"Welcome to the family Madrigal."
Columbia, the turn of the century. Alma meets Pedro Madrigal and falls in love. They marry and, soon after, Alma gives birth to triplets. The War of a Thousand Days wreaks bloody havoc across the country, eventually reaching the newly wed Madrigals' once idyllic town. They flee into the mountains by candlelight and are pursued by soldiers, hellbent with murderous intent. Pedro stands his ground and is killed. In a moment of intense grief, Alma's mutant gene is activated, resulting in a firestorm that engulfs the soldiers and reduces them to dust. Using her telekinetic powers, she constructs a rocky encanto that protects the villagers from their persecutors. At the centre of this fortified sanctuary, Alma creates a casita, into which she bestows a portion of her psyche; possessing it like a ghost would a haunted house. The candle that Pedro gave Alma before his death is also transformed into a physical manifestation of her gift. Alma convinces the townspeople and her family that this 'miracle' has come from an outside source, and that the candle must be protected - through "work and dedication." During periods of inner turmoil, however, the candlelight wavers and is inevitably extinguished when Alma's carefully constructed world collapses - not from the whim of an unseen godlike benefactor, but from her own emotional state of being.
"But something inside them is growing."
When the Madrigal triplets come of age, they each exhibit supernatural powers of their own: Julieta has the ability to heal, Pepa can control the weather and Bruno is precognitive. Alma's grandchildren also develop super powers, all except for Julieta's daughter Mirabel; or so it would seem. In fact, Mirabel's powers rival those of her abuela Alma; although, for the most part, they are dormant. Without conscious effort, Mirabel can move at extraordinary speed (or slow down time) and see events before they transpire. And at the end of the film, she subsumes Alma's telekinetic abilities.
"The unspoken, invisible pain."
Alma's trauma at the loss of her husband manifests as a compulsive need for perfection, to the detriment of her family. Of her children, Pepa is the most affected by her mother's psychosis, resulting in her own bipolar condition. Bruno also bears the psychological scarring caused by an emotionally distant parent. His OCD behaviour escalates when he exiles himself after having a vision of Mirabel as the catalyst for the dysfunctional Madrigal family's breakdown.
"Under the surface, I'm pretty sure I'm worthless."
Alma's grandchildren are also affected by her matriarchal tendencies; particularly Mirabel's sisters, who buckle under the constant pressure of perfection that Alma demands. Isabella lashes out at those who would undermine the facade she has created to protect herself, while Louisa's self doubt eventually inhibits her super strength, rendering her powerless. When Mirabel discovers the secret truth of the Madrigal family, that the 'miracle' is intrinsically linked to her abuela's emotions, Alma dampens the abilities of all the Madrigals in retaliation.
"The miracle is you, not some gift, just you."
It's only when Alma accepts responsibility for her toxic behaviour that her family's powers are restored, and Mirabel's powers truly awaken. Mirabel suffuses the new casita with part of her own psyche, supplanting Alma as the Madrigal matriarch and securing their dominion and rule over the village for another fifty years.