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Teddy Belonged To Our East Los Angeles Clan

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Fighting Sargassum

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   When I was a kid, I didn't understand the hold that the mythic, dynastic Kennedy clan seemed to have on my Mexican-American family. To me, they were just politicians, and I wasn't interested in politics. The Viva Kennedy signs I occasionally saw around East Los Angeles and El Paso meant little to me. I remember visiting one of my older relatives and thinking it was funny that they had a picture of JFK on the mantle, among our family pictures.

   But the Kennedys of Massachusetts loomed large in our home.  My father was always proud of meeting Robert Kennedy during my dad’s days as a community organizer.

   My grandpa was impressed when I went to Harvard because it was where “los Kennedys” went. 

   It wasn't until I had completed law school that I felt the pull of the Kennedy mystique.  Caroline Kennedy was in my class, and by chance my family was seated near hers at graduation.  It was the most extraordinary sensation for me, sitting under a stuffy tent on a rainy June day, to look over at the bleachers and see my parents, brothers and aunts — alongside Jackie O, JFK Jr., and Senator Ted Kennedy. I was a totally assimilated, middle class Chicano, but this was my “Only In America” moment.

   Hispanics have long related to the Kennedys because we saw ourselves in them. They were the proud descendants of immigrants, and retained what some people thought were funny accents. They were Catholic, like most of us. And they were a big, loving, dysfunctional family.

   Just as the elite in Hyannisport had their problems, we Latinos know what it is like to have a cousin who just can't get it together, or sister who marries someone la familia doesn't like.

   In the not-so-good old days, there were few Latino elected officials and leaders. It was Robert Kennedy and later Ted Kennedy who helped bring César Chávez to national prominence by supporting his grape and lettuce boycotts during the 1960s and ’70s. Ted Kennedy was the keynote speaker at the founding convention of the United Farm Workers.  

   Before we had strong advocacy groups of our own, Ted Kennedy was a champion for Hispanics. He came from a state with a tiny Latino population, and yet he embraced our causes as his own. He played major roles in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which ended racial discrimination in schools, public places and employment, as well as the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed voting practices that disenfranchised people of color. 

   Kennedy was a tremendous supporter of immigrants.  He sponsored the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which did away with a quota system that favored Northern Europeans and literally changed the face of our country. In fact, immigration was a Kennedy priority long before he took up the cause of universal health care. 

   During the conservative Reagan years, Kennedy remained a proud defender of affirmative action, bilingual education and programs for the poor and underprivileged. He helped negotiate the landmark 1986 amnesty bill that allowed two million undocumented persons to become citizens. More recently, he worked with Senator John McCain on comprehensive immigration reform and endorsed then-Senator Barack Obama at a pivotal moment in his candidacy. 

   It was sad and bittersweet to me, watching the funeral of Senator Kennedy.  But I couldn't help but feel the hope and boundless optimism for which he was famous.

   Our amigo Teddy empowered our community like no other individual. As long as Latinos continue to fight for our civil rights, his tremendous legacy will endure.

   (Raúl Reyes is an attorney practicing in New York City. Email: [email protected])

   ©2009

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