What's in a Name?

Madelyn Cervantes

Madelyn "Maddie" Cervantes- Mexican-American ancestry; Maddie Cervantes is a quiet and mild-mannered young girl who occasionally partners up with Mia Vasquez-Rivera during gym class and joins her and Hannah Quigley in playing double Dutch. She is generally very kind to others and much like her younger sister Ronnie Anne is often supportive of those who are in need. While she seems to be unintelligent at times, she actually houses a very wise and open mind and can be surprisingly mature for her age. She tends to appear shy, but whenever something goes wrong, she will speak her mind on behalf of her principles and what she believes to be the right thing. Maddie is well known by her peers as a gifted and realistic raconteur, especially when it comes to horror and mystery stories. She loves solving mysteries and considers her favorite books to be Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein, and she is also a fan of Mary Shelly and Agatha Christie. She is very talented musically and has been shown to be great singer, as she can perform music from several genres, such as rock or pop. She participates in the women's choir alongside Mia and used to take speech classes, which her mother signed her up for in order to give her more confidence. Maddie is usually the first person who will introduce herself to a new student and is caring and compassionate towards those around her. She is very mindful of people and their feelings and likes to find subtle ways to make the world a kinder place, volunteering after school at an animal shelter. Some of her major flaws stem from her stubbornness and headstrong attitude, which can be very trying to others at times and can potentially lead to arguments, including a particularly venomous altercation with Kirsten Lundgren.

She is very understanding however and can be quite helpful during unexpected moments, whether it be in assisting her mother in doing chores or running errands around the house. Maddie's parents first met and fell in love with each other as childhood friends in Texas before choosing to briefly settle down in Barton, California once his father received a job offer there. She has great respect for her heritage and identifies as a brown person, showing great appreciation for the struggles her parents experienced upon fatefully meeting in school during a time in which their relationship was "not allowed". She often jokes that her parents had a complete "Telenovela love story" but has come to fully understand the extent of her parents' challenges and hardships, as well as the lengths they went to navigate race, culture, and religion while fighting for their love. She comes from a rich multicultural background and enjoys eating her father's homemade tostadas, as well as his mole and feels an equally strong connection to her mother's heritage from the Valley. Maddie can also be a bit prideful at times, which becomes more evident due to her tendency to "double down" instead of admitting defeat when she has done something wrong. She can be unrealistic and excessively self-critical, as she is rather ambitious and hardworking, often living up to a specific ideal that is reflected in both her academics and in her personal life. There are instances in which she can appear more relaxed however, and she has demonstrated that she can be a good listener and confidant to others. She is also not averse to having fun and has a side to her that can be quite silly beneath her quiet demeanor, which she mostly shows around her family. Maddie has a close relationship with her grandmother, whom she stayed with alongside her father and Ronnie Anne when her parents lost their ranch and her mother served a prison sentence. 

Her parents are amicably divorced but still remain in good terms, co-parenting their children and doing as much as they can to remain an active part of their lives. Her grandmother is a former architect who can come across as tough and even a bit austere, but is warmhearted and never leaves anyone behind, as she is loyal to those she cares about. She often calls her "Shug" and "Maddie girl" and is an energetic woman who has wrinkles and a head shape that is notably square, with a "beak" like a bird, in addition having a wooden prosthetic leg in place on the right. Maddie also serves as the heart among her relatives and is frequently seen as the person who likes bringing everyone around her together. She can sometimes be interpreted as pacifistic, as she does not believe in violence and always tries to encourage her friends and relatives to talk things out openly. She once tried to overcome this side to herself by attempting to participate as a luchadora with a homemade purple mask and referring to herself as "Ultra Violet". Although she means well and is generally a considerate girl, she can still be somewhat controlling at times, as seen when she wanted to twist the situation in her favor and not admit to her father the "accident" that her sister suffered when she babysat her. Maddie likes to listen to the Smiths and The Rolling Stones in her spare time, although she also loves some Spanish-language music from artists like Jesse & Joy and Camila. She has moments where she likes to dance around randomly in her bedroom and yodel at the top of her lungs, considering this space her "sanctuary". Like Mia, she loves the color purple and has painted her walls lavender, with books being found in nearly every corner and a special space being reserved for her to write at her desk.