Kennedy said in a statement Saturday that the event is intended to “honor Cesar Chavez and his close friendship with my father, my family, and me, and his impact on our country.” He said in an interview Sunday that he had repeatedly contacted family members in the weeks before the event but had heard nothing until reporters called him about the letter on Friday, adding that the campaign did not actually receive the letter. He said there was no. (A family spokesperson said the letter was emailed to the campaign's media office address on Friday.)
“Of course, if they had asked me to, we very easily could have done something different,” Kennedy said. “If family members had wanted us to cancel the event, it would have been very easy for them to pick up the phone.”
Mr. Kennedy's father befriended Mr. Chavez in the mid-1960s, when he was a senator, and became the first national political figure to support Mr. Chavez and the farm labor movement he was trying to build. He said he famously sat with Chavez in March 1968 when Robert F. Kennedy ended a 25-day fast he had undertaken to repent for the violent rhetoric of some of the strikers.
In 1980, when Mr. Kennedy's uncle, Ted Kennedy, was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Chavez and his family, including Fernando Chavez, were involved in the Kennedy administration, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both Fernando Chavez and the younger Kennedy recalled working with the family to mobilize Latino voters.
At Cesar Chavez's funeral in 1993, a young Kennedy was among those who took turns carrying the casket. The Chavez family's letter thanked the pallbearers, who also included other elected officials and future political candidates, but added, “To my knowledge, no one has included images of coffins in political campaign materials or promotions.” We resent the use of such a sacred moment for purely political purposes. ”