Breaking the Encanto

Grew to live in fear of Bruno stuttering or stumbling I could always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling … Millions worldwide cope with the vestiges of fleeing due to persecution, material and structural violence, and the impossibility of building a lasting life project. Many carry on in silence, constantly struggling with finding a place for themselves. Walt Disney’s Encanto depicts some of these conflicts attached to the stillness and invisibility produced amid forced displacement. It is a story of how silence serves as a tool of social discipline, which keeps personal traumas and political claims hidden, and of how in coping with them, we are left to our own devices. It invites a reflection on the need to break the silence that renders struggles in forced displacement invisible. The movie narrates the story of the Madrigals. Except for Mirabel, the protagonist, and her Abuela, each member of...