, the composer of Hamilton. It tells the tale of the magical Madrigal family who live in an enchanted house hidden in the mountains of Colombia. Every member of the clan is blessed with an extraordinary gift – except 15-year-old Mirabel who is struggling to find her place in the family.. It’s about unconditional love, understanding your worth and the burden of living up to family expectations.
– for my money the catchiest song of the movie. It’s sung by middle sister Luisa Madrigal, who has superhuman strength but feels the stress of always having to be the strong one. “Give it to your sister, it doesn’t hurt, and see if she can handle every family burden,” Luisa sings. Martinez filmed herself after friends pointed out her resemblance to Luisa. Her video has been viewed more than 35m times.
Franco is the first woman to score a Disney animated feature, and was the first Latina composer invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ music branch. She says of Disney Animation hiring more diverse voices: “I notice the difference in the meetings. Having Yvett Merino sitting in and Charise [Castro Smith, co-writer of Encanto] sitting in, I’m not the only person of colour in the room, which has been my experience on many projects.
Merino believes that this storyline of intergenerational trauma and expectation goes some way to explain the emotional responses from Latinx audiences – such as Maribel Martinez’s TikTok followers. These are first- and second-generation immigrants who grew up listening to stories of their parents and grandparents’ sacrifices: “These stories stay with you,” Merino says. “I heard how hard my parents worked to give us a better life. You hold that in you.