But thanks to Mirabel’s goal of being a better sister and stopping Bruno’s destructive vision by hugging the Marcia Brady to her Jan Brady, the truth comes out: She was only marrying Mariano for the family, not for love or herself.

This revelation is expanded upon in the song “What Else Can I Do?” when the sisters discover an evolution of Isabella’s powers. Instead of creating plants with pristine, perfect petals, she creates a prickly, asymmetrical cactus. Thanks to this discovery, she unlocks a completely different side of herself that she never knew existed. With this newfound freedom to feel a whole spectrum of feelings and create a myriad of new plants, Isabella and Mirabel end up closer than they ever have been before.

Luisa and Isabella are forced to hide their true feelings about everything. But this is a little harder for their aunt Pepa. She is just as emotional as any other middle child, but the difference here is that she wears her emotions on her sleeve. Or more accurately, in the weather around her. This is because her miracle is the ability to control the weather with her emotions.

As we see in the chart-topping song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” Carolina Gaitán’s character creates rain and thunderstorms when she’s feeling anxious or upset. In fact, because of a misunderstanding with the aforementioned Bruno, there was ironically (or more unfortunately) rain on her wedding day. Meanwhile, when she’s happy and upbeat, the sun is shining and there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

Luckily, Pepa has a faithful companion in her husband Felix (voiced by Mauro Castillo) to help her navigate the tumultuous forecasts in her life. Like Agustin and Mirabel, he has no supernatural powers. Instead, his playful attitude and general easygoing nature work as a great counterbalance to the intensity carried inside Pepa’s emotional baggage. Together, they have three children named Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio.

Following the grand arrival of Isabella to the family a few months earlier, Dolores became the second Madrigal grandchild. But rather than basking in the pomp and circumstance, the only daughter of Pepa and Felix turned out to be much more reserved. Considering that her miracle is superhuman hearing, it fits that she’s much more of a listener than a talker.

The catch here is that Dolores hears everything, whether she wants to or not. Not only can she hear a pin drop from miles away, but she also hears everyone’s hopes, dreams, problems, and nightmares. This can come in handy when someone like Mirabel is looking for information that no one else is willing to give her. However, when her uncle’s prophecy about her true love being betrothed to another comes true, she has to hear Mariano Guzmán fawn all over her cousin Isabella.

The curse of knowledge weighs heavily on Dolores throughout the movie. Sometimes things slip at very inopportune times like when Mirabel found Bruno’s final prophecy. But for the most part, she stays silent and keeps her true feelings locked up deep inside. Thankfully, when the new foundation of the Madrigal family is built on acceptance, the 21-year-old character voiced by reggaeton performer Adassa finally speaks up to reveal her true feelings about Mariano. During this moment in  “All of You,” Dolores tells her anxious suitor not to rush into marriage, showing that she wants to get to know him better first instead of only going by what she has heard.

When you’re a teenager, you tend to take on many different personalities and identities as you try to figure out who you really want to be. But Camilo Madrigal (voiced by Rhenzy Feliz), doesn’t have to only choose one look. He can actually have them all because the 15-year-old son of Felix and Pepa has the ability to change his appearance to resemble anyone. 

Camilo is often seen using his gift to joke around, like when he impersonates his father or cousin’s fiancee. Although, he also does his best to help others when necessary. During “The Family Madrigal,” he shapeshifts into a villager so he can rock her baby to sleep while the mother gets some much-needed rest. At the end of the day though, Camilo is still very much a teenage boy who is mostly concerned with himself. At one point in the movie, he impersonates his sister Dolores so he can get an extra portion of food at breakfast. Naturally, his father intervenes because he can usually see through his son’s tricks.

By the end of the movie, Camilo doesn’t go through much of an arc. Even his younger brother Antonio seems to be more perceptive of everything that just happened to their family. But with the Madrigals finally open to be their true selves, maybe Camilo will find himself in some kind of “Encanto” sequel somewhere down the line.

Just like his cousins and siblings before him, Antonio discovers his gift at the beginning of “Encanto.” At just 5 years old, he is the youngest member of the Madrigal family. The youngest child of Pepa and Felix also has very little pressure on his shoulders or years of wrestling with the possibility that he may disappoint his grandmother. Instead, aside from some shyness about being in the spotlight of a celebration, the character played by Ravi Cabot-Conyers depicts the innocence and wonder of gaining a magic ability.

Part of the reason Antonio is so relatively well-adjusted compared to the rest of the family is his closeness to Mirabel. Since she didn’t get a gift from the candle or the room that typically comes with it, she stayed in the nursery with Antonio as she grew up. She was able to shield him from expectations and encouraged him to be himself.

Considering how social and friendly he has become, it’s fitting that Antonio received the gift of being able to talk to animals. Now, not only can he make friends with the people around him, but he can do so with all the creatures of the land, air, and sea. Plus, he’s able to help his dear cousin uncover the secrets to saving their family by asking the animals what they know.

Finally, even though we typically don’t talk about him, the final member of the Madrigal family tree in “Encanto” is Bruno (voiced by John Leguizamo). The youngest triplet of Alma and Pedro is considered the black sheep of the flock. With the ability to see visions of the future, Bruno didn’t always know how to interpret what he was seeing. Due to this uncertainty, many people (including his own mother) believed that he was making these premonitions come to life. So when it was uncovered that he had a vision of the casita falling apart behind Mirabel, the family became more than a little concerned.

To protect his young niece and to hopefully keep anything bad from happening to the rest of the encanto, Bruno fled the casita to live a life of solitude. Although, he didn’t exactly go far as he just spent the next 10 years in the walls of the house with the rats. While he decided that he couldn’t be a part of their lives for their own safety, he couldn’t abandon them completely because of how much he loves them.

On her crusade to save the family, Mirabel learned that her uncle Bruno had been there the whole time. With his help, they were able to decipher his visions a little better and take some kind of action toward saving the day. Despite still having a few blanks to fill in, they got to where they needed to be in the end, which involved the entire family getting back together once again.