Honoring and Remembering My Tia Sonia

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Honoring and Remembering My Tia Sonia"

Verdict with Ted Cruz
Host: Ben Ferguson, with Senator Ted Cruz, Michael Knowles, and special guest, Tia Sonia
Date: January 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this emotionally charged and deeply personal episode, Senator Ted Cruz honors his recently deceased aunt, Tia Sonia, sharing her extraordinary life story of courage, survival, and her fight against communism in Cuba. The episode steps away from routine political analysis to focus on Sonia's firsthand account of the Cuban Revolution, her persecution under Castro, and her lifelong commitment to liberty. The conversation interweaves personal anecdotes, historical context, and a pointed critique of contemporary American attitudes toward socialism and communism.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Remembering Tia Sonia: A Life of Courage and Heart

• Personal Tribute: Senator Cruz introduces the episode by sharing the loss of his beloved aunt, Tia Sonia, describing her as “larger than life,” fiercely independent, and a fervent lover of liberty and America.
  • “My Thea Sonia was my father's younger sister. My dad... fought in the Cuban revolution... My Thea Sonia was younger... She fought in the counter revolution and she was imprisoned and tortured by Castro's thugs.” (Ted Cruz, 00:21)
• Sonia’s legacy is deeply tied to Cruz’s family and values, making her story not just one of personal loss but also one of inspiration and warning.

2. The Cuban Revolution: From Promise to Oppression

• Initial Optimism: Sonia recounts that Cubans initially welcomed Castro, believing in change and equality.
  • “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, hope…’ Everybody was going to have whatever they want to. The poor will never be poor... In reality… everybody was poor.” (Tia Sonia, 04:00)
• Indoctrination and Control: Sonia details how the regime pitted family members against each other, installed informants on every block, and closely watched citizens' every move.
  • “He trained the people to even be against the family... There is somebody that is responsible to keep an eye on you in your house.” (Tia Sonia, 05:03, 05:42)
• Loss of Liberty: Even as an American citizen, Sonia describes being treated as a Cuban and denied access to basic freedoms, like renting a boat, whenever she visited post-revolution Cuba.
  • “We can't rent boats to Cuban people.... You're Cuban, so you can do it.” (Tia Sonia, 06:55)

3. The Reality of Everyday Life Under Communism

• Economic Decline: Sonia explains how the Cuban economy collapsed:
  • “There was no difference between the poor and the rich. Everybody lost.” (Tia Sonia, 04:00)
• Healthcare Myth: She rebuffs American claims about Cuban healthcare superiority with her own experiences, including lack of medicine and basic supplies:
  • “I went to the doctor there… and they put a shot on me in front of 60 other people… There’s no transportation, there’s no gas… Doctors come to your house in a bicycle and they're hungry.” (Tia Sonia, 16:03)
• Enduring Poverty: Sonia routinely brought basic necessities to relatives, who otherwise couldn’t obtain even underwear or medicine.
  • “She leaves a suitcase. She leaves every bit of clothes she bought. She leaves her underwear and bra, everything, because nobody has underwear there.” (Ted Cruz, 15:08)

4. Indoctrination and the War on Faith

• Schools as Tools of the Regime: Sonia’s mother, a teacher, was forced to pretend to be insane rather than indoctrinate students with communist dogma.
  • “My grandmother pretended she was insane in the classroom.... She would rather have the stigma... than be a part of indoctrinating these kids.” (Ted Cruz, 10:37)
• Religion vs. Communism: Both Cruz and Sonia underscore how communism is historically antagonistic toward religion.
  • “Communism also hates God.... If you look at these communist regimes, they persecute faith.” (Ted Cruz, 22:42)
• Explicit Indoctrination Example: Cruz shares how Cuban soldiers would stage ‘miracles’ where praying to Castro “delivered” candy, supplanting God in children’s minds.
  • “They tell the children… pray to Jesus for a piece of candy... there'd be no candy. Then… pray to Fidel Castro for a piece of candy… and there was candy. This is the literacy program Bernie Sanders is praising.” (Ted Cruz, 23:59)

5. Critique of American Socialism and Political Amnesia

• The hosts are astounded that, decades after fleeing Castro, U.S. politicians like Bernie Sanders praise Cuba's regime.
  • “Bernie has spent his entire life, his entire career, praising communist dictators…but this week, his latest ode to Fidel Castro…just pissed me off.” (Ted Cruz, 03:14)
• Younger Generations and Ignorance of History: Cruz warns that history is not being taught, citing the mass deaths under Soviet and Chinese communism, unknown to many Americans.
  • “You know how many Bernie supporters know that the Soviet Union killed 20 million people, and China killed 77 million people? They don't know that.” (Ted Cruz, 19:30)
• Perils of "Glamorizing Villains": Cruz decries popular romanticizing of Che Guevara and other communist figures.
  • “If you're going to celebrate people that torture and murder, actually Che was amateur… These villains have been glamorized, and it's dangerous.” (Ted Cruz, 19:45)

6. The Psychology of Socialist Appeal

• Emotional Pull of Socialism: Sonia attributes the appeal of socialism to empty promises and people’s longing for change.
  • “They want to see something different. They want to try something new. It doesn't work, guys. It does not work.” (Tia Sonia, 18:35)
• Lack of Work Ethic: Cuban socialism destroyed incentives—everyone earned the same, so “nobody wants to work.”
  • “Why do they want to work? They're going to make the same money... Why do I want to do that?” (Tia Sonia, 25:00)

7. Personal Legacy and Closing Reflections

• Legacy of Freedom: Cruz ends with a poignant recollection of saying goodbye to Sonia, assuring her that “Cuba is next” to be liberated, eliciting her final smile.
  • “I told her that we got Maduro and I told her Cuba is next... and even kind of coming in and out of consciousness, she smiled the biggest smile…” (Ted Cruz, 31:20)
• Warning for America: Both Cruz and Sonia express concern for America’s future should it abandon its founding ideals.
  • “God help the direction this country goes if that happens.” (Ted Cruz, 30:49)
  • “There’s no place to go.” (Tia Sonia, 30:58) – On what happens if America falls to socialism.

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Notable Quotes by Timestamps

• On the reality of communism:
  • “Everybody was miserable. What Bernie is saying is bunch of garbage.” – Tia Sonia [04:42]
• On indoctrination and surveillance:
  • “There is somebody that is responsible to keep an eye on you in your house.” – Tia Sonia [05:42]
• On healthcare under Castro:
  • “Doctors come to your house in a bicycle and they're hungry, they're hungry when they get there.” – Tia Sonia [16:03]
• On the enduring power of ideology:
  • “They really blind them to believe what they were saying. But they immediately took the blind off and saying, everybody's in the same boat. We're all hungry.” – Tia Sonia [25:16]
• On working for your dreams:
  • “You need to work and try to achieve your dream by hard work and by doing what you want. To get ahead.” – Tia Sonia [18:35]
• On her mother's stand against indoctrination:
  • “You have to play crazy in order to get out of that situation.” – Tia Sonia [11:39]
• On the personal pain of witnessing Cuba’s suffering:
  • “The biggest, it was seeing the people suffering for not being able to even get food to put on the plate…not being able to work. Because why do you want to work…?” – Tia Sonia [27:56]
• On the American dream as a last refuge:
  • “There’s no place to go.” – Tia Sonia [30:58]

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Important Timestamps

• Family tribute and introduction: [00:21]
• Life under Castro: indoctrination and repression: [04:00] – [07:32]
• Healthcare and poverty in Cuba: [16:03] – [16:42]
• American political amnesia: [19:30] – [22:55]
• State indoctrination in schools: [23:59] – [24:47]
• Final reflections on socialism’s dangers: [27:29] – [31:02]
• Personal farewell from Cruz: [31:20]

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Conclusion

This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz departs from politics as usual to deliver a moving oral history of survival, resistance, and hard-won values. Through Tia Sonia’s voice and memories, listeners receive a sobering reminder of the brutal realities of communism and the enduring importance of liberty. Cruz and his guests use these stories both to honor Sonia’s legacy and to issue a serious warning about the seductive dangers of socialism in contemporary political discourse.

The tone oscillates between intimate family remembrance and urgent public caution, culminating in an emotional farewell that positions Sonia’s life as both a warning and a beacon for those who cherish freedom.

Transcript

[Thea Sonia]

This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human welcome.

[Ben Ferguson]

It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. And today is a. 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, from politics and talking about someone very near and dear to you.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah. On, on Sunday, January 25, my aunt, my my Theasonia went to be with the Lord. She and I were incredibly close. My Theasonia 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 Theasonia 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. I called her my Thea 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 Thea 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 Theasonia was a larger than life personality. She had an unbelievable heart. She would help anyone. She was extraordinary and she was someone who before she fell ill, we had my Thea 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 who, who. Whom I loved with, with all of my heart, I want to give you the interview we did with my Thea Sonia, an extraordinary warrior for liberty.

[Michael Knowles]

Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. We are joined as ever by the senator and also by the senators. Tia Sonia is. My Spanish is not very good, but I think that was about right. Ant Sonia.

[Thea Sonia]

That is correct.

[Michael Knowles]

Thank you. This is in a few days going to be the 58th anniversary of your fleeing the communist regime in Cuba.

[Thea Sonia]

That is correct.

[Michael Knowles]

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, it's unfair to simply say everything is bad.

[Ben Ferguson]

You know, when Fidel Castro came into.

[Michael Knowles]

Office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program.

[Ben Ferguson]

Is that a bad thing?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Listen, Bernie has spent his entire life, his entire career praising communist dictators. But this week, 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 Cuba in 57. My theasonia was still there. She was a kid. And so she saw the Cuban revolution firsthand, and she ended up fighting against Castro. So, Thea, 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.

[Thea Sonia]

Actually, it was. It was. 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 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. Everybody got paid the same amount of money. There was no difference between the poor and the rich. Everybody lost.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It's not that everyone was rich. Everyone was poor and suffering and miserable.

[Thea Sonia]

And everybody was miserable. Everybody was miserable. What Bernie is saying is bunch of garbage.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So you're there. You're a teenager. How old were you?

[Thea Sonia]

Probably 16, 15.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Okay, so you're seeing this. You're a teenage girl, right? You see what's happening? You see Castro begin executing people.

[Thea Sonia]

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.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So how did he do that?

[Thea Sonia]

By indoctrinating these people by telling them, 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. But 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.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

What do people face in terms of their friends and neighbors and families spying.

[Thea Sonia]

On them for the government? You have people in each block. There is somebody that is responsible to keep an eye on you in your house.

[Michael Knowles]

So there's a tabletop.

[Thea Sonia]

There's a spy on every block, in every block, and they tell You. You keep an eye on every neighbo of this block.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And what sort of things are they watching for?

[Thea Sonia]

They're watching for everything. If you bring anything, maybe I'm going from United States to Cuba, and there's somebody coming in, so we need to wash their 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. 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.

[Michael Knowles]

You.

[Thea Sonia]

You're. You're Cuban. So.

[Michael Knowles]

Because they're so afraid, by the way.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Michael, if you go there, you can rent a boat. You can rent a boat, right? She can't rent a boat because she's Cuban, even though she's an American citizen now.

[Thea Sonia]

Yes, you're Cuban, so you can 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 and say, you all cannot get in. You all are 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.

[Michael Knowles]

They're not allowed to leave. No, because they know if they were allowed to leave, they'd all leave.

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[Michael Knowles]

Sonia, how quickly after, as you say, you know, people liked Castro initially, he, they, he was promising them the world. How quickly did it turn? I mean, how quickly did it turn?

[Thea Sonia]

Right away, Right away he immediately starts saying the policies that he wanted to do. He was going to take things away from the rich, he was going to take things away from the people to give to others. He was to actually take money from you and give it to the poor on the other side. I make my money. I work for what I have. My father worked hard to be where he was. My mother was a great school teacher. She was really was proud of what she was doing. My mother itself was tall. Did she have to teach at the school? A different kind of curriculum? She was told she need to teach about the revolution, Castro, the regime, the things that needed to happen. My mother had to actually pretend that she was losing her mind and she was dismissed immediately.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So let me underscore this story and listen. I grew up hearing this story as a kid. I mean, I would sit with my cousin Bebe, who's. That is correct, Sonia's daughter. The two of us would sit literally on the floor in the living room and listened to my dad and my theasonia tell us stories about the revolution. And my abuelo and abuela, their parents were there also. So My grandmother, my abuela, she's a sixth grade teacher. Castro takes over and she's ordered, you must teach communism to the kids. You must indoctrinate. You must brainwash the kids. And my grandmother said she wasn't gonna do it. And so it's funny, my Thea Sonia mentioned something just very mild, but my grandmother pretended she was insane in the classroom. She began literally foaming at the mouth and pretending she was insane. Why? Because she couldn't quit in the communist dictatorship, she wasn't allowed to quit. And she made the decision she would rather have the stigma, have the shame of people thinking she was a crazy person than be a part of indoctrinating these kids.

[Thea Sonia]

That is true. And it was very painful because my mother was a great teacher. It was loved by many people. But you have to play crazy in order to get out of that situation.

[Michael Knowles]

But what I want to know is how in Cuba, the public opinion changes very quickly. People see what a monster Castro is and they start to hate his guts. How is it that in the United States now, so many years on, 58 years on now since you left, you have a presidential candidate, you got a US Senator who's still singing the praises of this guy. What did he miss?

[Thea Sonia]

He have not been with the Cuban people. If you go there as a Cuban, you go and see somebody, a relative, you're going to see the misery that they live in. They don't know what to put on the table to serve their kids. They don't know how to. They're going to get the food that they're going to eat tomorrow. If you are going as somebody from another country or as a tourist, you're taking to, you are actually become prisoner of the government. They take you where they want you to go. They showed you the model school, they showed you you the best hospitals, they showed you the best restaurants.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

In 1989, Sanders stated after visiting Cuba, quote, I did not see a hungry child. I did not see any homeless people. Bernie said the Cuban people, quote, had an almost religious affection for Castro.

[Thea Sonia]

That is not true. He is lying. He's lying to the people of this country. He's playing on the mind of the younger generation here.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

He was either himself complicit in the lie, or he was naive enough or ideological enough to let the Castro regime lie to him and say, look at this, this paradise.

[Thea Sonia]

They didn't take into what the Cuban people were. Cuban people are starving to death. Cuban people don't have any money to buy anything.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So let me take you back THEA Back to 59, back to 60. The revolution succeeded. You begin fighting against Castro. What happened to you as a result? What happened when you started fighting?

[Thea Sonia]

Well, I was constantly persecuted. People was looking for me everywhere. They want to take me to prison. They picked me up several times.

[Michael Knowles]

So you were pretty clearly fighting against the regime?

[Thea Sonia]

Totally against Castro? Yes, yes.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So this is after Castro's taken over, so he's the dictator. So when they picked you up, what happened? What does that mean?

[Thea Sonia]

Well, they put you in a room and there was people sitting on the floor and everybody's, you know, that's where you were, with a whole bunch of people in the floor and they keep you there for two or three days. My parents did not know where I was, my mother did not know, so she was going crazy trying to find me. My friends, friends that I have, could not even come and find out with my parents where was I or what was wrong with me. They were afraid because everybody was persecuted. So it was very difficult to leave. On the Castro regime, when you left.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Cuba, it was 62, you left, right. You've been back a bunch of times, right?

[Thea Sonia]

Yes.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So when you come back, you usually bring a duffel bag with medicine, medicine.

[Thea Sonia]

Food, clothes, sheets just for relatives, friends, people that need.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So they can't get anything.

[Thea Sonia]

Nothing? Nothing.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

She leaves a suitcase. She leaves every bit of clothes she bought. She leaves her underwear and bra, everything, because nobody has underwear there because there's so much poverty. You'll wear like sweatpants, a T shirt and flip flop. That's what she wears. And that's on the plane coming back, right?

[Thea Sonia]

That is correct.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

A lot of people don't understand what is the difference between socialism and communism?

[Thea Sonia]

That is correct.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Socialism is simply the economic system of communism. Socialism is government ownership of the means of production or distribution. Cuba in the 1950s was the world's number one producer of sugar. Yeah, it had problems. Look, Batista was a corrupt dictator. He was a bastard. My father to this day doesn't have his front teeth because Batista's police kicked them in, his guards, his army officers kicked them in.

[Michael Knowles]

But what about the universal health care? I mean, we're told by a lot of people in the United States, a lot of left wingers, they say Cuba has some of the best health care in the world and everybody's covered.

[Thea Sonia]

I can personally tell you that I went to the doctor there because I have mosquito bites, that it got into effect infection and they put a shot on me in front of 60 other people that were there waiting for to be Seen by a doctor. There's no transportation, there's no gas, so you can't move. Doctors come to your house in a bicycle and they're hungry, they're hungry when they get there. They come to the house to see. Matter of fact, I was in a house visiting and they were trying to see the little girl. He came on a bicycle and I bought some things that there was somebody in the street selling and he said, can I have one?

[Michael Knowles]

Probably the most visible sign that Cuba hasn't changed or hasn't progressed is they have those old cars, right?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And you know, people like to think that that's sort of quaint and cute that they have cars from the 1950s. The reason they have cars from the 1950s is they can't get anything else.

[Ben Ferguson]

I want you to just pause what you're doing for the next 60 seconds and I want you to imagine Lucy, a 7 year old. Her stomach often aches with hunger. Her small hands instead of holding crayons know only the struggle of survival on dusty streets. School is a distant dream. Medical care, a forgotten hope. Lucy's potential is overshadowed. Her future is dim. But what if someone stepped in? What if there was a way to ignite hope for children just like Lucy? Well, there is. And that is with Compassion International partners and the local churches that provide children holistic support. More than just food, they receive critical medical care, life changing education, vital skills training and spiritual development all in Jesus's name. And you can empower a child just like Lucy to break free, free from poverty. I want you to do what I've done and sponsor a child today. You can visit compassion.com that's compassion.com.

[Michael Knowles]

You know the scary thing about all of this is you've got the experience of it. 58 years of experience since you left Cuba. There are various studies that have come out that show that even the majority of young Americans, millennials and Gen Z now embrace socialism and prefer it to capitalism. Now the bright side, I will say the silver lining is that a much smaller percentage can actually define socialism. So there would seem to be a problem there. But beyond just ignorance, beyond just not knowing what it is, what is drawing young Americans to this evil?

[Thea Sonia]

Evil Ideology is the word that is giving out the change. They want to see something different. They want to try something new. It doesn't work, guys. It does not work. You, all of this ambition and giving it to me, there's nothing given to you. You need to work and try to achieve your dream by hard work and by doing what you want. To get ahead.

[Michael Knowles]

I mean, I've noticed this with your colleague, Senator Sanders. I mean, he's been talking about this for 50 years and no one listened. But now only, you know, now that he's in his mid-70s, it's catching on. And I even think of this absent Bernie Sanders. Forget about him for a second. It took a long time. People knew that communism, socialism were terrible for so long, and now they don't know that well.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And too often they're not taught in schools. What happened? You know how many Bernie supporters know that the Soviet Union killed 20 million people and China killed 77 million people? They don't know that.

[Thea Sonia]

No.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And so when Bernie defends seems. Look, and I have to admit, I remember in college, a guy who lived down the hall from me had a poster on the wall of Che Guevara. Yeah. And I went in, I said, hey, that's really cool. That's all, you know, Che Guevara was a gorilla, fought with Fidel Castro in Cuba. And I said, hey, that's really cool. Cool. That's awesome. Have you thought of maybe putting a poster of Hitler next to you and maybe Stalin and Mao? Like, if you're going to celebrate people that torture and murder. Actually, Che was amateur.

[Michael Knowles]

He was low on the totem pole.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

But, you know, he was good looking. He had stubble and he was, you know, it. These villains have been glamorized, and it's dangerous.

[Michael Knowles]

You know, we've talked a lot about the political and the economic side of things, how the government takes all your stuff and then they take power away from you. You are both religious. I notice, Sonia, you have a cross that you're wearing. Obviously, Senator Cruz, one of the big aspects of communism as it's always been practiced is the atheism of it all. And I wonder if there's a relation here that as religiosity in America has declined, as young people are raised more or less without a religion in if maybe that's playing some role in why Communism is catching on. You know, one of the great men of the 20th century to defeat communism was the Pope, was Pope John Paul ii.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, and Pope John Paul II played a profound role of going to Poland and promising that Poland would be free and speaking up. And it was truly, I think, divine providence. They cheered. They said, we want God and Reagan and Margaret Thatcher all at the same time. And I think those three people, more than any human beings on earth, defeated the Soviet Union and won the Cold War. Mind you, Bernie was rooting for the Soviet Union during all of this.

[Michael Knowles]

He's not even hiding it that much.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Bernie honeymooned in the Soviet Union.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Michael, where'd you honeymoon?

[Michael Knowles]

I honeymooned in Hawaii, usa.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Okay? That's where, like normal people, you go to the beach. You go to Heidi, and I went to St. Thomas. It was beautiful. We were walking along the beach.

[Thea Sonia]

We had fun.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

What kind of crazy ideologue says, sweetheart, I love you so much, let's do a honeymoon in the Soviet Union? You know that clip you played? He says he's no friend of Putin. There's only one person I know on the national stage that honeymooned in the Soviet Union. You know, the Soviet Union killed over 20 million people. This is not cute little faculty. Leftists. If Bernie was a professor at some liberal arts college out in the frozen tundra, who cares? He's just corrupting a few young minds. This is someone who wants to be President of the United States, and he kisses up to and apologizes for totalitarian dictators. And you know who he doesn't praise? Americans.

[Michael Knowles]

Right.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Like, when have you ever heard him speak as positively as about Abraham Lincoln as he does about Castro and Ortega and Mao and Stalin? Listen, communism also hates God.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

If you look at these communist regimes, they persecute faith. They persecute. They prevent people from. The beauty of the First Amendment is it gives everyone the right to choose how to worship what your faith will be. You know, Bernie, when he praised China in the debate this week, somehow when Bernie talked about its great poverty eradication, you don't have to go back to Mao to find the torture and murder. Right now, Today, there are 1 million Uyghurs, a religious and ethnic minority, 1 million in concentration camps in China today. Why is burning. And why are leftists so willing to praise and be proud of regimes that are torturing and murdering people?

[Michael Knowles]

Do you think this is part of why they. They make their appeal successfully, though? Because the thing I notice so much about the socialists in America today is they're all making these very moral arguments. It's about human rights. It's about giving people their right to health care and their right to have a lot of money.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Here's a story my grandmother told me. In the schools, you would have Cuban soldiers come in, and this is kindergarten, first grade. And they tell the children, they'd say, close your eyes and pray to Jesus for a piece of candy. And the kids would all do it, and they'd open their eyes and there'd be no candy. And then the soldiers would say, close your eyes and pray to Fidel Castro for a piece of candy.

[Michael Knowles]

You're kidding me.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And the kids would close their eyes and the soldiers would put candy on their desks and they'd open their eyes and there was candy. This is the literacy program Bernie Sanders is praising. This is, this is the indoctrination that May Abuela refused to participate in.

[Thea Sonia]

And that is true. They, they, they actually indoctrinated the people since they were tiny little kids.

[Michael Knowles]

Did it work? I mean, did the.

[Thea Sonia]

Of course it doesn't work.

[Michael Knowles]

It doesn't work because people see reality.

[Thea Sonia]

People, why don't they work? They don't work. Nobody want to work in Cuba. Why do they want to work? They're going to make the same money that you're making that he's making. Why do I want to do that?

[Michael Knowles]

But do they believe the theory? I mean, does the indoctrination end up persuading people?

[Thea Sonia]

Actually they thought that it was going to be reality. They really blind them to believe what they were saying. But they immediately took the blind off and saying, everybody's in the same boat. We're all hungry.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

They know they're hungry. They know they're poor. They know they're miserable. They know that hasn't happened.

[Thea Sonia]

That's right.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I mean, there's a reason people every day risk their lives to flee Cuba.

[Thea Sonia]

That's correct.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

You know, you know, Reagan in the height of the Cold War, he had a great way of putting it. He said, the thing liberals never seem to notice is on the Berlin Wall, the machine guns all point in one direction, that you didn't get anyone from East Germany saying, or from West Germany saying, I got to go live in that communist paradise. Right. The way I like to put it, as a Cuban American is, is the thing liberals never notice is in Cuba, the rafts are all going one way. Just once I'd like to see Bernie Sanders go hop on a raft in Key West.

[Thea Sonia]

Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

And head to 90 miles south. And by the way, he socialized medicine they have there, it's just, you can't get, you can't actually see a doctor. You can't get medicine. You can't get toilet paper.

[Ben Ferguson]

I want you to just pause what you're doing for the next 60 seconds and I want you to imagine Lucy, a 7 year old. Her stomach often aches with hunger. Her small hands, instead of holding crayons know only the struggle of survival on dusty streets. School is a distant dream, medical care a forgotten hope. Lucy's potential is overshadowed. Her future is dim. But what if someone stepped in? What if there was a way to ignite hope for children just like Lucy, well, there is. And that is with Compassion International Partners and the local churches that provide children holistic support. More than just food, they receive critical medical care, life changing education, vital skills training and spiritual development, all in Jesus's name. And you can empower a child just like Lucy to break free from poverty. I want you to do what I've done and sponsor a child today. You can visit compassion.com that's compassion.com well.

[Michael Knowles]

Actually, you know, tying in all of these points on the economic, on the political and on the religious. Communism has been called the God that failed. Right. It was a sort of substitute religion, a substitute God. And it failed. And you saw it fail personally. What was the biggest shock? I mean, what was the biggest despair, the biggest regret when you saw something that you had believed in fail?

[Thea Sonia]

Well, the biggest, it was seeing the people suffering for not being able to even get food to put on the plate. It's so basic, the basic things, not being able to work. Because why do you want to work when you don't have anything to buy with you know that money disappear from you immediately. And you all know the numbers, but you know, an Average person makes $30 a month.

[Michael Knowles]

$30 per month.

[Thea Sonia]

$30 per month. Wow. So what are you going to do with that?

[Michael Knowles]

Right?

[Thea Sonia]

So people are being drinking water. You see the kids, they drink water with sugar to get their stomach full.

[Michael Knowles]

It's that basic need. It's so interesting that you say that because communism starts out as this idealistic fantasy, very highfalutin, very high minded literacy programs, all that. And then the reality of the failures, people can't even fill their stomachs.

[Thea Sonia]

That is true.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Although you know, there is one exception, which is the Communist Party rulers. Look, Fidel Castro lived like a billionaire. And by the way, Putin lives like a billionaire. Maduro and Hugo Chavez before him, they live like billionaires.

[Thea Sonia]

Right?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Communism, when you have all the power at the top. And what does Bernie suggest it would be any different if the government is in charge of everything, every place that has happened, the rulers live like kings and everyone else is miserable.

[Michael Knowles]

Right. Well, we did actually get one mailbag question that I think is very much on this topic, which is with the Democratic Party veering so far to the left and embracing these absolutely disgusting positions, hopefully will turn off most of the American people. Should conservatives be happy? Should conservatives be happy that the God that failed is about to fail the Democratic Party?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Not necessarily.

[Michael Knowles]

You're not, you're not as complacent I.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Understand people saying, okay, great. Bernie's so extreme, that means Trump will get reelected. I hope Trump gets reelected. I'm working hard to reelect the president. But listen, what is truly terrifying is I think the American people could elect a wild eyed socialist. The media, we're a divided country. If 100,000 votes had flipped in 2016, Hillary Clinton would be the president right now. And Bernie, the media treats him kind of like your crazy uncle. Oh, he's just the crazy uncle. Isn't that cute? He's praising, murdering, torturing communist dictators. Well, this guy believes this stuff in his heart and soul. He believes it. His whole life has been dedicated to it. And I got to admit, I am. It's all fine and good to celebrate. Unless he ends up winning.

[Michael Knowles]

Unless it happens.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

God help the direction this country goes if that happens.

[Michael Knowles]

Well, because you already fled one communist hellhole and this was the great hope as America's the great hope.

[Thea Sonia]

There's no place to go.

[Michael Knowles]

Where do you go after this?

[Thea Sonia]

There's no place to go.

[Ben Ferguson]

Senator, what an incredible story and especially so timely with what's happening in Cuba and in Venezuela and Iran and just I hope it inspires others. I hope people will share this. Our thoughts and our prayers are with you and your family. But what an amazing legacy that she has left behind.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Well, she has left an amazing legacy, including her daughter Bebe, who is extraordinary. She's like a sister to me, including me. She impacted my life in a very profound way. I will tell you. A couple of weeks ago, I went up to see her. She lived in Dallas. I went up to see her and brought Heidi and the girls. And we saw her in the hospital and she was not fully conscious. She was going in and out of consciousness. But I told her, I told her that we got Maduro and I told her Cuba is next, the Cuban communist regime is going to fall next, and, and even kind of coming in and out of consciousness, she smiled the biggest smile and, and, and to have a chance to tell her that and for her to hear that before she goes to be with the Lord. She is truly a warrior for liberty. Theasonia. I love you.

[Thea Sonia]

This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.