Hotel busboy who aided injured Kennedy
LOS ANGELES — Juan
Romero, the hotel busboy who went to the aid of Robert F. Kennedy after the New York senator was shot in Los Angeles in 1968, has died. He was 68.
Longtime family friend Rigo Chacon said Thursday that Romero had died Monday at a Modesto, Calif., hospital after a heart attack.
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.
Romero held the mortally wounded Kennedy, struggling to keep the senator’s head from hitting the floor. He placed Rosary beads in Kennedy’s hand and reassured the senator everything would be all right.
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.
For 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.
Eventually Romero overcame his guilt, thanks in part to the support of Kennedy fans who told him that he was an example of the kind of people Kennedy sought to help.
Born 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. as a 10-year-old.
The family lived in blue-collar East Los Angeles. He got a job at the Ambassador Hotel as a dishwasher and later as a busboy. Romero met Kennedy the day before the California primary, when the senator and his aides ordered room service. He saw Kennedy toward the back — one hand holding a curtain and the other gripping a phone. Kennedy put down the phone and waved Romero to come forward.
“I will never forget the handshake and the look … looking right at you with those piercing eyes that said, ‘I’m one of you. We’re good,’” Romero said.
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.