Maya & Miguel



Maya & Miguel (2004-2007) is an American educative animated series about the misadventures of a pair of Hispanic children. As the Expository Theme Tune states, they are "brother and sister and best friends as well." The series seeks to make Hispanic culture more familiar to the audience and also teach some Spanish words in the process. Unlike some other Edutainment series, Maya & Miguel is actually well-written and humorous, although it does suffer from the use of Gratuitous Spanish and too much focus on the ethnicity of the characters.

Maya Santos is an energetic pre-teen girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent who can't resist helping people with their problems even when not asked to; this invariably causes trouble but her brother Miguel, despite pointing that out, always ends up helping her anyway. Everything ends well by the end however. The series seems set in the real world; the only unusual sight is how Maya's hairband glows whenever she has an idea, but that seems to be visible only to the viewers. Her Catch Phrase is "Eso es!" ("That's it!")

Other characters in the series include their parents, their grandmother, their friends (which include a white boy with only one arm) and Paco, a talking parrot.

Tropes seen in the series:
"Chrissy: Maya, have you ever heard the expression "less is more"?
 * Annoying Younger Sibling - Maya, to Miguel (who's three minutes older)
 * Big Brother Mentor - In "I Got to be Mi-guel", Tito thinks Miguel is cool and wants to be like him (much to Maya's jealousy), so Miguel teaches him (which annoys Maya).
 * Bishie Sparkle - Esperanza sees Miguel like this.
 * Black Best Friend - Theo to Miguel, at least before Andy came along.
 * Catch Phrase
 * "¡Éso es!" (That's it!)
 * "What about Paco, what about Paco?"
 * Cool Old Lady - Abuelita Elena
 * Cute Shotaro Boy - Maya & Miguel's cousin Tito
 * Dark Is Not Evil - While Sinister Sombrero is El Guamazo Lopez's nemesis, outside of the ring he's really a nice guy who loves romance novels.
 * Feud Episode - "The Big Fight" (with Miguel and Theo: they were having a remote-controlled car race that goes wrong, and they blame each other) and "Friends Forever?" (with the girls over a book report and Miguel was teaching Theo and Andy soccer skills for the same position on the same team)
 * Five-Token Band - Maya & Miguel (half-Mexican/half-Puerto Rican), Theo (smart African-American), Andy (blonde white kid born with one arm), Maggie (fashionable Chinese), and Chrissy (somewhat naive Afro-Dominican).
 * Gentle Giant - Jimmy McCorkle
 * Gratuitous Spanish
 * Half-Identical Twins
 * Head Pet: Paco occasionally sits on Maya's head.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!
 * Hot for Teacher - Miguel has a crush on the substitute teacher, Ms. Cisneros, in "Crushed".
 * Masked Luchador - El Guamazo Lopez and his nemesis Sinister Sombrero.
 * Polly Wants a Microphone - Paco
 * Remember the New Guy - An unnamed boy is with the Santos family while they play soccer in "The Biggest Thanksgiving Ever".
 * Say My Name - "Maya. Maya! MAAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
 * Say My Name Trailer: One commercial had a montage of Miguel saying "Maya" and Maya saying "Miguel" repeatedly, with the last two parts being Say My Name.
 * Snooping Little Kid - Maya
 * Strange Minds Think Alike - "Tito's Mexican Vacation"

Maya: That is so weird. Miguel said the same thing to me just this morning."


 * Third Person Person - Paco
 * This Is My Side - In "A House Divided", Maya and Miguel split the apartment in half with tape. This results in not being able to use the bathroom, walking to school without an umbrella, and working on a project together on separate sides of the apartment.
 * Three Amigos / Token Trio
 * Maya, Maggie, and Chrissy
 * Miguel, Theo, and Andy
 * Token White - Andy
 * Twenty-Four-Hour Party People - The kids at birthday parties in "Surprise, Surprise" and "The Red Jacket"
 * Voice Actors - Nika Futterman (voices Miguel)
 * Wonderful Life
 * Word Girl - Started as a series of shorts in the show.
 * Write Who You Know - In "The Adventures of Rabbit-Bird Man", Maya, Tito, Maggie, Chrissy, and Theo help make Miguel's comic book Rabbit-Bird Man for a contest. Each of them creates their own character: Tito Tollo (Tito), The Fashionista Police (Maggie and Chrissy), and Robo-Theo (Theo)
 * You Are the Translated Foreign Word
 * You Meddling Kids - Maya