As a therapist, it’s heartening to see a recent trend in popular culture: movies like “Inside Out” (2015) and “Encanto” (2021) are bringing issues people struggle with in psychotherapy into the mainstream media. The Disney movie “Encanto” tells the story of Mirabel and the Madrigal family and incorporates dynamics of intergenerational trauma, which is something people often grapple with in psychotherapy. By presenting the story of a family in which trauma is transmitted from one generation to the next, “Encanto” helps to normalize the fact of intergenerational trauma’s prevalence in people’s lives.
Upholding an image of family perfection
In the movie, three generations of the Madrigal family live together in a magical house in Colombia. Abuela, the grandmother, is the matriarch of the family. Abuela is deeply concerned with maintaining the image of her family in the community. She wants to uphold an image of being a perfect family, with much to contribute to the community, and all members of the Madrigal family have to be seen as perfect to support this image. In the first song of the movie, this perspective is evident as the characters sing:
This is our home—we’ve got every generation
So full of music, a rhythm of its own design.
This is my family—a perfect constellation
So many stars and everybody gets to shine.
We swear to always help those around us
And earn the miracle that somehow found us.
The town keeps growing, the world keeps turning
But work and dedication will keep the miracle burning
Each new generation must keep the miracle burning.
Each generation goes along with the expectation that they will uphold the Madrigal family’s perfect image. The family members strive to show only the sides of themselves that are strong, perfect, and invulnerable. Since the family members are human and therefore imperfect like everyone else, they have an underlying fear that their imperfections might be revealed and that they will be shamed by Abuela, for whom anything less than perfection is intolerable.
Maribel’s Story
As the Madrigal children come of age, a gift (a magical ability) is bestowed on each of them. But when Mirabel comes of age, it seems that she is the only one who does not receive a gift. In fact, Mirabel does have certain gifts, but not in the way that her sisters do. For one thing, Mirabel is able to see the future, and she sees that her family is at risk of breaking apart. She sees cracks appearing in the very foundation of their magical house. She understands the cracks as a warning that the family itself is at risk of breaking apart.
Determined to rescue the family from this fate, Mirabel tries to tell her family about the cracks she has seen. Her mother doesn’t believe her. She tells Mirabel to drop this thing about cracks in the house. Abuela too accuses her of making it up. And since Mirabel seems to have no gift, to Abuela, Mirabel’s presence is an unwelcome reminder that the family is not perfect after all. When the family sings, “So many stars and everybody gets to shine,” Mirabel sings along, but in reality, Abuela wants Mirabel to keep out of sight. Abuela tells Mirabel that if she wants to help the family, she should do it by “stepping aside.” Mirabel has no “gift,” and therefore, to Abuela’s way of thinking, she has nothing of value to contribute to anyone.
The Madrigal Sisters And Their Abilities
In truth, the “gifts” received by Mirabel’s sisters have a flipside. The sisters must use their special abilities to perform in certain ways in order to be considered worthy of Abuela’s love. The sisters are expected to make the family look good in the community’s eyes—they aren’t appreciated for who they are but only for what they can do with their gifts. Isabela has the gift of perfection—a perfect smile, perfect poses, perfect beauty. Luisa’s gift is her incredible strength. The sisters fulfill the roles expected of them in order to receive a sense of love and belonging in the family.
Isabela attracts a handsome man with her beauty who she later reveals she doesn’t want to marry—she was going to marry him for the sake of the family. And Luisa reveals that the pressure of being strong and shouldering the family’s burdens is overwhelming. She tries to carry all the weight put onto her shoulders, but the pressure feels like too much. Luisa is afraid of what will happen if she lets the family down. Luisa’s true feelings about living under the pressure of Abuela’s expectations are revealed when she sings:
Under the surface
I’m pretty sure I’m worthless if I can’t be of service
A flaw or a crack
The straw in the stack
That breaks the camel’s back
What breaks the camel’s back it’s
Pressure like a drip, drip, drip that’ll never stop, whoa
Pressure that’ll tip, tip, tip ’till you just go pop, whoa
Give it to your sister, your sister’s older
Give her all the heavy things we can’t shoulder
Who am I if I can’t run with the ball?
If I fall to
Pressure like a grip, grip, grip and it won’t let go, whoa
Pressure like a tick, tick, tick ’til it’s ready to blow, whoa
Give it to your sister, your sister’s stronger
See if she can hang on a little longer
Who am I if I can’t carry it all?
“Gifts” Are Strategies We Developed For Survival As Children
I want to take a step back from the story for a moment to say that the Madrigal sisters’ “gifts” sound like survival strategies they have developed over the course of their childhoods in an effort to live up to Abuela’s expectations, in order to find acceptance and a sense of belonging. Abuela’s expectations have been passed down to Mirabel’s parents and then to Mirabel. Being their authentic selves wasn’t sufficient to receive love and belonging in the Madrigal family.
Key Takeaways
What about in your family? You might have developed a survival strategy too—maybe being the strong one, maybe being a martyr, maybe looking out for everybody else but not for yourself. We use such strategies in an effort to protect ourselves and preserve our connection with our families—that is the wisdom in these strategies. Even though their origins are understandable, our strategies can get in the way of real connection.
In Part 2, we return to the intergenerational trauma in“Encanto.” Do Mirabel and Abuela ever authentically connect?
