Head Canons: Trans Woman Bubba
I recently reblogged a chart about trans acceptance per country, and it showed that Colombia is relatively progressive when it comes to this issue (I think it was like 60% of people were for offering teenagers gender confirming medicine). This got me thinking once again about my Bubba is a closeted trans woman head canon, so here's how I think that'll shake out.
(Disclaimer: In my research I have found more information about the history of homosexuality in Colombia than the history of trans people. I am basing this largely on that, and what I can find about the state of the LGBT movement in current day Colombia.)
If we assume Bubba comes to town a couple years after the movie, we're still a decade or two ahead of the Pride movement hitting the mainstream in Colombia. That said, Bubba is supposed to be from the city, so he/she may have happened across an underground queer club where she figured some stuff out about herself. The wrong sort of people find out about the club, and her membership, and Bubba's life goes down the drain. With no other choice, she leaves the city, promising that where ever she ends up she'll stay in the closet for good.
This is how she finds herself in Encanto. She does everything she can to seem as manly as possible, including riding the motorcycle, cutting her hair short, and dressing as butch as possible. TBH she's comes off pretty annoying and most of the Madrigals avoid her if they can, with the exception of Isabela.
In the original script, Bubba saw through Isabela's facade, so in this head canon, it is Isabela that sees through Bubba's. She doesn't push per say, she just hangs around constantly talking about how much happier she is now that she doesn't waste all of her energy being who others want her to be.
A part of Isabela's fascination springs from the fact that Bubba is the only "man" Isabela has ever been attracted to, up to this point she's only ever been attracted to other women. Something she's trying not to think too hard about.
Bubba tries to resist her attraction to Isabela, since she is a danger to the Live the Rest of My Life in the Closet plan. Unfortunately for Bubba, Isabela is hot as fuck, and loads of fun to be around post canon.
They start dating, in typical lesbian fashion become committed to each other really quickly, and are soon married.
It's on their wedding night that Isabela begins to piece together what her "husband's" deal is. She kisses Bubba, then giggles when she realizes she's gotten her lipstick on her spouse's lips. She shows Bubba her reflection and when Bubba sees herself wearing lipstick she looks happier than Isabela has ever seen. It's a blink and you'll miss it sort of thing, but Isabela didn't blink, and therefore didn't miss it.
She experiments after that, tells Bubba she wants to practice putting make up on somebody else for her nieces and watches Bubba's eyes light up when she sees herself in a full face of make up. She notices the way Bubba always tenses a little when people use masculine conjugation for her so Isabela purposefully slips up and calls Bubba "mi esposa" instead of "mi esposo" a couple times. In private she starts calling Bubba by feminine pet names and notes that Bubba never corrects her.
Isabela gets pregnant and that puts her investigation on hold. She doesn't go back to referring to Bubba as her esposo, but she doesn't think much about the topic either. Especially when her son is born and he turns out to be a little handful, they name their kid Santiago.
One day, tired after staying up all night with baby Santiago, Isabela slips up and calls Bubba "mi princesa" in front of Tio Bruno. Bruno doesn't initially react, but it doesn't escape his notice that Bubba, who is usually super defensive of "his" masculinity, doesn't react either. Being the designated Gay Uncle, Bruno starts noticing all the same signs Isabela does. With the benefit of having seen the 1982 Pride March in Bogota in a vision, and having learned about the yet to be established MLHC, Bruno figures out what's happening.
Being better with actions than he is words, Bruno buys Bubba a pair of earrings for her birthday and gives them to her in private. Cue a small breakdown on Bubba's part as the truth comes spilling out of her at the first show of support.
Meanwhile, since she's spending so much time sitting, staring into space, and thinking while Santiago nurses, Isabela is slowly realizing that Bubba is still the only "man" she's ever been attracted to and what that means about her.
They sit down and have that one conversation, "Darling I have bad news." "Me too. I'm a lesbian." ".........Darling, I have great news!"
It'll be several years yet before the couple comes out to the rest of the family, but Bubba starts wearing feminine lounge clothes whenever they're in private. As Santiago learns to speak he picks up on the fact that Papa becomes Mama whenever they're away from the public eye. This leads to Santiago going through a phase where he thinks everybody is a woman in private but a man in public. Isabela and Bubba figure out what's happening and give Santiago a kid friendly explanation of their situation.
Santiago turns five and gets the gift of super speed. He is thrilled by his gift, but when the familia eventually figures out the gifts are given by Mirabel and Abuela, and not by some higher power, Isabela almost strangles her little sister.
If this reaches any Colombian trans women, I would love to hear what sort of names are popular in your community. It's a common joke here that trans women all choose names you might pick for a cartoon Princess, but I haven't found any word on if that is a Universal Queer Experience, or just a North American Queer Experience. I've been referring to out trans woman Bubba as Tia Barbara in my head.
Bubba/Barbara doesn't fully come out until Mirabel's daughter marries another woman, aka when Barbara is in her late forties. After that she transitions fully, and it takes all of a month for the entire Madrigal family to get used to the change. If we assume every generation of Madrigals has an average of three kids per married couple, that's about sixty people (depending on how many people of the next generation have been born, and whether or not we assume the Madrigals have extended lives due to constant exposure to magic healing food). So definitely a decent amount of people to be supported by.
I imagine that being a magic family living in a magic house makes it less likely that people will move out to their own home, so Casita ends up being a small village within its/their own right. There is still the general feeling that "We are a family, we love each other", but there's also a lot more variation in beliefs. There are members of the family who are more devoutly catholic, who in private disapprove, but will throw hands in public if need be.
Some of the more oblivious kids never realize their Tia Barbara is trans. Camilo's youngest granddaughter has a bad habit of asking people if they're stupid whenever they misgender her great aunt, because to her eyes "That is clearly a woman?!??". Camilo, Isabela, and Santiago all reward this behavior, undermining her very religious parents' attempts to train her out of it.
It is generally agreed amongst everybody who remembers what Tia Barbara was like back when she was Bubba, that she's much better company when she's being herself.