Chapter 1: What was life like in Cuba before and after the revolution?
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Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And today is a really special episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz. And Senator, I want you to take it from there, but we're taking a little pause from politics and talking about someone very near and dear to you.
Yeah, on Sunday, January 25th, my aunt, my tia Sonia, went to be with the Lord. She and I were incredibly close. My tia Sonia was my father's younger sister. My dad, as you know, fought in the Cuban Revolution. He was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba by Batista's thugs. My tia Sonia was younger than he is, and so she was there after the revolution succeeded.
She fought in the counter-revolution, and she was imprisoned and tortured by Castro's thugs. And she's someone who I grew up very close to.
Chapter 2: How did Castro's regime affect daily life in Cuba?
I called her my tia loca, my crazy aunt. She is fiery. She loved liberty. She loved America. She has been ill for the last couple of months. It was not a surprise when she finally went. My cousin, Bibi, who is my tia Sonia's only daughter, has been caring for her.
And she passed Sunday morning in Bibi's living room with her family around her, surrounded by family that loved her, that was praying for her. And she's gone to be with the Lord. And so our family is grieving because Theosonia was a larger-than-life personality. She had an unbelievable heart. She would help anyone.
Chapter 3: What forms of persecution and indoctrination occurred under Castro?
She was extraordinary. And she was someone who, before she fell ill— We had my Tia Sonia as a guest on Verdict. I wanted her to come on Verdict. And tell her story. Tell her story growing up in Cuba, seeing the communist revolution, seeing Fidel Castro rise to power, and then fighting in the counter-revolution, being in a Cuban jail, being tortured in Cuba, coming to America with nothing.
And so in honor of my Tia Loca, whom I loved with all of my heart – I want to give you the interview we did with my tia Sonia, an extraordinary warrior for liberty.
Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. We are joined as ever by the Senator and also by the Senator's Tia Sonia. My Spanish is not very good, but I think that was about right. Aunt Sonia.
Chapter 4: How did Sonia's family resist the communist regime?
That is correct. Thank you. This is, in a few days, going to be the 58th anniversary of your fleeing the communist regime in Cuba. That is correct, sir. And yet we've got the leader of the Democratic Party nomination process,
is praising the fidel castro regime i think we have the clip very opposed to the authoritarian nature of cuba but you know you got it's unfair to simply say everything is bad you know when fidel castro came into office you know what he did he had a massive literacy program is that a bad thing listen bernie has spent his entire life his entire career praising communist dictators but this week is his latest ode to fidel castro
frankly, just pissed me off. And this is not a joke. This guy is the front runner for the Democratic nomination to be president. And he sings the praises of Castro and Cuban communism. My dad fled Cuban in 57. My Tia Sonia was still there.
Chapter 5: What challenges did Sonia face after leaving Cuba?
She was a kid. And so she saw the Cuban revolution firsthand and she ended up fighting against Castro. So Tia, if you would, I just want you... First of all, tell me what it was like to be in Cuba when the revolution happened, when Castro took over.
Actually, a lot of people were happy because finally somebody was coming in that was praising We're going to give you a chance to change your hope. We're going to change things around. Everybody was going to have whatever they want to. The poor will never be poor. The rich continue to have money and everybody will be the same. In reality, yes, everybody went the same, but everybody was poor.
Everybody went down.
Chapter 6: What illusion did Cuba present to foreign visitors?
Everybody got paid the same amount of money. There was no difference between the poor and the rich. Everybody lost everything they had.
It's not that everyone was rich. Everyone was poor and suffering and miserable.
And everybody was miserable. Everybody was miserable. What Bernie is saying is a bunch of garbage.
So you're there. You're a teenager. How old were you?
Probably 16, 15.
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Chapter 7: What misconceptions exist about socialism and communism?
Okay, so you're seeing this. You're a teenage girl. Right. You see what's happening. You see Castro begin executing people.
Yeah, persecuting people. Nobody could talk. Nobody could say anything. They actually, he trained the people to even be against the family, the sons against the father, the daughters against the family.
So how did he do that?
By indoctrinating these people, by telling, we're going to give you this and that and the other.
and it's all going to be free but you got to tell us what's going on in your house who talk against the government so everything was persecuting one another especially the older people that actually we live a good life before in cuba it was beautiful what do people face in terms of their friends and neighbors and families spying on them you have people in in each block there is somebody that is responsible to keep an eye on you in your house
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Chapter 8: What is the human cost of communism as experienced by Cubans?
So there's a there's a tattletale, there's a spy in every block.
And they tell you, you keep an eye on every neighbor of this block.
And what sort of things are they watching for?
They're watching for everything. If you bring anything, maybe I'm going from the United States to Cuba and there's somebody coming in. So we need to watch the house in case they go out and sell in the black market or they do something with what you brought in. So there's somebody who's always keeping an eye on you. and try to report you.
A good thing that happened to me, something that happened to me that is very interesting, one of the trips that I went back to Cuba, I wanted to take the kids, some of the kids from there, to go fishing. I love fishing. So I went in and tried to rent a boat, and they told me, we can't. We don't rent boats to Cuban people. And I said, you may leave. And I said, look, I have a passport.
I have a flight leaving on Friday. Already left. So I'm coming in to take my family on a boat ride. We can't give it to you. We can't rent you a boat. You're Cuban.
By the way, Michael, if you go there, you can rent a boat as an American. She can't rent a boat because she's Cuban, even though she is an American citizen now.
Yes, you're Cuban. So you can't do it. There was a boat in the river that my niece wanted to go in. And when we get in to ride the boat with the rest of the people, they said, you all cannot get in. You're like Cuban. And I said, but we're paying with the same money that they're paying. Well, I'm sorry. You can't come in. You're not from another country. You're Cuban.
And Cuban people are not allowed.
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