Reflections on healing intergenerational trauma with Encanto

I don’t often center my writing on Disney movies, but I watched Encanto twice last weekend and I cannot stop thinking about the deep meaning elevated in this movie about intergenerational trauma in family systems and the deep power of community support and mutual aid. Wow Disney, you did a thing in this movie. 

**Also full acknowledgment that there are parts that don’t work and healing trauma is not as simplified as this movie makes it out to be. Also I am not Colombian and cannot comment on cultural pieces or missteps.

It really impacted me because it was like looking into a mirror. I saw myself in Maribel and all of the descendants of La Familia Madrigal, as they navigated how the trauma their Abuela and Abuelo dealt with so that the familia could survive. Many families and communities are now 2-5+ generations from large scale violence that is still moving through families and communities. When I think of my family’s stories, the violence of my ancestors is rooted in global antisemitism and one of the events of mass violence that they survived was the holocaust. This is, of course, one example of violence that a people/community survives, and our collective histories are littered with other stories of violence that are still impacting descendants. Healing complex family trauma is complex and difficult, and this movie somehow touches on and lifts up a few things worth noting…

At the beginning of the movie we learn about where “the magic” comes from, which is a moment of deep trauma and anguish when two parents are forced to flee their home from violent (I read as colonial) intruders to their town in Columbia. They take their three babies and with other neighbors flee into the mountains,  and in a moment of one of the parents sacrifices their life to protect all the others, and from this sacrifice and love and anguish the familia’s “magic” is born to protect everyone. 

Now this metaphor that humans need magic to protect them from settler colonial violence is a powerful acknowledgement of how deeply this violence affects all of us. 

Each of the descendants of the two original parents is offered a gift by the familia’s magic, other than Maribel, grandchild of the original matriarch and patriarch. The gifts are a source of pride in the familia and everyone uses their gifts to support their community, while Abuela is the “protector” of the magic that protects them all. We learn from a vision from Tio Bruno that the magic is in danger and that Maribel has something to do with this, and so the story unfolds and we learn some important things from the Madrigal familia…

One pattern of intergenerational trauma transmission  is the sacred protection of the family at all costs, even if the ways we do this are hurting descendants in unintended ways. For the Familia Madrigal, Abuela protects the magic so fiercely that she is not able to see the needs of each descendant and how they are impacted by the pressures and burdens of their unique gifts. In our current terms, this manifested in descendants as experiencing anxiety, depression, overwhelm, dissociation, and having to leave the familia all together. 

Maribel, the only family member without a gift, embraces the calling to save the magic after seeing the vision that the magic and their casa will crumble. Maribel learns from her sisters that the pressures of their gifts are too much, and part of that is maintaining the perception of perfection for their Abuela and their community. Maribel supports them in stripping away this assumption that they must self-sacrifice and appear/be perfect to be worthy. 

And in a moment of conflict between Abuela protecting the magic and the familia and Maribel trying to find a new way forward the vision comes to fruition… the entire casa/casita falls apart and the magic disappears. The tension between the original intention of the magic and the needs of the descendants with the protection of what Abuela believes it should be destroys their entire foundation of the familia. An incredible moment illustrating how descendants can outgrow and heal from the trauma responses and patterns of their elders.

Now the healing continues in the whole family system… Maribel and Abuela find each other at the site of where the magic originated. Abuela finally sees Maribel fully and understands how tightly she has been holding onto what she assumed was “the right way” to protect the familia. She apologizes to Maribel in a moment of beautiful connection, and they are both shown the vision of what truly happened to start their magic and Maribel expresses earnest gratitude to Abuela for protecting them and their familia for all those years. They finally see each other outside of the magic and gifts, and are able to be present in who they are as people. 

“The miracle is not some gift, it is you.”

With their new connection and understanding Maribel and Abuela head back to their destroyed casa/casita, and the family starts to rebuild their home. As the familia come back together the entire town shows up to support them rebuilding their casita even though their magic is gone. The power dynamics in the town previously centered the gifts and magic of the Madrigal familia, and this gesture beautifully illustrates that communities support each other in multitudes of ways and have the power to show up for each other always. 

“Look at this home, we need a new foundation. It may seem hopeless but we'll get by just fine. Look at this family, a glowing constellation.”

And the familia and community build a new foundation for the casita and their lives, and in turn continuing to heal the impacts of intergenerational trauma. 

What powerful messages to young ones and all of us.