Ted Poe: “America is about people. Who we are and what we are is because of the people who have come to America. They are…”

“America is about people. Who we are and what we are is because of the people who have come to America. They are individuals who have lived and died and influenced the rest of us because of their tenacious spirit and determination. Mr. Speaker, I am a history fan. I love American history especially, and Texas history, not the history of dates and movements, but the history of the lives of individual Americans who made a difference. Roy Benavidez was one of those Americans. Roy Benavidez was born in South Texas in a small town called Cuero, August 5, 1935. He was the son of a sharecropper. He was an orphan and he had mixed blood of Yaqui Indian and Hispanic. He was raised by his uncle after he lost his family and he dropped out of school in the seventh grade. He didn't see the need for an education at that time. He was a migrant farm worker. He worked all over Texas and as far as Colorado in the sugar beet fields and the cotton fields. He decided to join the United States Army in 1955, and he joined in Houston, Texas.”