CIW's Lucas Benitez: "My colleagues and I are here today from Florida... in the company of so many distinguished champions of this great democracy, because Mrs. Kennedy knew it takes all of us, from farmworkers to presidents, to defend the human rights she held so dear."
CIW's Greg Asbed: “Her embrace of our work in Immokalee connected us to history, to the history of the civil rights movement, to the history of the farmworker movement, to the history of all who have fought to hold this country accountable to its great promise of equal justice and equal rights."
On October 10th, Ethel Skakel Kennedy passed away peacefully, surrounded by the love of her famously large family, at the age of 96.
One week later, on October 16th, over 1,000 friends, family, and admirers -- including President Biden, former Presidents Obama and Clinton, artists Stevie Wonder and Sting, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers -- gathered in Washington, DC's spectacular Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle to celebrate Mrs. Kennedy's extraordinary life.
Mrs. Kennedy lived a life true to the tenets of her faith, defined by an unwavering commitment to social justice that stretched across two centuries. From the movement to expand fundamental civil and human rights to all Americans in the 1960s -- a turbulent decade that claimed the life of her husband, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy -- to the struggle to protect and preserve our country's fragile democracy today, Mrs. Kennedy never shied from joining in the fight to make the country, and the world, a kinder, more equal, more humane place.
Indeed, over two decades ago, Mrs. Kennedy joined the CIW in our fight against exploitation and abuse in the fields, when she awarded three CIW leaders -- Lucas Benitez, Julia Gabriel, and Romeo Ramirez -- the 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for their groundbreaking efforts to end modern-day slavery and bring abusive farm bosses to justice. Mrs. Kennedy presented the award to the trio of CIW leaders at a gala ceremony in the US Senate, and then promptly joined us in the streets of DC at a protest outside a Taco Bell restaurant (right).
It would be the first of many, many times that Mrs. Kennedy joined us in the streets, from her 2006 visit to Immokalee to kick off the "RFK Memorial Poverty Tour: A Tour for Social and Economic Justice", to her annual appearances with hundreds of farmworkers and their allies on marches along glamorous Worth Avenue in the heart of her winter home of Palm Beach, Florida, calling on Wendy's -- and her fellow Palm Beach resident, billionaire investor Nelson Peltz -- to join the Fair Food Program.
But perhaps the greatest highlight of the past two decades of Mrs. Kennedy's tireless solidarity came in 2012, outside Publix headquarters in Lakeland, Florida. In a heartfelt callback to her role in supporting Cesar Chavez's historic hunger strike for farmworker rights in 1968, in which Mrs. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy joined Chavez for the breaking of his 25-day fast, Mrs. Kennedy joined dozens of farmworkers and their allies in ending their own fast calling on Publix to join the Fair Food Program (below) in an emotional and unforgettable ceremony:
And so it was with all those countless moments of solidarity in mind that we sat down in the days before her memorial to put our love for Mrs. Kennedy -- and our loss in her passing -- into words. The very decision by the Kennedy family to include the CIW in a line-up of speakers made up of some of the country's most important political leaders and beloved artists itself speaks to the depth of Mrs. Kennedy's commitment to social justice. Our role on the star-studded agenda was to represent all the human rights defenders who have known her support, to be the voice of all the many communities over the decades to whom she has lent her power and position in their fights against exploitation and abuse. Our job was to share the Ethel Kennedy that we knew with the world one last time, the Ethel Kennedy who never wavered in her love for those people and communities who do the hard work in our world with little or no reward, who live on the margins of society and must struggle for every inch of progress, who have no voice in the halls of power that Mrs. Kennedy knew so well, and into which she welcomed them with such uncommon grace.
It was a daunting job, but one we were infinitely honored to be given. Here below is the tex of our eulogy in full, the bulk of which was presented by the CIW's Lucas Benitez and Laura Germino, the closing by the CIW's Greg Asbed (you can find the C-SPAN video of the entire service here, with the CIW's participation starting at the 1:59:46 mark):
Lucas Benitez and Laura Germino:
My colleagues and I are here today from the land of swamps and hurricanes, in the company of so many distinguished champions of this great democracy, because Mrs. Kennedy knew it takes all of us, from farmworkers to Presidents, to defend the human rights she held so dear. She was the rare person who cares not who you are, but what you do for democracy, freedom and equal rights.
I came alone as a teenager to what would become my beloved adopted county, looking for work in America’s tomato fields and citrus groves, after growing up in a one-room, dirt-floor shack along with my five siblings (a big family, but not quite as big as the Kennedys!…). And 30 years ago, when we as farmworkers from Immokalee began our fight against forced labor, sexual harassment and assault, and wage theft in the fields, Mrs. Kennedy (together with her daughter Kerry) stood with us from the very start. Ethel saw the promise in our early efforts to bring brutal farm bosses to justice when no one else did, awarding us the RFK Human Rights Award two decades ago, lifting us up from Immokalee’s dusty streets to celebrate our efforts in the hallowed halls of the US Senate, and she stuck with us ever since, as that early promise grew into transformative change.
She picketed with us is in the streets as we boycotted Taco Bell. She visited us in the fields and in our homes, and brought her friends with her to Immokalee to join the fight, leaders like John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, and Senator Bernie Sanders. She used her powers of persuasion to convince McDonald’s executives to join our growing program for human rights. And she led marches with us in her beloved Palm Beach not once, but many times. I would push her in her wheelchair along Worth Avenue, her straw hat shielding her from the sun, past jewelry stores and shops selling furs. Her friends and neighbors would stop her and say “Ethel, what in the world are you doing?” And she would say, “Come along and march with us, for justice and freedom!” And many of them dropped whatever they were doing and did! Who could say no to Ethel?
Thanks in large part to her decades of untiring support – it’s never about just showing up, it’s about sticking around – today, we can say that we have built the most effective human rights enforcement program in the US agricultural industry, the Fair Food Program, which has eliminated modern-day slavery and sexual violence in the fields, and has forged America’s strongest workplace heat protections against the ever-worsening climate crisis. We are in 23 states and counting, and our partners include 14 of the world’s largest corporations.
Mrs. Kennedy, we thank you, and as we say in Mexico, a person only truly dies when they are no longer remembered by anyone, and you, Senora Ethel — a true force of nature — will never really leave us because you will always live on in our hearts and our memories, in Immokalee and anywhere a farmworker harvests the food that feeds our nation.
Greg Asbed:
As Lucas said, Mrs Kennedy was a true force of nature — but unlike the hurricanes of our home state, she changed the world with an uncommon grace.Her greatest joy — her superpower — came in helping others find and amplify their own voices, in sharing her power with those that the rest of the world considers powerless.Her embrace of our work connected us to history -- to the history of the civil rights movement, to the history of the farmworker movement, to the history of all who have fought to hold this country accountable to its great promise of equal justice and equal rights. And she gave us the courage to grab that arc of the moral universe and bend it, with everything we had and everything we have to this day, just that much closer to justice.Among her many loves, Ethel Kennedy... loved people... who do hard work.And workers in the fields across this country love you, too, Ethel. And they will carry you in their hearts always as we continue our work — your work — to make this world a kinder, more equal, more humane place.Thank you.
"Ethel Kennedy, hero to Immokalee workers, will 'live on in our hearts'", Naples Daily News/Ft Myers News Press, 10/16/24
"Ethel Kennedy recalled as champion for Immokalee farmworkers: 'Who could say no to Ethel?'", Palm Beach Post, 10/18/24
"Ethel Kennedy’s life and legacy celebrated at cathedral memorial service", Catholic Standard, 10/17/24
"Coalition of Immokalee Workers among eulogizers for Ethel Kennedy," WUSF/NPR, 10/19/24
And, finally, to honor Mrs. Kennedy's commitment to the Fair Food Program, we hope you can find the time today to reach out to Wendy's and Publix to let them know that, while Mrs. Kennedy may no longer be with us, you will carry her torch to the end of the race until both companies are proud partners with the farmworkers in their supply chains whose hard work every day makes their companies' profits possible. You can contact Wendy's here, and Publix here.
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