I love how the lyrics of Dos Oruguitas show that the mountains around the Encanto needed to crack open. The house needed to fall down. Because when showing abuela Alma's story, the song says:
Vienen milagros, vienen crisálidas
Miracles are coming, chrysalises are coming
The song also refers to Alma and Pedro as oruguitas, “little caterpillars”. Their miracle is a chrysalis because what they need in that moment is safety in a moment of trauma, fear, and usnafety. What they need is a hiding place. What they need is to survive.
After Mirabel and abuela Alma talk, though, the lyrics change. They refer to Mirabel and Alma as mariposas, “butterflies”, and the line about chrysalises changes to:
Ya son milagros, rompiendo crisálidas
They're miracles, breaking chrysalises
All this time, they've been living in hiding (in a literal chrysalis of mountains), in safety, in survival mode. Abuela never left behind her fear of losing her home, of losing her family—she never healed from the trauma she endured, and because of that, she hurt her family in trying to keep them safe. Now it's time for the chrysalis to break, for the butterflies to come out and be free and fly. The mountain breaking in half and allowing them to reach the river perfectly symbolises the chrysalis breaking. And this time, when their miracle is reborn in the same river fifty years later, it's not born from grief or fear or a desperate need for safety—it's born from love and acceptance and finally letting fear go.
I also love that the lyrics during the first part of the song say:
Hay que partir y construir su propio futuro
It's time to part and build your own future
Whereas in the second part of the song, the lyrics change to:
Hay que volar, hay que encontrar su propio futuro
It's time to fly, it's time to find your own future
Not only does "part" contrast with "fly", showing the difference in the nature of the miracle the first and second time it's given to them, but "build" also contrasts with "find", once again showing that whilst Alma's miracle was founded on a need for safety and building walls around them, Mirabel's miracle is founded on a need to not be held back by fear—to spread their wings and fly.
The whole song shows a perfect parallel between Alma and Mirabel's miracles, and I love how it shows that while Alma and Pedro's love for each other and their family was the catalyst for the first miracle, it's Alma and Mirabel's love for each other and their family that grants them the second one.
It can be argued that the reason the candle didn't give Mirabel a gift was because it sensed the growing strain Alma was putting on the family due to her trauma and knew the miracle was going to need a new catalyst soon. The signs are all there, from the butterflies on Mirabel's clothes and on the candle to the fact Alma and Mirabel's bedrooms face each other, mirroring in each other.
I'd also argue that the reason Mirabel could see the cracks after singing Waiting on a Miracle is that the candle is reaching out to her, letting her know something's up, asking for her help. The house also kicks everyone out when it's about to collapse, but helps Mirabel get to the candle so she can hold it in its dying moments. It wants her to be the one to save and revive it.
I just love the parallels between Alma and Mirabel in Dos Oruguitas and throughout the whole movie a lot, man. Don't even get me started on the sheer amount of times they tell one another "open your eyes". It's the literal first line of the movie (albeit in Spanish, abre los ojos) and I see it as a constant call to one another to see things through the other's perspective, which, again, culminates with the scene at the river where they finally do.
Please excuse me while I cry.
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