“I know of another Beruff, also Cuban. The name sounds Russian to me.”
Castaway from the missile crisis days..?
He left Cuba as a child prior to the Missile Crisis. I think that most 19th century and early 20th century Russian immigrants to Cuba were Jewish, which would not be the case for my acquaintance (or the Senate candidate). But, as Impy posted earlier, the surname appears to be Bavarian, not Russian. https://www.houseofnames.com/beruff-family-crest Most Bavarians are Catholic, as were almost all European immigrants to the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico in the 19th century, so that’s probably what happened.