One Madrigal may have known about Bruno hiding in Casita’s walls in Disney’s Encanto, and a fan theory claims it’s not Dolores. In Encanto, most of the Madrigal family members receive magical gifts. For instance, Dolores (Adassa) has super hearing, allowing her to know all the latest town gossip. Additionally, Bruno (John Leguizamo) can see the future, but not everyone’s a fan of his visions. And of course, Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) doesn’t receive a gift, which causes problems between her and Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero). Ultimately, Bruno has a vision about his niece Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) causing the magical house to crack, so he hides in Casita’s walls to protect her.
Throughout Encanto, Dolores seems to know about Bruno hiding in Casita, but she’s never sure. During “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” Dolores tells Mirabel that she always seems to hear Bruno “muttering and mumbling” in the house. However, a later scene shows she’s not convinced that the sounds aren’t coming from rats, as Dolores tells Mirabel that the rats in the walls are worried about the house cracking. When Bruno finally reveals himself to the family, Dolores tells Camilo (Rhenzy Feliz), “I knew he never left.” She adds, “I heard him every day.”
However, another Madrigal family member may have known about Bruno after all. According to a fan theory (via Twitter), Dolores’s brother Camilo knew his uncle was hiding in the house’s walls. The theory points out that Camilo turns into Bruno during “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” despite his uncle disappearing from the house for a decade. Camilo would’ve been extremely young when he left, so creating an accurate depiction of Bruno is suspicious. Additionally, the Encanto fan theory notes that Disney’s Art of Encanto book shows Camilo shapeshifting into an animal, creating the possibility that he became a rat and learned about his uncle.
Camilo has plenty of opportunities to learn about Bruno. Despite being told not to talk about Bruno, Camilo and Dolores probably did, so Camilo would’ve heard stories about his uncle living in the house from his big sister. Since Camilo could potentially transform into an animal and liked pranks, turning into a rat and traveling through the walls to different rooms fits his personality. As a rat, Camilo could’ve seen his uncle in the house. Furthermore, the young Madrigal family member seems to nail Bruno’s iconic look and glowing green eyes. And it’s strangely accurate for someone who supposedly saw his uncle in person a decade ago.
However, the film doesn’t definitively say whether Camilo knows about Bruno. Though viewers could see Camilo’s lines about his uncle as proof that he’s seen him, it also sounds like exaggerated stories from a child. Notably, Camilo says Bruno is seven feet tall and has rats along his back. The description is wildly inaccurate since Bruno is smaller in stature. However, he might seem huge to a child who only remembers him from a decade ago. Also, Bruno hiding in the house doesn’t seem like a secret Camilo could hold in, considering he immediately blurts out the secret about Mirabel causing Casita’s cracks during a dinner. It’s strange that Camilo knows about Bruno’s pets in Encanto, but it’s even stranger that he didn’t rat on his uncle sooner.