Senator Marco Rubio has an explanation for everything:
The New York Times says Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on Thursday denied having embellished the story of his family’s immigration into the United States from Cuba, calling the allegation “false” and insisting that “the essential facts of my family’s story are completely accurate.”
The Brevard Times posted the embellished story found on Rubio’s congressional website:
“In 1971, Marco was born in Miami to Cuban-born parents who came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover.”
This is in spite of a Washington Post article published yesterday that claims that immigration documents demonstrate that the junior Florida Senator’s family actually arrived in the United States before Fidel Castro took power in Cuba.
One might ask, “Why does it matter whether Rubio’s family came before or after Castro took power?”
But in the South Florida Cuban community, Cuban immigrants distinguish their families into three groups of immigration waves: Pre-Castro revolution, post-Castro revolution, and post-Mario boat lift.
Rubio’s office confirmed Thursday that his parents arrived in the United States in 1956 but noted that “while they were prepared to live here permanently, they always held out the hope and the option of returning to Cuba if things improved.” They returned to Cuba several times after Castro came to power to “assess the situation with the hope of eventually moving back,” the office said in a statement.
In a brief interview Thursday, Rubio said his accounts have been based on family lore. “I’m going off the oral history of my family,” he said. “All of these documents and passports are not things that I carried around with me.”
Great journalism…Is the Mario Boat Lift that you mentioned was so named because of the popular Nintendo game?
There maybe a 4th group that you didn't mention…those arriving in the Mariel Boat Lift named after Mariel Harbour in Cuba.
[...] of only two Latinos currently serving in the U.S. Senate, Senator Menendez is the progeny of Cuban immigrants and grew up in a tenement building in Union City, NJ – what is known to many as the Little [...]
[...] of only two Latinos currently serving in the U.S. Senate, Senator Menendez is the progeny of Cuban immigrants and grew up in a tenement building in Union City, NJ – what is known to many as the Little [...]