MIAMI – With just a few hours to go before the spotlight shines on El Palacio de los Jugos in Miami, the final kinks are being ironed out at the South Florida eatery as workers rolled out the red carpet for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who arrived at Miami International Airport with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio about 4:30 p.m. Monday.
"It's been running, running, running around," said Jorge de la Llama.
He was born in Cuba and is part of the very demographic that Mitt Romney is after in the push for more Hispanic voters.
And while Romeny is here, de la Llama wants him to understand a message of his own.
"I want him to realize that he's in the heart of the Cuban, Hispanic and Latin areas," de la Llama told Local 10's Terrell Forney. "We're here to support him, but we need him to understand what we want as a community."
The need of understanding how to properly deal with the Castro regime is number one on the list.
Near the fresh cut fruit at El Palacio de La Jugos, campaign signs read Juntos Con Romney, Spanish for Together With Romney.
"We're trying to unite Cubans, Hispanics and Latins. We're all three," said de la Llama.
It's a symbolic message of sorts that Sen. Marco Rubio -- who is of Cuban descent -- is helping to spread, even during an earlier campaign stop with Romney before a cheering crowd in St. Augustine.
"I think what's clear at this moment -- what we have learned over the past three days -- is that this election is not going to be a choice between two parties or two people," Rubio said. "But it's literally a choice about our identity as a nation and as a people."
Rubio is also expected to be in attendance at this afternoon's event.