Two of the people at the Miami-Dade Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday
night left with a phenomenal impression of Sen. Marco Rubio and support his run for presidency.
But they weren’t guests. They didn’t buy the tickets that started at $150 for a stuffed chicken dinner with jumbo asparagus.
They served the plates of chicken and asparagus.
“He inspires me. He gives me hope,” said Miguel Rivero, 46, who waited on Rubio’s table with Marina Uran, 54.
Read related story: Marco Rubio shines bright at Jeb-less Lincoln Day Dinner
“He’s young. And he is already making laws as a senator,” said Uran. “His parents have instilled good values in him and they are immigrants like us.”
Uran, a Colombian-born citizen registered as a Republican, says he’s got her vote. But he probably had it already: She was at the Freedom Tower when he announced his candidacy in April.
“He will be our next president. God willing,” she said.
Rivero, a Cuban, is not yet a citizen because he needs to travel back to Cuba as often as possible to see his wife and stepdaughter, who he has tried to bring to the U.S. for three years. But he hopes to be naturalized and registered by November 2016.
“I want to vote for him. He is Cuban like me and even though he is a Senator, he is the kind of person who doesn’t forget that he came from humble beginnings,” Rivero said.
Both said they know Rubio’s story and that his parents worked jobs like theirs.
“His father was just like me, working in a room like this one, to serve people like him,” Rivero said.
Read related story: It’s out — Marco Rubio sets sights on 2016 White House
Uran said that she worked at the Marriott JW Marquis in Miami where President Barack Obama spoke in 2012 and that she was not even allowed in the room. “I think they brought their own servers. None of our staff worked that event,” she said.
Ladra approached Uran and Rivero when she saw Rubio — after patiently posing for what seemed like 100 or more selfies — suddenly stop in his tracks on the way out the room, extend his hand and thank them for their service that night.
He didn’t have to. He didn’t know I was looking. There were no cameras around anymore. It was a sincere gesture.
“He thanked the whole staff,” Rivero told me.
Maybe it was the caffeine.
Said Uran: “He didn’t touch his food, but he had lots of coffee.”
Among Marco Rubio’s biggest fans — servers at GOP dinner added by Ladra on
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