Cruz for President

"Father's Day - Rafael's Story" +

5:28 video from June 21 2015.

[Music]

Ted Cruz: My father for me has always been larger than life.  He still is.  He's always been my hero.  And I hope that this video will inspire you as much as it inspires me.

Rafael Cruz: My name is Rafael Cruz.  I was born in Matanzas, Cuba in 1939.

You know I grew up on the beach.  I remember I loved the sea.  I spent a lot of time fishing.  Going out on Friday nights and fishing all night on a row boat. 

I mean economically Cuba was great, but during the Bautista years there was a lot of corruption.

The army became enforcers and began extorting money from the people.  And so the revolution started in the high schools and the universities.

I became involved in resistance movement in the high school. As a result of my involvement in that revolution I was captured, was imprisoned, was tortured.

Four soldiers began beating the living daylights out of me with billy clubs.

I fell, finally fell to the concrete floor, and they began kicking me.  My face was facing the concrete.  One of the soldiers just crushed my face against the concrete with a boot on the back of my neck.

I really expected to be killed, and I just have to believe that even though I didn't know God, he knew me.  And he had other plans for me.

So one morning I was taken to the colonel's office, and the colonel said, we're going to release you.

My father picked me up from the army garrison and took me home.  My mother was in tears when she saw my clothes covered with blood and saw gashes in my face.

There were a couple of people following me all the time so I figure I could not expose my parents, my sister.

So my only other option was to get out of the country.

We always heard stories about the United States and how it was the land of opportunity.

I had been a straight-A student in high school so I applied to three universities in the United States.  University of Texas was the first one to accept me.

Finally got on that ferry boat.  My mother was crying.  My sister was crying.  My father was very stern.  He was not crying, but he had a somber look.

So I left Cuba disillusioned, never to return again, but so happy to be in the land of the free.

So when I came to the States, of course not knowing English, my first job was a job as a dishwasher.  You didn't really need to talk.  So you figure you know they bring the dirty dishes, you wash them, you get paid.

So I graduated in mathematics with a minor in chemical engineering, graduated in three and a half years.  So by September I was teaching mathematics at the University of Texas while I was taking graduate courses.  Now I wore a coat and tie, but I was being paid less than half of what I made as a cook.  That's progress isn't it?

IBM was recruiting.  I came to Dallas for an interview and they offered me a job on the spot.  So I went back to Austin.  I had this beat up Chevrolet.  And then my sister and I we drove to Dallas, Texas early in the morning.  We stopped at a service station where I changed into my only suit.

I wore that same suit for two weeks until I got my first paycheck and could buy another suit. 

All of a sudden I was working as a professional.

I was told by several people, look, you're going to be discriminated against.  That didn't bother me, that didn't cause a bitterness in me.  I just thought well what I have to do is I have to be twice as good.  I have to take the option off the table so they have no choice.  That thought served me well in life.

I'm so proud to be an American.  This is the greatest country on the face of the Earth.

When I saw my son Ted being sworn in I was sitting in the Senate chambers and I couldn't contain the tears from my eyes.  Thinking that five decades before I had come to this country with nothing; couldn't even speak the language.  And to see my son being sworn in as U.S. Senator and now potentially being the next president of the United States of America, the only thing that comes to my mind is only in America.

All authority under the Constitution is placed upon we the people, and with that authority comes an awesome responsibility.

This is why I'm encouraging constitutional conservatives to lock on arms and make America again that shining city on a hill to the glory of God.


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