MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—”THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
“Your letter won’t arrive until Friday or Saturday,” the man behind the counter at the post office told me. “We have a holiday this week.”
“A holiday?”
“Thursday is a holiday.”
I felt confused. It wasn’t unusual for me to feel lost and confused when I landed on American soil. After living overseas since the age of 19, spending most of my life on the other side of Atlantic, I often feel like a fish out of water when I arrived in the USA.
I’m often unfamiliar with music, food, drinks, TV shows, restaurants, clothing style, stores, etc. I guess now I can add holidays to my list.
“It’s June. What holiday is in June?”
“June 19 is Juneteenth.”
Now, I felt really confused. Now, I felt disoriented, stunned, and ignorant.
“I’ve never heard of that. Where have I been?’’
“In Europe,” my mother said laughing.
I asked the post office employee what we were celebrating or remembering on June 19. His answer was a bit vague.
As usual, I put on my cultural awareness glasses . . . along with my journalistic hat and my investigative mind.
Here’s what I found:
Juneteenth was established in 2021 as the newest U.S. Federal holiday.
“A holiday celebrated on 19 June to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved peoples in the US. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, enslaved people were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.”
When I read it, I paused. Yes, June 19 was a holiday to remember . . . remember what happened, remember the trauma, remember the slavery, remember the cruelty, remember the inequality. It was also a holiday to celebrate . . . celebrate freedom, celebrate human rights, celebrate equality, celebrate unity.
I was touched. My anti-trafficking work in Spain, The Strawberry Girls, is devoted to fighting for those trapped in slavery, those whose truth has been silenced, those bound in chains, those treated unjustly, those whose human rights have been stolen.
FREEDOM.
That’s what Juneteenth is all about. That’s what my fight against human and sex trafficking is all about.
FREEDOM.
Let’s pause now to remember. Let’s pause now to celebrate. Let’s pause now to fight.
The battle for freedom and justice is not over. Our fight continues.
“Although slavery is illegal in every country in the modern world, it still exists, and even on the narrowest definition of slavery it’s likely that there are far more slaves now than there were victims of the Atlantic slave trade.”
Now that you know, what are you going to do about it?
My letter will arrive late. However, it doesn’t matter. It’s Juneteeth day!
REMEMBER, CELEBRATE, FIGHT.
—THE CULTURAL STORY-WEAVER
MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—”THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
LET’S WEAVE CULTURES!
Did you know that today is Juneteenth? How can you pause to remember, celebrate, and fight for freedom from slavery today?
We invite you to tell us your own cultural stories and global adventures . . . as you engage with the world, breaking down barriers, building bridges, and “weaving cultures”! Write about them in the comment box below.
