The "Real" Story of Encanto
I've been thinking about magical realism and magic as metaphor. I've also been thinking about Life of Pi and the idea that we get to choose the stories we tell and telling the version of the story that's better, regardless of whether or not it's true. As I ponder these ideas, I can't stop dwelling on the "real" story of Encanto. The idea that Encanto is Mirabel's story, but it's the one she wants to tell instead of strictly adhering to the facts. Obviously Mirabel is fictional in the first place, but I wanted to outline what might have "really" happened to the Madrigal family.
So first off, Abuela Alma's story is largely free of magic or anything unrealistic, so it can be taken at face value until the end. Young Alma falls in love with Pedro, they get married, and have triplets. While the triplets are still babes in arm, men on horseback attack their village and the Madrigal family flees along with many others from their village. As they're running some of the attackers catch up. Pedro turns back to stop them and... something happens. A miracle or a coincidence, something like an earthquake or a rockslide kills Pedro and their pursuers.
Now the story turns more towards the magic. Did the villagers just happen to find a magical house in the middle of the jungle and gift it to Alma? A more grounded explanation of Casita is that the villagers, having seen Pedro turn back to defend them all, could hardly let his widow and mother of three infants fend for herself. The villagers come together and prioritize building her house first, and in a place of honor.
Then come the gifts. I think Alma, being a person of conscious Alma could let herself live on the graces of others. She had to give back to the village for their kindness to her, so she comes up with a scheme. When the triplets are old enough she gives them a "gift" and a job to serve the community. Julieta was always the level headed one. Alma teaches her cooking and nursing skills tells her she is gifted with healing food. Bruno was always observant, he is gifted with foresight. He's supposed to help the village predict when bad things are going to happen. Pepa was always a wild one with her head in the clouds. Does her mood affect the weather? Or does the weather affect her mood. Pepa learns to read the skies and predict oncoming storms; it just happens to make her very grumpy when she sees a storm on the horizon.
Of course as the triplets grow up they know that their "gifts" aren't magic, but they still dutifully perform their duties to serve the village and "earn the miracle" (of the villagers helping out the widow of their literal savior). Of course the more the Madrigal family serves the village, the more the villagers feel they owe back to the Madrigal family, and the cycle continues. Julieta and Pepa have children, and are given gifts of their own. Bruno, being the observant man that he is, helps Abuela in choosing useful gifts and jobs for the grandchildren.
By the time Isabela comes of age and is ready to receive her gift there are 3 Madrigal babies and not a boy in sight. It therefore will become Isabela's responsibility as the eldest granddaughter to bring a husband into the family. She's always enjoyed playing in the garden, so her interests there are channeled towards making lovely flowers and just being an all around perfect princess ready to be married. This is mostly fine by little Isa, she's not exactly upset at being pampered and doted over.
Dolores comes next, and with the issue of having a marriable granddaughter settled not as much is expected of her. She is quiet and always, always listening. She is tasked with helping Bruno by listening in the village for problems anyone might be having so that the family can swoop in to help.
By the time Luisa comes of age it's increasingly obvious that having no boys is not exactly ideal for their ability to serve the village, so Luisa becomes "the strong one." She's told she's supernaturally strong and she can help out the village by helping carry heavy things. And so little Luisa sets out doing just that.
By the time Camilo comes of age Bruno notices that the older grandchildren are starting to resent their "gifts" and their jobs. Isabela knows she's not magically making flowers grow, and she's a bit spoiled to boot. He thinks about his and his sisters own childhoods working hard to serve the village, and kinda doesn't want to keep doing this to the grandchildren. Camilo's "gift" is essentially doing funny impersonations. His job is making people laugh. That can't really turn into a burden, can it?
Then comes Mirabel. Bruno decides enough is enough. When Abuela tells him to choose Mirabel's gift he confronts her for pushing her grandchildren to work so hard. Mirabel's gift should have been her embroidery, but Bruno did not want to see little Mirabel slaving away over that when she should be having fun like all the rest of the kids in the now very happy and healthy little village. This turns into a blow-up argument that ultimately results in Bruno storming off in anger. In Abuela's own anger she decides that fine, if Mirabel doesn't get a gift and a job, she doesn't get a room. She'll stay in the nursery, never properly "coming of age". This is aimed at Bruno, but of course Mirabel has no idea what's going on.
And that catches us up to the present day, the day of Antonio's coming of age celebration. The thing is, between Mirabel's disastrous coming of age party and the present, Abuela never had a way to take back what she did to Mirabel. Everyone is insanely stressed because they know how ridiculous it is that Mirabel is still staying in the nursery while Antonio is going to get a room, probably the room that supposed to be Mirabel's. There's a resentment that Mirabel was never given a "job" while everyone else is working their butts off performing their own "gifted" duties, but also a sense of pity at how hard Mirabel is working while being treated like a literal baby. Why does Alma snap at Mirabel's attempts to help? Because she's embarrassed that she denied Mirabel's entire coming of age ceremony in her anger at Bruno. Without Bruno's help, Antonio's gift is, 'I don't know he's always liked animals, right?' and his job is, 'we'll figure it out later.'
Anyway, what is Mirabel seeing in all this? First, Antonio's coming of age celebration goes off without a hitch, so she really did get personally snubbed. Also, everybody is walking on egg shells around her because of... well, everything... So she starts investigating. She talks to Dolores who's all "don't ask me, go talk to Luisa!" What's Luisa going to say? She can't exactly trauma dump her resentment to Mirabel about having to do all the heavy lifting while Mirabel doesn't get a job at all, while also feeling guilty that Antonio just moved out of the nursery into the room that was supposed to be Mirabel's. So she does her best to couch it better. She's struggling with always needing to be the strong one. She wants a break! When Mirabel hugs her, well just like in the movie all the stress just evaporates. How could she be resentful of her precious little sister. It's not like Mirabel is the one pressuring her to be strong. Luisa tells Mirabel to go to Bruno's old room for answers about what's going on.
So, what's really in Bruno's room? Well, probably not a shattered green glass image of Mirabel destroying the house. More likely it's burnt scraps of Bruno's notes. Bruno wrote down his observations and predictions. After their blow-up fight on Mirabel's birthday, Abuela throws most of his notes in the fire. Mirabel gathers up scraps and cryptically pieces together the idea that she's going to destroy the family? That doesn't make sense; It's time to find Bruno!
Why don't we talk about Bruno anyway? Well, the truth is Bruno wasn't just hiding away in the walls. Many of the villagers knew he was still around, but being reasonable people they didn't want Abuela Alma to find out. And she will find out because... well has anyone seen Dolores recently? We don't talk about Bruno because nobody wants to have Alma breathing down their necks about what they know, because they let something slip while Alma's little spy was hanging around.
Anyway, back to Mirabel. Mirabel finds Bruno, who is in a pretty sorry state. She demands him to explain wtf he meant by the scraps of notes she found. Also, he has to help her fix things. It's not easy to explain, but Bruno did happen to see how Mirabel helped Luisa, so he has an idea. He doesn't show her a new prophecy, he shows her Isabela moping around the garden. He points out how unhappy Isabela is, and if Mirabel wants to fix things, she can start by going and giving Isabela a hug. WHAT!?
Ok, Mirabel has to give Isabela a hug, no problemo. Only at the sight of Mirabel Isabela is pissed, and she does not show the same restraint as Luisa. Mirabel did just ruin Mariano's perfect proposal to her. She lays out all of her grievances and aims them directly at Mirabel. Mirabel is determined to turn things around though. She asks why Isabela puts up with all of that. Why does Isabela have to be the perfect little princess? Why does Isabela have to marry Mariano? Yeah... That's a bit embarrassing for Isabela. She realizes it's not really Mirabel that she's mad at, it's everything else. So what next? They hug. They roll around in the dirt and have fun, and when Abuela gets back to the house with Mariano in tow, Isabela, covered head to toe in mud tells Mariano she never liked his stupid face and that he can take his stupid poetry and shove it up his ass.
Everyone is shocked to say the least. Abuela absolutely loses it. She sees Mirabel comparably mud-covered to Isabela and pieces together what happened. She lays into Isabela who is cowed, but saves some especially choice words for Mirabel. Just as she's hitting the crescendo of her tirade, disaster strikes. Another rockslide happens destroying Casita. In the confusion Mirabel runs away. When the dust settles and they're making sure everyone is accounted for they realize Mirabel is nowhere to be found. An absolute dread washes over Abuela, fearing the worst as she recalls what could have very well been her last words to her granddaughter.
Abuela's fear is broken when someone mention that they thought they saw Mirabel slipping way towards the river after the house collapsed. Abuela hurries off to find her. With great relief Abuela finds Mirabel and apologizes. She lays it all out there. Not just the story of how Pedro saved everyone in the village, but also of the guilt at receiving the villager's kindness. She finishes her story by apologizing about Mirabel's coming of age party all those years ago. She talks about Bruno for the first time in a very long time, and wishes that she could apologize to him too. With one of her signature heart melting hugs, Mirabel tells her she can. Bruno is still hanging around looking after everyone from afar.
Abuela is shocked to say the least. She sends Mirabel off to re-assure the rest of the family that she is safe and sets out to track down Bruno and give a long overdue apology. Everyone is happy to see Mirabel and later Bruno. Abuela apologizes to everyone about the whole gifts thing. Mirabel gives a nice pep talk and gets everyone moving on what they're supposed to do about the destroyed house. Enough with the gifts! Everyone can help out as best as they are able. And of course the villagers show up to help too. The Madrigals are an important part of the community. They never resented helping Alma out, and while the Madrigal's assistance throughout the years was always appreciated, it was never expected. It's just what good neighbors do for each other!
When the house is rebuilt and Mirabel is given the honor of opening the door to their new "miracle". A miracle founded on trust and love as a family, not the burdens of perceived debt and traumas of the past.
