As A Latine And Someone Diagnosed With OCD, I Want To Talk About Bruno And How He Is Presented In The

As a Latine and someone diagnosed with OCD, I want to talk about Bruno and how he is presented in the film.

A lot of Latinos, specifically Colombians, have argued that Bruno can’t have OCD because he performs standard superstitious rituals like knocking on wood, crossing his fingers, etc.

It is important to note that superstition is incredibly common in Latino communities. I have family and friends who partake in superstitious rituals in overt ways without being diagnosed with OCD. I believe the heightened spirituality and expression in Latino communities compared to gringo communities in the US is why so many Latinos are defending his rituals and are pushing back against Bruno being seen as OCD since he is performing standard rituals within the community. This post is not to argue that these rituals aren’t common superstitions, nor that it’s wrong to interpret him as not having OCD. This is more to discuss why people interpret him as having OCD and to clarify some misconceptions about the relationship of OCD and superstitious rituals.

Let’s discuss how OCD works and then why it might apply to Bruno Madrigal.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a subset of other anxiety disorders. People with said disorder frequently have intrusive thoughts or urges that force them to perform a certain action to ease this anxiety (compulsions). These compulsions can literally be anything. It can be repeating a certain phrase, walking a certain way, or even self destructive. These actions are designed as a preventative measure to ease anxiety, but ironically they have the opposite effect by producing more anxiety if the action is performed and only produce temporary relief.

These actions might be things that lots of neurotypical people do (ex. sorting books by color). What matters for the diagnosis is that the person in question feels like they have to perform the action and feel immense distress when they don’t.

So, how does that compare to superstitions? Superstitions are rituals that people perform also to prevent bad things from happening. The difference here is context. When people perform superstitious rituals, they do not experience immense distress at not performing the action correctly or at all. For example: “I’m hoping it doesn’t rain on my wedding day. Knock on wood.” The person in question is specifically performing this action to prevent rain from occurring on their wedding day. They do not feel like they have to perform the ritual and do not experience extreme distress as a consequence for not performing the action.

For someone with OCD, the ritual is far more specific, repetitive, and includes a deep sense of dread when not performed. For example: “I just thought that I might have rain on my wedding day, so I must knock exactly three times and if I don’t do the pattern exactly right, I will have to re-perform this action until it is. I will also have to do this ritual every single time I think of rain on my wedding day because then I jinxed it by thinking about it.” The repetition, sense of dread, and how long the ritual is present all indicate that this is a compulsion rather than just warding off bad luck.

OCD and superstitious rituals are often extremely difficult to distinguish from one another which is why it is difficult to divorce them when interpreting text. In fact, the two are often tied together because they follow the same, “If I don’t do X, then Y will happen, so I must do X,” logic.

Let’s look at Bruno now. He has a few ritualized activities. He knocks on wood while saying, “Knock, knock, knock on wood,” ending with knocking on his head.

[GIf Description: Bruno Madrigal is walking down a hallway. He begins by holding his breath and crossing his fingers. He releases his breath and begins knocking on wooden planks as he passes them ending with him knocking himself on the head.There is text at the bottom of the gif that says, “knock knock knock knock knock! knock on wood!” /end ID]

He avoids stepping on cracks while singing, “Sana, sana, colita de rana. Si no sana hoy sanara mañana.”

[Image Description: A screenshot of page 62 of the official Encanto script. The script says, “Tio Bruno: ‘Sugar.’ (he tosses sugar on her)/ And keeps walking past rows of Hanging Aloe Plants, then does a hop skip and a jump over a series of cracks on the ground. / Tio Bruno (continued): ‘Sana sana, colita de rana.’ “/end ID]

He throws salt and sugar over his shoulders.

[Gif Description: Bruno Madrigal is sitting in a rainforest clearing. He is closing his eyes and holding a pile of salt in his right hand. He flings the salt over his left shoulder and lights a match. There is text that says, “swoosh,” as he performs the ritual. /end ID]

He holds his breath and crosses his fingers when walking through entrances/exits or sometimes down hallways.

[Gif Description: Bruno Madrigal is crossing his fingers and holding his breath as he walks down a hallway. /end ID]

All of these are pretty standard rituals for superstition and bringing on good luck. I’ve certainly known people who openly knock on wood and throw sugar over their left shoulder, particularly in Latino communities. However, what matters is how it is presented and whether it is compulsory. So, let’s look at how it is presented in the film. 

He performs these rituals at very specific times in the story. His knocking on wood and holding his breath are the most common so we’ll look at those first. He knocks on wood in three separate instances. The first and second instance is when he first meets Mirabel just before and after he enters the area of the house with the cracks he has patched. The third time is when he is entering the secret entrance into the walls of the house. As for holding his breath and crossing his fingers, he first performs it when entering the hallway with all of the cracks. The second time is when he is entering the portrait into the walls.

In the first instance of both rituals, he stops the conversation he is having with Mirabel to perform these rituals and then resumes acting as if nothing happened. The final instance is at the end of a conversation with Mirabel. Superstitious behaviors don’t tend to be disruptive or distracting. Usually people knock on wood after ending a sentence whereas Bruno performs this ritual while Mirabel is speaking to him, disrupting the flow of conversation. It is also important to note that Bruno is unique for performing them, further othering his character.

OCD, is usually single-minded. Individuals can avoid performing the ritual, but doing so causes immense distress. The obtrusiveness of the action indicates that it is more likely OCD than superstition.

Looking at how it is presented in the text, it appears that these rituals are supposed to be strange and unique to Bruno. Nobody else performs them and Mirabel is confused by them.

Let’s look at what this might mean thematically.

In the film, Bruno is clearly presented as awkward and socially anxious. We can easily interpret this as a consequence of him living in the walls for a decade with Mirabel asking, “How long have you been down here?”  when Bruno introduces her to Hernando and Jorge. While she doesn’t necessarily react the same way to his various rituals, these superstitious actions can be seen as a consequence of his isolation. He is clearly supposed to be considered the weird uncle, so incorporating heightened superstition plays into that role and adds to his stigmatization as being “Bad Luck Bruno.” Having OCD would make sense as an interpretation merely to add to his othering in the film and clear instability after being isolated for so long. What’s more, Bruno can be interpreted as the “Identified Patient” in the family with how he was treated like there was something wrong with him. This constant blame and othering from his family would likely push him to want to prevent further isolation because of his bad luck. Furthermore, it feeds into a common experience in Latino households to diminish the neurodivergence/ other disabilities of members in the household. It is not that uncommon for Latino households to ignore neurodivergence because “everyone is like that.”

Personally as someone with OCD and a Latine, I read Bruno as having OCD because he performs rituals to, what appears to be, a compulsory level. He may have reasons for these compulsions and common superstition might be part of it, but this is true for my own compulsions as well. I also have to avoid stepping on cracks. I learned about the superstition of stepping on a crack and thus had to perform precise rituals in order to avoid stepping on them. I experienced and continue to experience major distress because of this superstitious ritual. Yes, it is a common superstition, but it became a compulsion for me because the bad luck became an anxiety trigger.

Looking at how Bruno is presented, it’s entirely possible that this is what happened to him based on what we know. He is related to Bad Luck and ostracized for it. He performs common rituals to ward off bad luck. He is further ostracized for said strange behavior.

Now, there is evidence online for him being OCD outside of the text by the writers.

[Image Description: A screenshot of page 61 of the Encanto script. The script says, “Tio Bruno: (tapping a wall, OCD) Knock, knock, knock. Knock on wood.” /end ID]

Clearly, he was intended to have OCD by the writers. Now, most people are not going to pull up the script to see that he is intended to have OCD explicitly by the text, but there is still evidence in the film to support it as I laid out above.

A lot of Latinos don’t want to acknowledge the possibility of him having OCD because it feels like normal aspects of our culture are being erased. The fact Bruno has OCD does not negate his latin culture, nor does it negate how superstition is tied to Latinos. Just because I relate to Bruno and his OCD doesn’t mean he’s no longer Latino and it doesn’t suddenly mean you and/or  your family have OCD. We’re all part of the same community and we’re all going to relate to certain characters in different ways. This is more just to state that superstitious rituals can be OCD rituals as well.

TL;DR: Bruno Madrigal was intended to be OCD by the text, but many Latinos are hesitant to agree because they feel it erases common Latino superstition. It is not uncommon for superstitions to become OCD compulsions and it is often difficult to distinguish the two in general which is why people interpret Bruno in different ways.

Floorplan of the Casa Madrigal (Encanto)

I didn't see anything about this online, so I went through the movie and managed to map out the house as best I could. Keep in mind that the bedroom sizes aren't accurate since they are magic.

If you care to read some very in-depth analysis about this house, check out everything under the cut

First, a note. I actually forgot a door right where I put the label "1st floor". There is a little green door there, I put a picture in the section titles "Camilo's dance hallway"

Ok disclaimer all these screenshots came from YouTube so my apologies in advance for the quality of some of these.

The 3rd floor

The "3rd floor" is just a few rooms. On the right is "Bruno's tower" but there's also a room that they keep the candle. Abuela seems to have access to this from within her room. There is also an area on the left that has some windows (on the outside) but it's unclear what this is, who it belongs to, and how to access it. It's possible all of this is Abuela's space.

Bruno's tower - 2nd floor

There's this weird empty space near the stairs next to Luisa's room. It seems to just be a wall, and based on the outside I'm simply assuming it's part of Bruno's tower and it's inaccessible from the main part of the house.

Mirabel's magic door

Each kid is on the same side of the hall as their parent (Pepa's kids are all on the "left", Julieta's are on the "right"). Based on the weirdly large gap between Luisa and Isabela's doors, it's safe to assume that Mirabel's was supposed to be in between them. However, it's not totally clear.

During the flashback to Mirabel's ceremony we actually see Abuela's photos in the background (the ones where she poses with all the kids). This seems to just be an error though, since these photos are between Abuela and Pepa's doors, and Pepa's door is clearly not visible in Mirabel's flashback but is VERY visible when Antonio gets his door.

It's also possible that they just moved the pictures lol. If that's the case, then is means the pictures used to be on the wall outside the nursery.

Inside the walls

Unfortunately, I could not map out the path Bruno and Mirabel walk inside the walls. The sequence is all over the place, so the only things I know for sure are the entrance point (just beside Dolores' door) and Bruno's wall-room (which we know if behind the family tree mural in the dining room).

In all technicality, the inside of the walls shouldn't be as easy to navigate as the movie shows. There should be a lot of doors and windows that block a walking path, but it's possible we just don't see them (this could also be why Bruno does so much parkour; he's avoiding the windows).

Pepa's corner room?

On my layout of the first floor, I labeled the corner room as "Pepa room". This is NOT her magical room, but instead the area we see here

We never see this room again and have no idea how it connects to the house, since we don't have any other angles and we never see any doors leading to it. We do see a door on the area I labeled "walkthrough", and since we never see what's inside that door, it lead me to believe it might be this isolated room where Pepa can go calm down (notice the raindrops, weather vane, and picture of Antonio. This is a room she goes to a lot).

You may be wondering if this is instead Pepa's magical room, but I don't think it is. We see this room just after Mirabel runs down some very tight stairs inside the walls. The fact that stairs could fit in the walls here led me to believe that they were in the walls of Bruno's tower (perhaps the part I marked as "inaccessible" on the 2nd floor), which just so happens to be above this room on the layout.

Either way, the fact that Mirabel ran DOWN stairs means she was now on the first floor, which means this is not Pepa's magic room.

Patio

We see the family gather to eat breakfast on this little patio area outside. There are two doors that lead here, one from the dining room and the other from the kitchen.

Pedro's portrait and the entrance

Just before Antonio's gift ceremony, we get to see how the stairwell with Pedro's portrait connects to the house.

Mirabel and Antonio come down the Pedro stairs and into the room with the flower curtain. When the curtain opens, we see Antonio is standing in the entrance foyer (if you look closely, you can even see the door to the nursery above him).

The one error

Surprisingly, this movie did a very good job of making the character move around the house in a logical way. Every time I saw a character go from one area to another, I'd follow their path on my map and find that it worked! The ONLY time there is ever an error is at the very start of the movie. Mirabel slides down the Pedro stairs before we see this:

We see the nursery door in the top left and the foyer below it, and Mirabel is walking through the "general living space" (in other scenes, we see this area sometimes has hammocks, couches, and a coffee table set up). Based on the way she's walking though, she would technically be going into Pedro's staircase.

When I first started mapping this out, this scene actually threw me off because I assumed she was going to the dining room. But after going through every other scene in the movie, I realized that this scene was just a little wrong.

To make this all make sense, we can just assume that she simply wandered around between shots.

Camilo's dance hallway

During "we don't talk about Bruno", Camilo has a little sequence in this... random hallway

Thanks to the quality of these screenshots, I had to boost the image on the right to show that there's a door behind him.

I initially had no idea where this hall is supposed to be, but I figured it out, it's the area I labelled "walkthrough" on the first floor (directly under Abuela's room). The walls are the same, the green door is in the right place, and even though it's not in the screenshots, Camilo DOES pass those wall sconces during his dance. The floor is even the same, all they did was move the furniture out of the way.

Anyways, that's all. Thanks for reading!

If this gets enough love (or I see a demand for it) maybe I'll make a fully coloured version with detail and stuff

When I was training to be a battered women’s advocate, my supervisor said something that really blew my mind:

“You can always assume one thing about your clients; and that is that they are doing their best. Always assume everyone is doing their best. And if they’re having a day where their best just isn’t that great, or their best doesn’t look like your best, you have to be okay with that.”

Any now whenever anyone in my life, either a friend or a client, frustrates me, disappoints me, or pisses me off, I just tell myself They are doing their best. Their best isn’t that great today, but I have days where my best isn’t that great either. 

So I've read the Encanto script and I want to share some of my favourite lines

She's happy, she trips, she's pissed 😂😂

"We find the very handsome Mariano"

I wish we got to hear Félix call her those cute nicknames!! :( HE CALLS HER PEPITA

And the "Iike a goddamn angel" jskkkdlldl

Yikes-

Casually smashing a boulder to underscore her toughness

HER NEW EDGY PLANTS

Adkkdkd Bruno-

Part 1 / Part 2

Maestro’s Respite

Remember my post about the creepy bruno smile Headcanon?

Well!! I’m super super happy you guys wanna see it as a ficlet or a mini-story!!

I’m not much of a writer though (yet) but I decided my call to action would be better suited visually so!! Here !!

My winter’s break over starting tomorrow, so I’m not super certain how posts will go, but thank you guys so much for your incredible support!!