Caridad Asensio

After Asensio and her family moved to Florida in 1960, she worked at Hagen Road Elementary School as a social worker and health educator. While there, she met her future co-founder Connie Berry who was a teacher at the school.^[3] Asensio soon began volunteering at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Mission in Delray Beach^[4] and eventually founded the Migrant Association in a trailer to provide low-cost housing to migrant workers.^[2] Two years later, Asensio and Berry co-founded the Caridad Health Clinic which operated with the assistance of volunteer doctors and dentists.^[3] The Clinic was the first in South Florida to provide free health care to farm workers and their families.^[5] By 1992, the Migrant Association moved 79 families into stable livable trailers.^[6]

As a result of its early success, the association moved to a $2.5 million clinic dubbed the Caridad Center within its first five years of operation.^[7] In 1995, Asensio was awarded the JCPenney Golden Rule Award for her migrant worker advocacy^[8] and the Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition President's Award.^[9] On December 3, 2001, Asensio was hit by a car while crossing the street and went into a coma.^[10] Although she regained her ability to speak, she had difficulty walking.^[11] In 2005, Asensio was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame.^[12] Caridad died on October 31, 2011, after experiencing a seizure.^[7]

Asensio and her husband have two children together. Her son Manuel P. Asensio was the proprietor of a small brokerage firm.^[13]