| “ | I know, mamá! But now I can't find Antonio! What do you want from me?! | ” |
—Pepa lashing out at Alma | ||
Pepa Madrigal is a supporting character in Disney's 2021 film Encanto. She is the second daughter and child of Alma Madrigal and the late Pedro Madrigal, the middle triplet sister of Julieta and Bruno Madrigal[2], the wife of Félix Madrigal as well as the mother of Dolores, Camilo and Antonio Madrigal. Her magical gift is to emphatically control the weather.
Encanto[]
Description[]
Pepa is Mirabel's aunt who is overly dramatic and emotional, with her magical gift allowing her to control the weather.[3]
Carolina Gaitan, Pepa's voice actor, describes her character as being relatable to her: "I'm a little bit crazy as well… overly dramatic and sometimes a little bit like a drama queen. But most of all, I think it's about vulnerability. Like, not to be in control of everything… she's emotional and she allows herself to be emotional and I think that's very beautiful about a person, about a character."[4]
Physical Appearance[]
Pepa is a fair-skinned middle-aged woman with dark green eyes and curly hip-length auburn hair tied in a braid. She wears metallic golden sun-shaped earrings and wears an orange and yellow dress toned to reflect the sun and to keep her in a happy mood. Her dress has two scalloped collars with sun motifs and amber accents, and a strip of a darker orange color with what appear to be flower patterns on it. It's also notable that there is a rain pattern on her dress that is only noticeable if you look at her close up. She also wears a yellow-orange bandana ribbon with small lightning motifs on it on her head, wearing it in a fashion similar to how her daughter, Dolores wears hers, and orange and brown sandals tied with ribbons on her feet.
Personality[]
Pepa is considered a bit "extra" at times due to her extreme emotionality and constant ups and downs, likely influenced by the fact that it gets stormy whenever she is sad. To help her control her emotions and thus her weather, she chants a mantra, "clear skies", a lot. Her temper is also easily soothed by her husband Félix, who she loves a lot; he can calm her by being flirtatious or even simply placing a hand on her shoulder, and by extent their son Camilo can calm her easily as well.
She cares about her family immensely, especially her children. But she is very serious when it comes to talking about her own brother Bruno, whom she resents at times due to the negative outcomes of his prophecies; one notable example being when he told a joke on her wedding day about it "looking like rain", which the easily emotionally triggered and paranoid Pepa did not take well, accidentally causing her to stress out and create a hurricane with her emotions. Despite this resentment, Pepa was quick to embrace Bruno and welcome him back into the family after he returned from a decade-long absence.
Pepa also sometimes lets her temper get the better of her, and often says things that she doesn't mean, however she will apologize for these things she says.
Relationships[]
- Félix Madrigal: Her husband. Félix is very caring towards her, managing to calm Pepa and helping her through her emotional temperaments, which made her ultimately fall in love with him.
- Alma Madrigal: Her mother. She has a bit of a strained relationship with her mother, who is constantly scolding her for having a cloud or for not keeping her emotions in check. Pepa often snaps back at her mother when she can't keep her clouds under control. Despite this, they do love one another, and Alma shows affection to both her daughters.
- Julieta Madrigal: Her older triplet sister. Pepa is close to her sister and passes along important family communication to her. She relies on Julieta in times of crisis and stays near her.
- Bruno Madrigal: Her younger triplet brother. She resents the fact that he disappeared from the family, and that his jokes led to a hurricane on her wedding day, but when he returns, she's overjoyed to see him.
- Camilo Madrigal: Her middle child and eldest son, with whom she is very close. After she is upset by a failed proposal dinner for Isabela, Camilo tries to calm her down with a cup of tea as he speaks affectionately towards her.
- Antonio Madrigal: Her youngest child/son. Pepa treats Antonio very affectionately, calling him Toñito and crying with pride at how he is "all grown up" when it is time for his gift ceremony.
- Mirabel Madrigal: Her youngest niece. She gets along with Mirabel, but is quick to scold her when she mentions Bruno. Though when Dolores basically blabs about Bruno's vision with Mirabel to everyone on Pepa's side of the family. Pepa, like the rest, was quick to tell Alma. When Isabela's proposal dinner goes awry, she's quick blame her niece for the incident. After the Casita is destroyed, Pepa shows concern and helps everyone look for Mirabel.
- Isabela Madrigal: Her eldest niece. Not much is known about their relationship, but they are generally very supportive of one another. Isabela encourages Pepa when she's stressed by giving her her favorite flowers, and Pepa supports Isabela in her relationship with Mariano. She joins Isabela in singing and dancing as they prepare for dinner in We Don't Talk About Bruno. Coincidentally, they do the exact same dance in both scenes where Colombia, Mi Encanto plays in the film (Isabela in Antonio's Gift Ceremony, and Pepa doing the dance under a hail cloud when the Casita is rebuilt).
History[]
Past[]
50 years prior to the events of the movie, on October 17th[5], Pepa was born to Pedro and Alma Madrigal, along with her triplet siblings Julieta and Bruno. When she was still just a newborn, her family was forced to flee their home. After Pedro was killed and the miracle granted, Pepa moved into Casita in Encanto with her mother and siblings. When she and her siblings turned five, they were granted magical gifts. Pepa gained the ability to control the weather with her emotions.
Pepa met Félix at some point in her life after receiving her gift; he was very good at helping her calm down when she was in a bad mood, causing her to fall in love with him. On the day of their wedding, Pepa's brother Bruno teased her, saying it "looked like rain." This caused her to become extremely worried that rain truly was going to ruin their wedding, generating a hurricane. She held onto resentment toward Bruno for this, even though she was worried when he vanished. Over the next several years, Pepa and Félix had three children: Dolores, Camilo and Antonio.
Encanto[]
Pepa worrying about how Antonio's gift ceremony will go
On Antonio's fifth birthday, Pepa anxiously spent the better part of the day agitated over whether her son's gift ceremony that evening would go perfectly, as Mirabel's ceremony 10 years prior had ended with Mirabel not getting a gift or a door and being publicly humiliated, and with Bruno vanishing from the family. Pepa's anxiety stirred up a whirlwind, which was calmed with help from Isabela. Later on, when Pepa went to collect Antonio to bring him downstairs for the ceremony, she couldn't find him, generating a cloud over her head. She argued with her mother over it and asked in frustration what her mother wanted from her. Mirabel eventually found Antonio and brought him down to where Pepa was waiting with her husband and other two children. Pepa expressed tearful pride that Antonio was "all grown up," producing a cloud that began to rain. Félix shooed the cloud away, telling Pepa she was getting Antonio all wet. Pepa and Félix told Antonio they would meet him at his door. As they waited at the top of the stairs during the ceremony, they clasped each other's hands nervously, hoping for a good outcome to the ceremony. Pepa was relieved and delighted when Antonio received the gift of communicating with animals, and hugged him joyfully once he gained and explored his new room. She then joined her entire family (without Mirabel) for a family portrait.
The next morning, Pepa joined her family for breakfast. As she went to sit down, Mirabel cut in front of her and took her seat, prompting a small thundercloud over Pepa's head, which Félix easily calmed. She expressed annoyance as Mirabel kept interrupting the family meeting.
Pepa shooing away her cloud
At some point in the afternoon, Pepa went to the nursery to gather the last of Antonio's things and move them to his new room. As she entered the nursery, she heard Mirabel mutter Bruno's name, and immediately began thundering. She tried to shoo the clouds away, to no avail, as she scolded Mirabel for bringing up Bruno. Mirabel attempted to ask her what it might mean to be involved in one of Bruno's prophecies, and Pepa tried to change the subject to getting ready for Isabela's proposal dinner, but Félix burst in and insisted on telling Mirabel about Bruno's prophecies. Pepa scrambled angrily to interrupt him and keep him quiet before finally giving in and explaining why they didn't talk about Bruno. After her discussion with Mirabel, she went to help set the table for dinner.
Pepa attempting to calm herself down during Mariano's proposal.
During the proposal dinner, Pepa sat on one side of the table with her immediate family. Félix leaned over to whisper to her, passing along what Dolores had learned about Mirabel finding Bruno's last vision. This agitated Pepa, causing her to develop a thundercloud. Alma pointed it out, and Pepa stroked her braid while chanting her mantra, "clear skies," to try and calm herself, to no avail. She whispered to Julieta about Mirabel and the vision. As the tension began to escalate, a bolt of lightning from Pepa's cloud startled Pico the toucan. As Bruno's vision was revealed to the whole family and Dolores proclaimed that they were all doomed because of Mirabel, cracks spread throughout the dining room, everyone's magic began to fritz out, and a gust of wind from Pepa's cloud blew open the window, revealing a crowd outside waiting to congratulate Isabela and Mariano on their engagement. The cloud then began to rain, soaking everyone in the room. As the family evacuated the dining room, Pepa yelled at Mirabel as she passed, demanding to know what Mirabel had done.
Pepa being comforted by Camilo
Pepa retreated to her room to try and calm herself, but the storm she'd created continued to rage inside the house. Camilo brought her tea and attempted to lead her through calming breathing techniques. But when Mirabel slammed into the wall behind Pepa's room while chasing Bruno, she startled Pepa, who accidentally zapped Camilo with her lightning, causing him to involuntarily shift rapidly between the forms of various family members.
Pepa later went downstairs, where her anxiety caused a snowstorm above her head, which Félix tried in vain to clear away. When Alma told Pepa to calm down, Pepa angrily shot back that she was lucky it wasn't a hurricane.
Later that same day, Pepa heard Alma and Mirabel arguing in the courtyard and came to investigate, arriving in time to see their argument escalate to yelling and accusations that the other was the one hurting the magic and the family. This caused the Casita begins to destroy around her and the candle begins to go out. As the house started to break down and everyone started to stumble on the cracking floor, Pepa was caught by her husband in order to keep her balance and screamed in alarm when she realized that the candle was about to fall out of a window, to which other members of the family in response rushed to save the candle. She watched helplessly as Mirabel, Camilo and Isabela all tried to reach the candle despite the danger it represented. As the magic starts fading, and the house starts collapsing, the Casita forces everyone, except Mirabel out of the house. After Casita collapsed completely and the candle dies along with the magic, Pepa checked on her family to make sure they were unhurt, calling desperately for Julieta to come help her. When Julieta noticed Mirabel went missing, the Madrigals and the other townspeople spread out to search for her.
The next morning, Pepa was relieved to see Mirabel return safely, and along with Julieta embraced their mother when Alma apologized for putting so much pressure on her family. When Alma revealed that Bruno had returned to the family, Pepa gasped with joy and ran to scoop her brother up in a hug. Bruno then attempted to apologize to her for her wedding, explaining that he was just trying to help her with her nerves. He encouraged her to show her emotions, to which Félix replied that he was always saying the same thing. As Bruno continued to apologize, Pepa encouraged him to come into the light (stop hiding) and be a part of their family again.
Pepa helped her family rebuild Casita. As Mirabel got ready to place the last piece, the knob of the front door, Pepa watched proudly and encouraged Mirabel. Pepa was then shocked and delighted to see the magic return once Mirabel placed the doorknob. She, along with everyone else present, was swept into the house, where she was able to generate a small hailstorm, under which she and Félix danced joyously. She then joined her family for a happy and complete family portrait.
Powers and Abilities[]
Pepa generating a storm from her anger
Pepa has the power of Empathetic Weather Manipulation; she can control the weather through her emotional state; happiness causes warmth and sunshine, whereas frustration, stress, and sadness causes storms and heavy rain. If Pepa gets deeply upset or frustrated, she can cause snowstorms or hurricanes. When feeling these negative emotions, a cloud will appear over her head and follow her wherever she goes. Depending how strong the emotion she is feeling the cloud will increase in size; in fact, she can even inflict her emotions onto actual clouds instead of having a singular one above her and can cause rain and other types of weather onto there, along with being able to summon a tornado around her. If she calms down and tries to stay positive, usually by saying "clear skies" multiple times, the cloud will go away.
She has very little control over her gift, because if she gets too stressed or scared Pepa can hurt people around her with lightning or strong winds. Initially she could only control the weather when she is happy, such as manifesting rainbows around the Casita and in family photos. However after letting her feelings go and no longer trying to hold them back or hide them, Pepa was shown creating a light hailstorm, one thing she does when she's frustrated despite being happy. Showing her new mastery of both her emotions and her ability, meaning that Pepa maybe can summon any weather anywhere she prefers without having to feel a certain emotion. Despite her powerset, she is not all that powerful because although she can create storms in spaces the size of a room, she is unable to create a large natural disaster even if she tried.
Trivia[]
- Pepa's birthday is on October 17th[5].
- This means that her star sign is Libra.
- This date is significant in Colombia for multiple reasons. It's the anniversary of the start of the Thousand Days War (1899) and is one of two dates used for Columbus Day and Día de la Raza, a day to celebrate the ethnic and racial diversity of Colombia.
- Pepa's gift was originally going to be indestructability, but because it was too similar to Luisa's gift, it was changed to emotional weather manipulation.[6]
- She, unlike her calmer and more modest sister Julieta, seems to hold a very noticeable grudge against Bruno.
- She has a much paler skin tone and different hair color than almost everyone in the entire family, reflecting the racial/color diversity in some Latino/Colombian families.
- She is the only one of Alma's triplets to have male children as Bruno has no children and Julieta has three daughters.
- Apparently, no matter where she goes, she still controls the weather, as throughout the film small rain clouds appear over her head sometimes when she is inside a building.
- It is currently unknown just how her gift differentiates from having a small floating cloud/rainbow above her head to full-scale weather like the whole of the Encanto itself being engulfed in a rainstorm as it appeared to be in the The Family Madrigal musical number when Mirabel describes Pepa.
- Pepa may have taught Isabela how to do the dance the latter does on the night of Antonio's gift ceremony when she performs for various townspeople, as Pepa does the exact same dance in the ending scene while under a hailcloud as Félix cheers her on.
- Isabela and Pepa may have quite a strong relationship as Isabela is eager to comfort Pepa with a bouquet of flowers, dance and hold hands with her during the preparation of Isabela's proposal dinner and even do the same dance, which may mirror the strong family relations between aunts and daughters in a lot of Latina families, or may simply be because their gifts both apply things to the environment around them rather than affecting themselves.
- According to the books Disney Encanto: The Deluxe Junior Novelization, Pepa sometimes worries about the fact that Antonio doesn’t talk very much.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ https://twitter.com/thejaredbush/status/1475265626717372417
- ↑ https://twitter.com/thejaredbush/status/1468482383682818049
- ↑ https://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2021/09/10/encanto-character-details/
- ↑ https://www.vitalthrills.com/encanto-movie/
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://twitter.com/thejaredbush/status/1504961910579490817
- ↑ Chores!