Rafael Bienvenido Cruz

Rafael Bienvenido Cruz y Díaz (born March 22, 1939) is a Cuban-American evangelical preacher and father of Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. He has served as a surrogate in his son's political campaigns. Early life Cruz was born in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1939. His father, also named Rafael Cruz, was a salesman for RCA, originally from the Canary Islands, Spain. His mother, Emilia Laudelina Díaz, was a teacher. Cruz attended Arturo Echemendia primary school in Matanzas. He said he joined the Cuban Revolution as a teenager and "suffered beatings and imprisonment for protesting the oppressive regime," of dictator Fulgencio Batista, although an extensive search by the New York Times found no evidence for his claims. In September 1956 at age 17, Cruz enrolled at the University of Santiago. According to Cruz, as a teenager, he "didn't know Castro was a Communist". Cruz has stated in interviews that he was jailed by Batista for several days in June or July 1957 and after he was released he applied to and was accepted by the University of Texas (UT) in August 1957. He obtained a student visa after an attorney for the family bribed a Batista official to grant him an exit permit. Cruz said he left with $100 sewn into his underwear, taking a two-day bus ride from Florida, arriving with little or no English to enroll at the University of Texas. He graduated from UT with a degree in mathematics and chemical engineering in 1961. Cruz states he worked his way through college as a dishwasher, making 50 cents an hour and learned English by going to movies. Upon returning he revisited the same groups to give lectures opposing Castro and the Revolution. Cruz recounts that his younger sister fought against the new regime in the counter-revolution and was consequently tortured. He remained regretful for his early support of Castro and expressed his remorse to his son on numerous occasions.