The busboy who comforted Robert F Kennedy as he lay dying shares his story

On 6 June 1968, the 17-year-old Juan Romero was working as a busboy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when he was catapulted from his modest life as a Mexican immigrant to become an indelible part of US history. Celebrating his win of the California Democratic presidential primary the previous day, Robert F Kennedy shook hands with Romero – who then watched as the politician was assassinated. The young busboy comforted Kennedy in his dying moments, and would soon have his image on newspaper front pages across the country. In this short animation from StoryCorps, Romero (who died in 2018) recounts how his life was changed on that day. Both a deeply personal and world-historical moment, Romero’s poignant account highlights the trauma that so often results when a private life is unintentionally thrust into the public eye – a phenomenon that’s become more pronounced in the decades since the assassination.