This paper attempts to establish the meaning, message, and discursive uses of the form mirá, and ascertain the process that gives birth to its discursive use. Utilizing data taken from a corpus of naturally occurring conversations, as well as a concordance, this work seeks to prove that the path followed by mirá starts with the meaning 'direct the sight toward an object'. From this meaning derives the message 'consider', from which is derived 'pay attention'. It is this last message that gives rise to the discourse particle. In a subsequent step, this message is further exploited to convey other discourse uses, such as opposition, deviation from expectation, narrative introduction and self-selection.