I knew I needed to find that peace by finding Jesus Christ." Following his conversion, his son and wife also became born-again Protestants. Explaining his leaving the Catholic church, Cruz stated in an interview with National Review, "The people at the Bible study had a peace that I could not understand, this peace in the midst of trouble. Religious and political beliefs Ĭruz speaking at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City - 2015Ĭruz left the Catholic Church in 1975 and became an Evangelical Protestant after attending a Bible study with a colleague and having a born again experience. Eleanor and Rafael Cruz divorced in 1997. The family of three then moved to Houston, Texas. Cruz earned Canadian citizenship in 1973. The firm later became Veritas and ultimately part of CGG.
Cruz and Associates that provided services for oil drillers. While in Calgary, the couple owned a seismic-data processing firm called R.B. Cruz and Wilson were married in 1969, and shortly after were sent to Calgary, Canada, where their only child, Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, was born on December 22, 1970. The then 34-year-old computer programmer returned to the United States in 1966. The couple moved to London, England, for career opportunities in 1960. Eleanor's first marriage, at age 21, was to Alan Wilson, a mathematician, in 1956. In 1969 at age 30, during his employment at his new oil company job, he met Wilmington, Delaware, native and divorcée, Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson (born November, 23, 1934 as Eleanor Darragh). In his late twenties, Cruz moved to New Orleans. Īfter Cruz graduated, he was granted political asylum in the United States following the expiration of his student visa. He remained regretful for his early support of Castro and expressed his remorse to his son on numerous occasions. Cruz recounts that his younger sister fought against the new regime in the counter-revolution and was consequently tortured. Upon returning he revisited the same groups to give lectures opposing Castro and the Revolution. Cruz states he worked his way through college as a dishwasher, making 50 cents an hour and learned English by going to movies. He graduated from UT with a degree in mathematics and chemical engineering in 1961. 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 obtained a student visa after an attorney for the family bribed a Batista official to grant him an exit permit. 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. According to Cruz, as a teenager, he "didn't know Castro was a Communist". In September 1956 at age 17, Cruz enrolled at the University of Santiago. 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.
Ĭruz attended Arturo Echemendia primary school in Matanzas. His mother, Emilia Laudelina Díaz, was a teacher. His father, also named Rafael Cruz, was a salesman for RCA, originally from the Canary Islands, Spain. Early life Ĭruz was born in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1939. He has served as a surrogate in his son's political campaigns. Rafael Bienvenido Cruz y Díaz (born March 22, 1939) is a Cuban-American evangelical preacher and father of Texas U.S.
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