Fleeing Cuba 58 years ago after being beaten and imprisoned, Rafeal Cruz came to Austin, Texas, as a teenager without parents, without fluency in English, and with only $100 to his name. Believing in the American dream, he worked full time through school and learned English to succeed.
Today, with a pleasing accent and demeanor and at 74 years of age, he has become a motivational speaker in high demand with pastors, citizen groups and tea party gatherings. As requests for TX Senator Ted Cruz to speak pour in from across the country, Cruz�s father plays a surrogate speaker to his son. Pleasantly surprised, Pastor Cruz finds standing room-only crowds cheering at his authentic and inspiring defense of America�s greatness.
Reflecting on his own hard scrabble life, Rafeal Cruz�s emotion overtook him as he watched his son�s emerging national role. He told us, �I remember almost 2 years ago, when I sat in the Senate chambers, seeing my son being sworn in as U.S. Senator. I couldn�t contain the tears from my eyes and all I could think is, �Only In America!� When I thought 55 years before, I came (to America) with nothing. That is the greatness of America. Horatio Alger stories are a dime a dozen. They are all over the country. People that have achieved their greatest dreams, started with nothing.�
Pastor Cruz rejects the allure of dependency or identification by ethnicity, as he watched Castro bring such policies to Cuba through false rhetoric of �hope and change.� Asked about Hispanic outreach and policy preferences, Cruz says, �I don�t want to get involved with all this hyphenated Americans; we are all Americans!�
He rejects the notion that Hispanics, as a group, are �victims� needing government handouts, as he believes the Administration uses groups to preserve their power base by encouraging government dependency that saps individual achievement and hard work.
Instead, he says, �We don�t get people out of poverty by giving them handouts; we get people out of poverty by empowering them to get out of poverty, by teaching them and helping them to achieve the American Dream.�
Asked about the push back many conservatives don�t even see when the President�s political allies smear and besmirch him and his son, Cruz says, �When truth comes forth, darkness hates the light.�
�I consider it a badge of honor that MSNBC has had two 15 minute tirades about me. If we are not being persecuted, maybe we�re not making a difference,� Cruz continued. �So, actually, I don�t mind the attacks. I don�t think my son minds the attacks. They energize me; I think they energize him too, because it shows we are making a difference. We are shaking their foundations.�
The only thing worse than a liberal is a liberal that thinks they're a conservative.
