Sen. Ted Cruz

And ended up earning a degree, going on to getting a job, starting a small business.

Today, my dad's a pastor.

Now, interestingly, my dad's younger sister, my tia Sonia, who just passed away a few weeks ago, and she was incredible.

I called her my tia loca, my crazy aunt.

She was still there after the revolution succeeded.

And so she saw that, and sadly, this is a pattern a lot of Latin America has seen, that they went as bad as Batista was, Fidel Castro was worse.

And so she saw him declare that he was a communist, begin seizing people's lands, begin executing dissidents.

And so Maitea Sonia fought in the counter-revolution against Castro.

And she ended up being imprisoned and tortured by Castro's goons.

And that pattern, so she and my dad fought on opposite sides.

When I was a little kid, I used to sit at the feet of my dad and my tia Sonia, and I would hear stories about freedom fighters.

And that inspired, you know, I told that story at my tia Sonia's funeral just a few weeks ago.

And I said, look, it's not often

that somebody's entire life is inspired in significant part by his aunt.

But my aunt and my dad were both freedom fighters.

And if you asked me as a little kid, five, six, seven years old, what do you wanna do in life?

I would have said I want to fight for freedom.

It's all I've ever wanted to do.

And so now in the Senate, I have the incredible privilege of actually getting to do that.

And, you know, I think of the Senate as almost like the modern day Coliseum, where you strap on your armor and you go fight the barbarians.