Separate but not divided: Art-based inquiry on attachment and resiliency among displaced Puerto Rican families in Central Florida post Hurricane Maria

Abstract

Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017. The destruction displaced and uprooted families. Combining the Person-Process-Place Attachment Framework and Walsh's Family Resilience Framework, we examined how families in migration negotiated cultural and geographical separation as a family resilience process. This study piloted an art-based inquiry method. Families co-created art postcards and posters prompted by themes. We conducted focus groups to discuss art pieces. Nine different Latino family units in central FL participated in the intervention and focus groups. Families expressed conflicted attachments through feelings about displacement in migration and those left behind due to opportunities in the new migration context. Through visual and verbal representations, they expressed a liminal tension in the process of relocation (detachment) with a family-driven resolve on resiliency (reattachment). Understanding the process of family separation and displacement has on resilience through attachment can lead to future development of family interventions and better understanding of how to foster resilience. Attachment theory and resiliency played key roles in the participating families' process of adaptation to new migration settings.