Once again the season of giving thanks has arrived. We are about to finish the month of November; this year 2025 has had 11 months and it has passed before us very quickly.
Now the celebration of Thanksgiving is approaching. Many of us look forward to this gathering to sit down for a family dinner, spend an evening of celebrations, seeing relatives and friends who perhaps we do not see throughout the year. Being around the table enjoying delicious food prepared with a lot of care and even to talk about the memories we have in the family.
However, for many families, this year perhaps is not one of joy, of food on the table with flavors of home.
This 2025, thousands of families will not be reunited, they will not be seen around the table or they will cut that sweet and tasty pumpkin or pecan pie. Many have been separated from their loved ones, there will be children who do not have their parents, brothers who cannot reunite, and friends who will not arrive to the gathering to celebrate among laughter and anecdotes.
The mass deportations that Donald Trump ordered against “criminals”, “the worst of the worst” and to “those who break the law”, have separated thousands.
They have ripped hardworking and good people from their homes, whose only crime was coming to work to give their family a better life.
This “Thanksgiving Day” will be of fear, of unease, of sadness, of missing those who were removed from this country. For many, instead of smiles, there will be tears, there will be a void at their tables and in their hearts.
Many perhaps will try to reunite with their loved ones wherever they were sent, but perhaps the economy will not permit and they will have to settle for a video call where surely there will be smiles that hide the tears of distance and of uncertainty.
It is ironic, because if we turn to the history of this tradition, part of this history that is on the website of the United States government, which means it is ‘official’ information, it says that this tradition originated in 1621, when the English colonists celebrated, with the natives of the area, the success of their first harvest for three consecutive days.
Of the colonists who had arrived the previous year, on the ship “Mayflower”, to the Plymouth Colony, part of the present state of Massachusetts, only half managed to survive the first winter, which is why the successful harvest of the following year was a reason for celebration and gratitude.
The celebration of the colonists, in which they shared turkey, pumpkins and dried fruits with the natives, today is known as the first Thanksgiving Day; however, it was not repeated until many years later.
In 1789, President George Washington declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday, which that year was celebrated on Thursday, November 26.
If we pause to reflect, it was the natives giving welcome and help to the European immigrants who arrived to colonize these lands, who now want to expel the new “pilgrims”, who work the fields and who put the food on their tables.
There is uncertainty, there is sadness and perhaps there is not a lot of excitement to celebrate this Thanksgiving Day.
Although, as good Latinos we must move forward and be more resilient this season.
What do you think?
