In an announcement Saturday, Mr. Kennedy mentioned the occasion was meant “to honor Cesar Chavez and his shut friendship with my father, my household and me, and his influence on our nation.” In an interview Sunday, he mentioned he had repeatedly met with members of the family within the weeks main as much as the occasion, however had heard nothing till reporters referred to as Friday concerning the letter, which he mentioned which the marketing campaign by no means obtained. (The letter was emailed Friday to the marketing campaign's press workplace deal with, a household spokesman mentioned.)
“In fact, if they’d requested me, we might have completed one thing else, very, very simply,” mentioned Mr. Kennedy. “If folks within the household had needed to cancel the occasion, it will have been fairly straightforward for them to select up the cellphone.”
Mr. Kennedy's father shaped a bond with Chavez within the mid-Sixties, when he was a senator, and have become the primary nationwide political determine to embrace Chavez and the farm labor motion he labored to construct. In March 1968, Robert F. Kennedy met Chavez famously whereas ending a 25-day quick that he undertook to do penance, he mentioned, for the violent rhetoric of some strikers.
In 1980, when Mr. Kennedy's uncle, Ted Kennedy, was in search of the Democratic nomination for president, Chavez and his household—together with Fernando Chavez—labored with the Kennedy household, together with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the mobilization of Latin voters, Fernando Chavez. and the youthful Mr. Kennedy each remembered.
On the funeral of Cesar Chavez in 1993, the youngest, Mr. Kennedy, was among the many individuals who took turns to hold the coffin. The letter from the Chavez household expressed gratitude for these bearers, however famous that whereas different elected and future political candidates had been amongst them, “To our information, none of them have introduced the picture of carrying the casket of their political marketing campaign supplies and promotions. We take offense at the usage of such sacred moments purely for political functions.”
