What are Juneteenth and Cinco de Mayo in the Project 2025 era?

BY CLAYTEE D. WHITE

Juneteenth is a symbol of black liberation. Like Cinco de Mayo, the history-celebration nexus may be less than precise — but the dates remind us of freedom. June 19 and May 5 have become days that we gather with family and friends to honor the past and revere freedom. 

Freedom as we define it — as we have experienced it — seems to be dwindling in significance. Freedom is a feeling of safety and security; not always has it been justice and liberty for all, but internally, it was. We felt the possibilities and some of us experienced those as realities. 

Cinco de Mayo was once thought of as Mexican Independence Day. In reality, it was the Mexican army’s victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. May 5 has become more of a U.S. celebration, while Mexico celebrates September 16 as the national holiday of Mexican Independence from Spain that took place in 1810. 

Juneteenth commemorates the official emancipation of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865 — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. 

But that proclamation only, “declared that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” According to the National Archives, the Emancipation Proclamation left slavery untouched in loyal states and parts of the Confederacy already under Northern control. The proclamation, though, transformed the character of the war and announced the acceptance of Black men into the Union Army and Navy. Enslaved people were freed when the Civil War ended on April 9. 1865 and officially when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. That amendment forbade chattel slavery across the United States and in every territory under its control, except as a criminal punishment. 

It was two months after the end of the Civil War when troops rode into Galveston. If you believe that the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery on January 1, 1863, which it did not. The time lapse was two and a half years prior to the Galveston notification. 

Today, Juneteenth exemplifies the survival instinct — the ways that we as a community really make something out of nothing. It’s about empowerment and hopefulness. Will Juneteenth 2025 bring a feeling of freedom and justice for all? 

Did Cinco De Mayo in 2025 denote gaiety and freedom like it did in the past? How are Latinos in Las Vegas feeling about their reality in this place where they are about 35% of the population? When the current administration begins to add Haitians to those being rounded up, will all Blacks look alike to ICE?