It was a country engulfed in the Vietnam War and torn apart by racism when in March 1968 Robert F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for the US presidency as the voice of hope. Exactly 81 days later, he was assassinated in front of television cameras at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. His daughter Kerry, the seventh of 10 siblings at the time (the eleventh would arrive soon), was nine years old when the Kennedy clan, the royalty of American politics, wept at the funeral of another family member. First JFK, then Bobby. It was the beginning of that tragic fate that has always loomed over this family.
Now a renowned lawyer and activist, Kerry Kennedy presides over the RFK Human Rights Foundation. The echoes of Camelot are barely a whisper in today's US, but the Kennedy legacy lives on thanks to this woman with lively eyes and unwavering speech, who in these elections, "the most important in US history," has found herself, much to her regret, in the eye of the political storm.
Kerry is a true Kennedy. She moves and speaks with the expected confidence, always kind. And no, she does not shy away from talking about Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, nor about Alexei Navalny and his mother Ethel, who has just passed away. She chats with YO DONA in Bilbao, where she gave a lecture at the University of Deusto organized by María Díaz de la Cebosa, head of the RFK Foundation in Spain. We interrupt the conversation three times. Once, when the waiter brings her a hot chocolate to the table (it's cool in Bilbao and she's wearing a summery Carolina Herrera dress). The other two times, when Mia Farrow calls her. "I'm in Spain," Kennedy tells her to cut the call short. It's not the first time the 65-year-old activist has been in our country. "When I was 17, I worked a whole summer on a bullfighting ranch in Seville," she recalls, laughing heartily. "At that time, the star bullfighter was Espartaco, the most handsome man I've ever seen in my life. He looked like Leonardo DiCaprio, but moved like Rudolf Nureyev."
Family portrait: Kerry Kennedy with her parents Bobby and Ethel, and some of her siblings.GETTY
Kennedy discovered her vocation for human rights advocacy at a very young age. After all, before running for the White House, her father had been Attorney General during the crucial time of the civil rights movement in the US. "My parents never made a distinction between family life and work life, so our home at Hickory Hill in Virginia was constantly filled with human rights activists, indigenous rights advocates, and people working on various poverty campaigns in the US and around the world. Additionally, growing up with seven brothers and three sisters... that's how you understand justice at a very early age."
Q. You are the author of a book Speak Truth to Power that gathers the stories of 51 men and women who have changed the world. Who are today's Gandhis?
A. They are all the people promoting change. Names like activist Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan, the late Alexei Navalny in Russia, or the people of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) fighting against human trafficking in the US. But it's also that abused woman anywhere who decides she won't allow it anymore. She is as much a hero as Nelson Mandela was.
Q. You corresponded with Alexei Navalny from prison. What went through your mind when he died?
A. My heart broke. For him, for the people of Russia, for his wife, and for all of us who love freedom. But I believe his wife Yulia is extraordinary and will continue his fight despite the great risks.
Q. Do you think the US remains relevant in the field of human rights?
A. Absolutely. It must be understood that the most powerful thing this country has is not its economy or its military, but the idea of America, where it doesn't matter where you were born because if you work hard, you can have a better life. And if your family is immigrants, like mine was, in a few generations, you can be the president of the US.
Kennedy has never shied away from the political spotlight. It's almost impossible with her last name. Nor does having a low profile help when you marry in 1990 the former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, with whom she had three daughters. On the contrary, the merger of two of the country's most famous political families delighted the tabloids. The same happened with their divorce, 15 years later. But it was in 2024 when the activist found herself thrust with her entire family into the electoral spotlight when her brother, the controversial Robert Jr., ran for president not as a Democrat, but as an independent. And most inconceivably, he later supported the Republican candidacy of Donald Trump. "I love him," says Kerry Kennedy with a broken voice. "But I completely disagree with him, and I believe that supporting Trump is a betrayal of everything the Kennedy family has always stood for."
The activist at a campaign event with her ex-husband, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and two of their daughters.GETTY
Q. What is at stake on November 5th in the elections?
A. These elections are about the American people, our vision of the future, how we want to treat each other, and what kind of leadership we want our children to know. My father, my uncles, and aunts would have despised Trump for his racism, his hatred towards people living in poverty and women, for the fact that he has been accused of sexual assault three or four times and that a judge found him responsible for raping Jean Carroll... The list goes on and on. It has nothing to do with the values of the Kennedy family. Quite the opposite.
Q. Have you met Democratic candidate Kamala Harris up close?
A. I have seen her on several occasions where she seemed intelligent and tough, a woman who doesn't mind holding powerful people accountable, who cares about the vulnerable, and has a sense of humor.
Q. After the failure of Hillary Clinton's candidacy, Harris has avoided talking about gender in the campaign. Has the US overcome the fear of electing a female president?
A. Of course not. There are many people who are explicit about their misogyny, and others who don't realize they are. This is 100% present in the elections as well.
Kerry and her cousin John-John, son of President JFK.GETTY
Q. Immigration has been a contentious issue in the campaign. It is everywhere. Does it concern you?
A. I care that we treat with dignity all those people you don't let into your country. The system doesn't have to be extremely generous, but it should be extremely humane. Because it reflects who we are as a society.
Q. Thanksgiving is approaching, the first one after the death of your mother, Ethel. Can you share a fond family moment?
A. My mother brought us all together. She was a very positive force. She always said, "Aren't we lucky?". Actually, the most special moments for me were the most mundane ones, like every night during dinner, the 11 siblings had to say something they had read in the newspaper that day and it couldn't be repeated! Or how we would go up to our parents' room, kneel around their bed, and pray the rosary every night.
Before saying goodbye, the lawyer shows us on her phone a picture of her last Thanksgiving dinner... full of Kennedys. How many of you were there? "I think 75... and the dining table isn't even that big!"