Once a useful engine: a multilevel ethnographic case study on the
transgenerational transmission of migratory trauma in Mexican-American families
in a sanctuary city
#MMPMID41340849
Fernández-Apan ML
; Hamui-Sutton L
Front Psychiatry
2025[]; 16
(?): 1638643
PMID41340849
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This article explores migratory trauma from an anthropological perspective, using
the case study of Dani, a Mexican-American adolescent diagnosed with autism and
anxiety. Through an extended case methodology and the use of ethnographic
vignettes, it examines the transgenerational transmission of trauma in migratory
contexts, along with the school, linguistic, and emotional barriers migrant
families face. The interpretive analysis of Dani 's drawing, Once a Useful
Engine, serves as a central narrative device, symbolizing the tension between
agency and structure in the lived experience of trauma. The article offers a
situated reading of suffering, grounded in the concepts of memory, structural
violence, and the micro, meso, and macro-level dynamics shaping Dani 's and his
family's trajectory. Findings underscore the need for culturally responsive
intervention models and propose public policy recommendations aimed at addressing
the complexity of migrant family experiences in a more integrative and just
manner.