Episódio 39: Finding My Roots (Buscando minhas raízes)

Duolingo English for Portuguese Speakers Podcast

Antes de começar, um aviso: a primeira história traz um relato histórico da escravidão e do trauma do racismo.

Quando era pequena, Joycelyn Davis não pensava na história da sua família.

Ela é de uma cidade chamada Africatown, no estado do Alabama.

Africatown foi fundada, ou founded, pelos antepassados de Joycelyn.

Eles foram as últimas pessoas escravizadas a chegar nos Estados Unidos.

Eram sobreviventes, ou survivors, de uma viagem brutal pelo Atlântico.

When I was growing up, I often heard the story of how my ancestors came to live in Africatown, many years ago.

You can see relics of the past all over the town.

The church that my ancestors founded is still there, and outside of it, there’s a bust of a man named Cudjo Lewis.

He was one of the survivors of the Clotilda, the ship that brought my ancestors to the United States.

Mesmo estando imersa nessa história, Joycelyn nunca tinha pensado em fazer alguma coisa pra preservá-la.

Até que em janeiro de 2018, surgiu a notícia de que alguém teria encontrado os destroços do navio negreiro “Clotilda”.

E, de repente, Africatown encheu de gente.

Todos queriam ver os supostos pedaços do navio e falar com os moradores.

Foi assim que Joycelyn foi parar numa reunião com uma curadora do Museu Nacional de História e Cultura Afro-Americana.

I talked to the curator from the museum, and I told her that my great-aunt had events at her house to honor our town’s history.

I said I always thought that was so cool, and that I wanted to do something like that.

A resposta da curadora foi algo que Joycelyn nunca esqueceu — e que mudou sua vida pra sempre.

Ela cobrou um posicionamento de Joycelyn… e a desafiou a fazer algo a respeito, ou called her out.

She asked, “So, what are you doing?” I realized she was calling me out.

But it was a good thing.

So right then and there, I said, “Now it’s time for me to do something.”

Welcome to “Histórias em Inglês com Duolingo”.

Eu sou Helena Fruet.

Nesse podcast, você vai poder praticar inglês no seu ritmo, ouvindo histórias reais e emocionantes.

Os protagonistas falam um inglês simples e fácil de entender — perfeito pra quem tá aprendendo.

Nesse episódio, temos duas histórias de pessoas que se reconectaram com as suas raízes familiares, ou family roots.

Antes de entrar na história, uma pequena observação.

Nossa primeira narradora é do estado do Alabama, no sul dos Estados Unidos.

Por isso, você vai notar que nas palavras que terminam em “I-N-G”, ela não pronuncia o “G” final.

Por exemplo:

Including.

Em janeiro de 2018, um jornalista do Alabama publicou uma reportagem com uma revelação impactante: ele dizia ter achado destroços do Clotilda, o último navio que levou pessoas escravizadas pros Estados Unidos, segundo registros históricos.

Esse navio tava sendo procurado há décadas por muita gente, e a notícia repercutiu no país inteiro.

Journalists and academics from all over the country came to Alabama to cover the story.

Some people were already interested in the history of the Clotilda, but other people weren’t interested until the journalist said he found the ship.

Ainda não era certeza se aqueles eram mesmo os destroços do Clotilda.

E todo aquele alvoroço deixou Joycelyn um pouco confusa.

Por que os destroços, ou wreckage, de um navio que tinha afundado há mais de 150 anos eram tão importantes?

For some people, it was important to find the wreckage of the Clotilda to make the history real.

We already had a lot of evidence that the ship existed, including the captain’s diary.

There was also a lot of oral history, including stories from my relatives and other community members.

But until then, I felt none of that mattered to the rest of the world because there was no physical evidence of the wreckage.

Joycelyn sabia que a história era real, independentemente dos destroços serem do Clotilda ou não.

Ela tinha ouvido aquela história a vida toda.

O tataravô dela foi uma das 110 pessoas sequestradas na África Ocidental e levadas pros Estados Unidos presas a correntes, ou chains, no Clotilda em 1860.

Seu nome de nascimento era Oluale, mas quem o capturou chamou ele de Charlie Lewis.

Por isso, Joycelyn chama ele de Charlie Oluale.

The trip from Africa took almost six months.

They were in chains most of the time.

I often imagined what my ancestors’ lives were like.

I wondered what they were doing when their captors arrived.

I imagined myself on the ship.

It was probably so confusing and sad.

They were taken away from their families to a strange place.

Depois que Charlie chegou nos Estados Unidos, ele foi forçado a trabalhar como escravo numa plantação do Alabama por cinco anos.

Mas com o fim da Guerra Civil em 1865, todos que tinham sido escravizados foram libertados, ou freed.

After they were freed, Charlie Oluale and a few other people from the Clotilda saved their money and bought land.

They founded this place, Africatown, in 1870.

They started their own school and their own church, which I still attend.

When I was a kid, we had annual celebrations at the church, to honor that it was built by our ancestors.

Mas ainda tinha muita coisa que Joycelyn não sabia sobre seu tataravô e os outros sobreviventes do Clotilda.

I didn’t know which part of West Africa he was from, or what his life was like before his captors took him away.

I also wanted to know the name of his wife, my great-great-great-grandmother.

Durante vários anos, Joycelyn achou que não tinha como saber mais.

Aí aquele jornalista disse que tinha encontrado os destroços do Clotilda.

De repente, outros jornalistas, historiadores e arqueólogos foram pra Africatown, assim como a curadora do Museu Nacional de História Afro-Americana

I talked to her about honoring traditions, and I told her about the celebrations we had in the community when I was a kid.

And she asked, “What are you doing?” In that moment, I realized that I needed to do something.

I asked myself, “How can we celebrate the people that were on the ship and their ancestors?” So, I decided to organize a festival.

Enquanto todo mundo tava focado nos destroços do navio, Joycelyn decidiu organizar um festival pra celebrar as pessoas que tinham viajado nele.

E quem sabe aprender mais sobre elas.

Ela pensou em convidar todos os descendentes daqueles viajantes.

I wanted the descendents of the Clotilda survivors to come together and tell stories about their families.

Because we all knew each other, but we hadn’t shared stories.

I went to school with a lot of the descendents, and we just never talked about it.

Quando teve a ideia, Joycelyn não sabia quantas pessoas viriam, se é que alguém ia vir.

Ela divulgou o evento nas redes sociais e na igreja.

E pra surpresa dela, as pessoas responderam! E não só descendentes, mas também outras pessoas que queriam participar.

Everyone wanted to help, and many people gave me ideas and recommendations for the event.

For example, I was introduced to someone who sells African clothing and someone who does African drumming.

A whole community came together to contribute.

O festival ficou marcado pra um sábado de fevereiro de 2019.

Um historiador que tinha escrito um livro sobre o Clotilda daria um discurso, e teria até um desfile de moda com tema africano.

Quando chegou o dia, Joycelyn tava nervosa.

There were some technical difficulties at first.

But there was a lot of support.

People asked a lot of questions about the Clotilda.

Some people even asked how to find more information about their ancestors.

We also had an interactive fashion show, and we asked everyone wearing African clothing to join.

And then, the man doing African drumming asked some kids to drum with him.

I thought that was really cool.

Mais de 100 pessoas foram ao festival.

E como Joycelyn tinha previsto, ao reunir todo mundo, ela aprendeu mais sobre a história da sua família.

I learned my great-great-great-grandmother’s name from a book about the people who arrived on the Clotilda.

I also learned that Africatown was a place where you could play drums, get a haircut, and have a good time.

Women in the town made clothing for their families and sold things at the market.

And when I learned all of this, I felt closer to my ancestors.

No fim, acabou que os destroços que o jornalista tinha achado não eram do Clotilda.

Mas… três meses depois do festival, Joycelyn recebeu uma mensagem de um membro mais velho da comunidade.

Ele pedia pra ela ir pro centro comunitário de Africatown às 3 e 45 da tarde pra ouvir um anúncio.

When I arrived, there were a lot of people from outside the community there.

And they announced that they found the Clotilda.

The real one! It was at the bottom of the Mobile River, but they were able to identify it by its size and the type of wood it was made of.

They wanted us to be there at the community center because at four o’clock that day they were going to announce it to the world.

Embora aquele primeiro jornalista não tenha encontrado o navio certo, a reportagem que ele escreveu levou a uma busca pela verdade, além de ter feito Joycelyn organizar o festival.

Everyone in the community already knew that the history of the Clotilda was real.

But this discovery made our town famous around the world.

It also inspired me to continue organizing festivals.

I want young people in the town to be involved because it will be their responsibility to remember and honor our history.

And that responsibility will be given to future generations, just like it was given to me.

Joycelyn Davis cresceu sabendo quem eram seus antepassados.

Já Rachel Dorsey viveu a maior parte da vida sem conhecer a família biológica do pai.

Rachel cresceu no estado de Washington, na costa oeste dos Estados Unidos.

Mas o pai dela era da província canadense de Terranova, ou Newfoundland, a milhares de quilômetros de distância, na costa atlântica.

My dad left our family when I was a baby.

I only met him twice, once when I was 13 years old, and again when I was 16.

Then when I was 31, I learned that he passed away.

My mom didn’t know much about his family, except that an American couple adopted him when they lived at a military base in Newfoundland.

But not even my dad’s adoptive parents knew much about his biological family.

Desde criança, Rachel tinha uma relação bem próxima com a avó, que era a mãe adotiva do pai dela.

Mas ela sempre se perguntava sobre seus avós desconhecidos, os avós biológicos.

Were my dad’s biological parents still alive? Did he have brothers and sisters? Did I have aunts and uncles I never met? I wondered about that a lot.

A mãe de Rachel nunca falava muito sobre o pai dela, o que deixava ela ainda mais curiosa.

Então em dezembro de 2017, ela decidiu fazer um teste de DNA, ou DNA, pra tentar saber mais sobre sua família biológica.

Geralmente, pra fazer esses testes, a pessoa manda uma amostra de saliva pra ser analisada pelo laboratório de uma empresa de mapeamento genético.

I was always curious about DNA tests.

But they’re kind of expensive.

So, when I saw that there was a sale, I decided to try it.

I wasn’t really expecting anything important to happen, though.

Rachel comprou o teste de DNA no Natal e mandou pro laboratório.

Com base nos resultados, eles iam comparar o material genético de Rachel com o de qualquer possível familiar, mesmo se fosse apenas um parente distante.

I felt anxious while I waited for my results.

After a few weeks, I finally received them.

The results showed people who might be related to me, and many of those people were Canadian.

I knew that they had to be my dad’s relatives! Then I became really curious.

Rachel ficou animada pensando em todos os parentes que ainda não conhecia, mas os resultados não diziam qual era a relação dela com aquelas pessoas.

Por isso, ela enviou os resultados pra outro site, que prometia mais precisão.

Mas a resposta também foi confusa: era só uma lista de números e endereços de e-mail.

I really didn’t understand what the numbers meant.

It was very confusing, and I wasn’t sure what to do.

Finally, I just picked the biggest number I saw.

I thought, “This number is probably important because it’s bigger than all of the other numbers.”

Rachel mandou um e-mail pro endereço que aparecia junto com o maior número, explicando que ela tava procurando a família do pai.

E em pouquíssimo tempo, ela recebeu uma resposta!

Someone emailed me back and asked, “Can you tell me your dad’s name and where you are from?” After I told her, she said I should contact a woman named Cora, and she gave me her phone number.

Já passava das 10 da noite em Terranova, mas a mulher disse pra Rachel ligar pra Cora imediatamente.

E foi isso que ela fez.

Cora answered the phone immediately, but I wasn’t sure exactly what to say.

So, I just explained that I was looking for my dad’s family.

When I said his name, Cora told me she was my dad’s cousin — and that she spent all of her life searching for him!

Rachel mal podia acreditar.

Depois de vários anos se perguntando sobre a família biológica do pai, ela descobriu que eles também tavam procurando por ele! E não podia ter sido num momento melhor.

Cora tinha feito o teste de DNA uns anos atrás, mas nunca tinha feito nada com os resultados.

Até que a mulher pra quem Rachel tinha mandado o e-mail, uma amiga de Cora, convenceu ela a enviar os resultados pra um site, na mesma semana em que Rachel mandou os dela!

Cora’s friend helped her upload the results of the DNA test to this website.

And then, two weeks after her friend put the results online, we found each other.

We literally put our information on there at the same time!

No telefone, Cora explicou que a mãe dela, que era tia de Rachel, sempre procurou pelo pai de Rachel.

Depois que a mãe morreu, Cora continuou as buscas.

E ela ficou feliz de encontrar sua nova parente.

Cora started calling other relatives and saying, “You’ll never believe what happened.” And then, a couple of days later, I got a call from Cora’s sister.

From the first time I spoke to Cora and her sister, I felt close to them.

It was an instant connection.

No ano seguinte, Rachel falou pelo menos uma vez por mês com Cora e a irmã dela pelo telefone.

E aí, Cora convidou Rachel pra visitar a família distante em Terranova.

I wanted to visit them, but I wasn’t sure when I could go.

And then Cora started telling me about this thing called “Come Home Year.” The idea for “Come Home Year” is to invite people to visit the town where they’re from.

And everyone comes home at the same time.

The cities in Newfoundland do it every couple of years.

And 2019 was a Come Home Year in Corner Brook, which is the place where my dad was born and where Cora and her sisters grew up.

Cora’s sister told me that I should visit Corner Brook and finally come home to my family there.

Rachel ficou feliz com o convite e logo reservou a passagem de avião.

Em julho de 2019, ela embarcou em direção ao leste.

Foram 14 horas de voo, com várias conexões.

I wasn’t nervous because after two years of talking to Cora and her sister, I knew them really well.

We had a strong connection.

When I finally got to the airport in Newfoundland, Cora was waiting for me with her husband.

And she gave me the biggest hug ever.

Apesar de estar tão longe de onde tinha morado a vida toda, Rachel se sentiu em casa ali em Terranova.

Ela colheu frutas silvestres, viu alces e visitou lugares que eram importantes pra família do pai dela.

They took me into town and showed me where my grandmother and great-grandmother used to live.

It was special for me to actually visit these places that are part of my family’s history.

Quando Rachel finalmente voltou pra casa, em Washington, ela sentiu que agora tinha uma nova família.

Now I understand more about where I come from and where my roots are.

My relatives and I have so much in common, even though we never knew each other.

My dad’s family searched for him for 67 years, and then they welcomed me with open arms.

My dad wasn’t a part of my life when I was growing up, and I always felt like he never gave me anything.

But he did.

He gave me his family.

Rachel continua falando com Cora e a irmã dela regularmente pelo telefone.

Nossa primeira narradora, Joycelyn Davis, já organizou outros festivais pros descendentes do Clotilda.

Eu sou Helena Fruet.

Thank you for listening!