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In reply to the discussion: Cruz Preparing To Renounce Canadian Citizenship [View all]DonViejo
(60,536 posts)Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta,[2][10] where his parents, Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson Darragh[10][11][12][13][14][15] and Rafael Bienvenido Cruz,[13][14] were working in the oil business.[16][17] His parents owned a seismic-data processing firm for oil drillers.[13][18] Cruz's father, who was born in 1939 in Matanzas, Cuba,[13][14] as Robert T. Garrett of the Dallas Morning News has described, "suffered beatings and imprisonment for protesting the oppressive regime"[13][18] of dictator Fulgencio Batista. He fought for communist revolutionary Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution[19][20] when he was 14 years old, but "didn't know Castro was a Communist." A few years later he became a staunch critic of Castro when "the rebel leader took control and began seizing private property and suppressing dissent."[13][21] The elder Cruz fled Cuba in 1957 at the age of 18, landing in Austin[18] to study at the University of Texas, knowing no English and with $100 sewn into his underwear.[22][23] His younger sister fought in the counter-revolution and was tortured by the new regime.[20] He remained regretful for his early support of Castro, and emphatically conveyed this remorse to his young son over the following years.[13][20] The elder Cruz worked his way through college as a dishwasher, making 50 cents an hour,[12] earning a degree in mathematics.[18] Cruz's father today is a pastor in Carrollton, Texas,[11] a Dallas suburb, and became a U.S. citizen in 2005.[24]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz