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SAUNDRA AMRHEINTeresa Heinz Kerry reaches out to Cuban exiles and gives multilingual greetings in Ybor City.
TAMPA - Teresa Heinz Kerry had barely finished her greeting in Spanish when a woman yelled out, "Italian!"
Without missing a beat, Heinz Kerry switched languages and finished her sentence, thrilling the 400 supporters who turned out Monday at the Cuban Club in Ybor City.
Heinz Kerry's fluency with languages and international flair seemed a perfect fit for supporters in a part of town famous for its Cuban, Spanish and Italian immigrant roots.
While campaigning for husband and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, the daughter of a Portuguese doctor reached out to Cuban exiles, stressed her husband's education initiatives and promised that he would "tell the truth" to the world.
Like Cuban-Americans, her parents lost everything when forced to flee her birthplace of Mozambique, including the "ability to live their last days and die in a place they loved," she said, against a backdrop of mostly women - white, black and Hispanic.
She asked the crowd to help put her husband in the White House, vowing that he would restore the country as a beacon of hope for the world.
"We have to go back there ... for the rest of the world," she said. "They need to see it."
Though Heinz Kerry reached out to exiles of Fidel Castro's Cuba who traditionally have voted Republican, many Cuban-Americans in the room had longer ties to Tampa - and the Democratic party.
John Kerry and running mate John Edwards "are for the working class," said Angela Molina, 60, as supporters took their seats.
"My father was a cigar worker and I identify with the working class," said Molina, a retired Hillsborough Community College professor who was born and raised in Ybor City.
Heinz Kerry's visit to Ybor was a dream of Yvonne "Yoli" Capin, who saw it as a way to reach women voters and Latinos at the same time.
"She's a package of diversity," said Capin, Hillsborough chairwoman of Women for Kerry, who stems from a mixed heritage of Cuban, Spanish and Portuguese.
Many women in the crowd held signs that said "It's up to the women" or "Unidos con Kerry" - United with Kerry. Sade ballads played in the background. Signs on the wall featured a strand of hair, encouraging women to "Wash that man right out of your hair."
The Florida Democratic Party rented the space, said Jorge Diaz, president of the Cuban Club, which is not politically affiliated and is open to the community at large for whoever wants to rent the hall.
Heinz Kerry deliberately went through her husband's pledges on education and health care, and spoke of tax credits for families to pay for college tuition and a plan to give free four-year college education if students promise two years of accredited public service upon graduation.