Rafael (Ted’s dad) claims that he was a part of the Cuban revolution, and that was why Batista tortured him. The idea being that he suffered and fought for the revolution, so he is an authority when it comes to criticizing Fidel for betraying the revolutionaries and becoming a new dictator.

There is no evidence he was a revolutionary, though, his account has glaring mistakes about the time and place of major events he was supposedly at, and people who knew him back in Cuba said he just did some anti-Batista graffiti as the extent of his involvement.