On the last night of the Republican convention, it fell to Cuban Senator Marco Rubio and presidential nominee Mitt Romney to make the two final speeches outlining the vision of the party, a couple of months away from November’s election. In a clear recognition of the nation’s growing Latino electorate, Rubio’s speech focused largely on his vision of the country through his lens as a Cuban growing up in an immigrant household.

“Many nights I heard my father’s keys jingling at the door as he came home from another 16-hour day,” said Rubio. “Many mornings, I woke up just as my mother got home from the overnight shift at K-Mart.” Then Rubio said in both Spanish and English, “My Dad used to tell us, ‘In this country, you will be able to accomplish all the things we never could,’” to applause.

Rubio, widely talked about as a potential vice presidential nominee and a rising star in the Republican party, had the national spotlight as he gave the speech introducing Mitt Romney. Much of his speech centered around Rubio’s family. He talked of his disabled Cuban grandfather, who used to smoke 3 Padron cigars a day and who watched the 1980 Republican convention with Rubio when he was a little boy.

But Rubio got the biggest cheers when he spoke of his father, who was a bartender. “He stood behind a bar in the back of the room all those years, so one day I could stand behind a podium in front of the room,” said Rubio to great applause.

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