As News 12 New Jersey highlights Hispanic Heritage Month, Sen. Bob Menendez tells his story of being the son of Cuban immigrants and being raised in Union City.
Menendez says he was born in New York City and moved to a Union City tenement with his family when he was a toddler.
His mother was a seamstress and his father was a carpenter.
Menendez was able to go to college with financial aid, made it to the school board and eventually became mayor of the city he called home.
He then went to Congress, then the Senate, where he still serves today.
Menendez says despite his lengthy political career, his biggest accomplishment is opening the Union City Day Care Program
It was a facility where parents, like his own, could leave their children as they worked. It is now an early learning center.
Menendez says with the little that his family had, his mother taught him lessons he remembers to this day. He says she taught him Cuban hospitality.