NEW YORK CITY, New York: Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos delivered a tearful remembrance of his father's fleeing Cuba in the 1960s and arriving in the United States, speaking this week at the Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Awards.

"I think in every immigrant you'll find a deep optimism and a deep resilience, too," Bezos said during his speech.

He further noted how immigrants come to the U.S. because they believe in the opportunities for a new life and for their families' futures.

"Every immigrant who has come to this country, they all have their own unique stories. Fighting for a better life, hardships, but they also end up having a belief in America," Bezos said.

Then he tearfully noted that he and his sibling could "not have had a better role model" than his father.=

Jeff Bezos' father Miguel, known as Mike, arrived in the United States in the early 1960s, when he was 16 years old, first landing in Miami after leaving Cuba. He was an unaccompanied minor who could not speak English.

After arriving, he was sent to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was housed and educated in a Catholic School.

"There was a priest in charge of usit was a tremendous experience for me..For us in Wilmington, we had each other, and we became very close," Mike Bezos said during a 2016 interview with the Smithsonian National Museum.

He later was admitted to the University of Albuquerque in New Mexico and worked at ExxonMobil for over 32 years in engineering and managerial positions.

In 2000, he co-founded the Bezos Family Foundation with his wife Jackie and their children to support the education of children.

Mike Bezos was honored at the Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island awards this year, where his son Jeff spoke.