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Robert kennedy busboy5/15/2023 Romero said he carried the guilt of the shooting for much of his life, believing Kennedy would not have been shot if he did not stop for just those few seconds to shake hands with the young man who served him dinner. A Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan is serving a life sentence for the assassination. The photo of Romero and Kennedy appeared on front pages of newspapers and television all over the world within hours. Romero went to his high school the next morning with Kennedy’s blood still staining his hand. He asked Romero if everyone was OK and the stunned young man replied yes, before he was pushed away and questioned by police. Romero pressed rosary beads into the gravely wounded senator’s hand. In one of the most haunting and poignant photographs of a violent era, Romero was seen kneeling next to the expressionless Kennedy, holding up his head with blood dripping from the back. Seconds later, gunshots were fired and Kennedy dropped to the floor. New York Senator Robert Kennedy had just made a speech after claiming victory in the California Democratic presidential primary.Īs he walked through the hotel kitchen, Kennedy stopped to shake hands with Romero, who had served the senator a room service meal a day earlier. News photographers captured images that would be seen all over the world.The Mexican-born Romero was an 18-year-old busboy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. Voters went to the polls the next day, and that night Kennedy thanked supporters in the hotel’s Embassy Room before leaving through the kitchen, where the gunman opened fire. “He wasn’t looking at my skin, he wasn’t looking at my age. looking right at you with those piercing eyes that said, ‘I’m one of you. “I will never forget the handshake and the look. Kennedy grabbed Romero’s hand with both hands and said, “thank you.” For a moment, there was silence. “All I remember was that I kept staring at him with my mouth open,” Romero said. Kennedy put down the phone and waved Romero to come forward. He saw Kennedy toward the back - one hand holding a curtain and the other gripping a phone. Romero was on duty and came into the room with a group of other busboys. He met Kennedy the day before the California primary, when the senator and his aides ordered room service. He got a job at the Ambassador Hotel as a dishwasher and later a busboy. Romero feared he would face trouble at home if he took part in the protests. The family lived in blue-collar East Los Angeles and he attended Roosevelt High School the year that Chicano students started organizing walkouts to protest discrimination against Mexican-American students. “I still have the fire burning inside of me,” Romero said while publicizing the Netflix documentary “Bobby Kennedy for President.”īorn in the small town of Mazatan in the Mexican state of Sonora, Romero moved to Baja California until his family received permission to bring him to the U.S. The moment, captured on film, became an iconic image that haunted Romero for most of his life because Kennedy had stopped to shake his hand moments before he was shot.įor many years, Romero blamed himself for Kennedy’s death - wondering if he could have done something to prevent the shooting or if Kennedy might have survived if he had not stopped to shake his hand.Įventually Romero overcame his guilt, thanks in part to the support of Kennedy fans who told him that he was an example of the type of people Kennedy sought to help in making racial equality and civil rights a cornerstone of his life’s work.Įarlier this year, Romero told The Associated Press in a rare interview that Kennedy inspired his lifelong commitment to racial equality. He placed Rosary beads in Kennedy’s hand and reassured the senator everything would be all right. Romero held the mortally wounded Kennedy, struggling to keep the senator’s head from hitting the floor. Romero was a teenager in June 1968 when Kennedy was shot in the head while walking through the Ambassador Hotel kitchen after his victory in the California presidential primary. Longtime family friend Rigo Chacon said Thursday that Romero had died at a Modesto, California, hospital on Monday, following a heart attack. Kennedy after the New York senator was shot in Los Angeles, has died. LOS ANGELES-Juan Romero, a hotel busboy who came to the aid of Robert F.
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