Voting Station

Rafael Cruz

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Celebrity's Relative

The Resume

    (March 22, 1939- )
    Born in Matanzas, Cuba
    Birth name is Rafael Bienvenido Cruz
    Ordained Evangelical pastor in Carrollton, Texas
    Minister and director of Grace for America
    Father of Texas Senator and Presidential Candidate, Ted Cruz
    Fled Cuba for America, at the age of 18, in the lead-up to the Cuban Revolution, in 1957
    Granted political asylum in the United States following the expiration of his University of Texas student visa
    Became a Canadian citizen during his residence in Calgary, Alberta, Canada during the 1970s
    Renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2005, after returning to the US and becoming a naturalized citizen

Why he might be annoying:

    He frequently claims in speeches that his son has been chosen by God to win the Presidency.
    He has been known to regularly compare life under the Obama Presidency to life under the Fidel Castro regime in the 1950s.
    He, himself, briefly fought on the side of Fidel Castro during the Revolution, claiming that he 'didn't know he was a Communist.'
    His son has been accused of misleading voters on exactly when he fled Cuba (before or after Castro came to power).
    He has been susceptible to making comments endorsing the Birther movement (telling President Obama to 'go back to Kenya'), despite knowing full well that his son's own 'birth eligibility' has been called equally questionable.
    He has repeatedly gone on record saying that it is 'appalling' for Houston to elect a lesbian Mayor into office and implying that the LGBT lobby would press for legalization of pedophilia next.
    He denounced gay marriage as being part of a Socialist conspiracy to 'destroy the concept of God,' further saying it was 'more about the destruction of the traditional family than about exalting homosexuality, because you need to destroy loyalty to the family.'
    He went on record claiming that the US military was being run by 'puppet generals' after Obama 'fired the strong ones,' further commenting 'praise God there are 300 million guns in America' in reference to a potential gun grab (Nov. 3, 2015).

Why he might not be annoying:

    Glenn Beck is a huge fan (that poor man...)
    He is the son of an RCA salesman and an elementary-school teacher.
    He suffered beatings and imprisonment for protesting the oppressive Batista regime.
    He came to the United States unable to speak a word of English, with only $100 sewn into his underwear.
    He worked his way through college as a dishwasher, making 50 cents an hour, eventually earning a degree in mathematics.
    He has been called the Ted Cruz campaign's 'secret weapon' with Southern evangelical Christians.
    If his off-color statements did his son's campaign any real harm, he would be kept at farther arms length than Billy Carter in the 70s.
    Even if his son stretched the truth about when he came to the USA, his exaggerations weren't as egregious those of the other Cuban Republican with the refugee parents fleeing Castro story running for President in 2016.
    He is actually a more electrifying public speaker than his son, who tends to give the same 'talking point'-driven stump speeches over and over (whereas, Papa Cruz keeps it fresh).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 25 Votes: 36.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 22 Votes: 86.36% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 32 Votes: 65.62% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 160 Votes: 52.50% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 43 Votes: 79.07% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 32 Votes: 65.62% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 26 Votes: 42.31% Annoying