Politician and diplomat Marco Rubio’s parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of Rubio’s birth.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, March 27, 2025, that he revoked a Tufts University doctoral student’s visa before she was arrested and sent to a detention center in Louisiana.
Highlights
- Marco Rubio defended the detention of the Tufts University students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
- Rubio was born to his father, Oriales Rubio, and his mother, Mario Rubio Reina.
- He grew up with his three siblings: Mario, Barbara, and Veronica.
He said it was one of at least 300 visas he has canceled.
Speaking with reporters in Guyana, Rubio defended the detention of university students across the country who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. He said federal authorities do it “every day.”
Rubi spoke broadly about university students vandalizing buildings and harassing students but did not support those claims with concrete examples or offer specifics regarding Rumeysa’s case.
The comments drew an angry response from Venezuelan president and leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, who called Rubio an “imbecile” and rejected any foreign interference.
Marco Rubio Said His Parents Fled Cuba And The Castro Regime In 1959
Marco Rubio, 53, was born on May 28, 1971, in Miami, Florida, United States, to his father, Mario Rubio Reina, and his mother, Oriales Rubio.
Oriales was a bartender at Sam’s Town Hotel, and Mario was a housekeeper at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino.
His parents were Cubans who started living in the United States during the regime of Fulgencio Batista two and a half years before Fidel Castro ascended to power after the Cuban Revolution.
Therefore, Marco and his family are of Cuban-American ethnicity.
During one of the interviews, Mario said that his parents fled Cuba and the Castro regime in 1959, but immigration records showed that Mario and Oriales immigrated in 1956.
Marco’s mother made at least four return trips to Cuba after Castro’s takeover, including a month-long trip in 1961, and a return to Cuba had been planned before the changes in their native country.
Sadly, Oriales took her last breath on September 27, 2019, at 88.
Mario and Oriales were not U.S. citizens at the time of Marco’s birth.
Marco shared a close bond with his maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia, who immigrated to the U.S. legally in 1956 but returned to Cuba to find work in 1959.
When Pedro fled communist Cuba and returned to the U.S. without a visa, he was detained as an undocumented immigrant, and an immigration judge ordered him to be deported.
Marco Rubio Grew Up With His Three Siblings
Marco Rubio spent his childhood with his older brother Mario, older sister Barbara, and younger sister Veronica Rubio.
Barbara, who is 12 years older than Marco, met Orlando Cicilia in high school.
Cicilia hosted a farm-style Nochebuena with lechon roasted over coals at his Kendall house.
On the other hand, Veronica is an American actress and photographer. She was married to Carlos Ponce, a Puerto Rican actor and musician.
They were married from 1996 to 2010 and had four children.
After her divorce, Veronica married Christian Joseph Boulos and had two children, Anthony Boulos and Jayla Boulos.
Additional Information
- Marco Rubio graduated from South Miami Senior High School in 1989. He then attended Tarkio College in Missouri on a one-year football scholarship before enrolling at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida.
- In 1998, Marco married Jeanette Dousdebes, who is also from a Hispanic family. She is a former bank teller and Miami Dolphins cheerleader.
- Rubio denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and co-sponsored a bill that would target pro-Russian separatist groups whose conflict with the Ukrainian government was used by Vladimir Putin to justify the invasion.
