Hijas de Sobrevivientes: Daughtering as Intergenerational Healing Praxis in Salvadoran Families and Community

By Joanna Beltrán Girón & Alexis N. Meza

Abstract

As daughters of survivors of the US-backed civil war in El Salvador, the authors of this article use trauma-informed approaches to explore the possibilities of transcending intergenerational and historical trauma and soul loss through testimonios, daughtering, and healing-centered artistic practices. Daughtering is used as the methodology and analytical framework to describe the sacred intergenerational exchange that occurs when parents share their testimonios with their daughters about their experiences during the war, rupturing the culture of silence and isolation produced by emotional-psychological-political wounding and opening a pathway to assist their parents in collectively transmuting the sequela of the war.

When parents pass down their testimonios and the emotions attached to those stories, their daughters bear witness to, hold, and carry their experiences that have otherwise been historically undermined, and at worst denied, by the state. The authors use historical- theoretical-poetic writing and provide personal reflections on their participation in the Healing Circles for Justice, a community-based project by The Mauricio Aquino Foundation/Our Parents’ Bones that they suggest was critical in supporting their collective grieving and healing, 40+ years delayed grieving and healing.

In the context of a continued denial of justice, accountability, or repair, the authors argue that these intergenerational stories become embodied archives of justice and reconciliation through the practice of personal-collective healing.

Keywords: Arts-Based healing / Body mapping / Embroideries / Daughter- ing / Historical trauma / Intergenerational healing / Soul wound / Poema testimonial / War sequelae

©2026 Feminist Formations, Vol. 37 No. 3 (Winter) pp. 19–62