San Diego, California (CNN) -- Marco Rubio is writing his life story. Now the only question is: Which life?





The 40-year-old Florida senator, and Republican Party rock star, is shopping his memoir to New York publishing houses. There is sure to be a market; Republicans want to embrace a Latino conservative to shield them from accusations that their immigration rhetoric is anti-Latino, and so, for them, Rubio is the most beloved Latino since Desi Arnaz.





A memoir is a good idea. Rubio may need a whole book to explain the contradictions surrounding his biography.





Rubio has repeatedly said that his parents left Cuba after Fidel Castro took power in January 1959. But documents brought to light by the Washington Post and St. Petersburg Times reveal that Mario and Oriales Rubio arrived in the United States, legally on an immigration visa, much earlier -- in May 1956.





So what? That's the scandal?





Rubio is clearly not the only American with a bad memory. Many European-Americans are so far removed from their families' immigrant past that, not only can they not tell you when their ancestors migrated to the United States, sometimes they can barely tell you what country their family came from.





"Let's see, I'm part German, and I think I have a little Irish and some Italian. No, some French."





Apparently, if you're Cuban-American, it matters a lot. There is a pecking order in South Florida. Being a descendant of those who came as political exiles after Castro came to power supposedly carries more cachet than if your family simply came as economic immigrants before Castro took power.





I don't get it. But then, I'm not Cuban-American. So I defer to two friends (and media colleagues) who are.





Alfredo Estrada, publisher of Latino Magazine, is skeptical about Rubio getting the dates wrong.





"When your parents left Cuba is seared into the memory of every Cuban-American," he told me.





Rick Sanchez, whose family left Cuba in the winter of 1962, was much harder on Rubio. In an op-ed for The Huffington Post, the former CNN host blasted the inconsistency and tied it back to the senator's immigration views.





"[Rubio] convinced Americans that he was the son of political refugees," Sanchez wrote, "implying that it somehow made him different from the other Hispanics who he attacks regularly -- the ones in Arizona, Georgia and Alabama that he and others want to detain, arrest and kick out. How dare they come here looking for work and to better their lot in life? Marco Rubio made us believe he is different from them when he's not."





I understand what my friends are saying. And I understand that, as a Mexican-American and not a Cuban-American, there are some things I will never understand.





Nevertheless, I thought that Rubio did a fine job of acquitting himself in an op-ed for Politico.





"The Washington Post accused me of seeking political advantage by embellishing the story of how my parents arrived in the United States," he wrote. "That is an outrageous allegation that is not only incorrect, but an insult to the sacrifices my parents made to provide a better life for their children...I am the son of immigrants and exiles, raised by people who know all too well that you can lose your country. By people who know firsthand that America is a very special place...Ultimately what The Post writes is not that important to me. I am the son of exiles. I inherited two generations of unfulfilled dreams. This is a story that needs no embellishing."





That's poetry, and yet that op-ed may have backfired.





National Public Radio says that it has found discrepancies between what Rubio wrote for Politico and the account that Rubio offered on one of its shows two years ago.





For Politico, Rubio wrote, "In February 1961, my mother took my older siblings to Cuba with the intention of moving back... But
who was this rock star Who is a GOP "rock star"? When did Rubio's parents leave Cuba?
Marco Rubio Marco Rubio May 1956.
question: who was this rock star, answer: Marco Rubio | question: Who is a GOP "rock star"?, answer: Marco Rubio | question: When did Rubio's parents leave Cuba?, answer: May 1956.