PHILADELPHIA — Hispanic delegates at the Democratic convention expressed disappointment Monday that Hillary Clinton passed over Latino contenders to select Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate, but agreed the stakes in the election were too high to allow that decision to sway their support.

"Is it disappointing? Yeah," said Robert Rodriguez, a delegate from Colorado attending the Hispanic caucus breakfast. "But it's not a dissuading thing."

Clinton publicly flirted with the idea of choosing Labor Secretary Tom Perez or Housing Secretary Julian Castro for vice president before settling on Kaine Friday.

Kaine, former governor of Virginia, is fluent in Spanish and spent a year in Honduras, two points on his resume that Hispanic delegates said they liked about him.

"I would have loved for it to be a Latino," said Pennsylvania state Rep. Angel Cruz. "Someday we need to have Latinos in high ranking positions."

But Cruz said the time for pushing a Hispanic vice presidential candidate has come and gone.

"She chose the governor and right now, the key out of everything is making sure that Trump doesn't get elected," he said.

Speakers at the Hispanic caucus meeting Monday morning ripped into Trump for what they perceived as offensive positions on immigration.

Maria Durazo, vice president of immigration for UNITE HERE, a major union, said Donald Trump's language on immigration should be called out as racist and treated the same as a politician's use of the "N" word.

Rep. Luis Guttierez, D-Ill., said Trump had led Republicans in an attack on the entire Hispanic community.

"When Donald Trump says that Mexicans are murderers, rapists and drug dealers, he's talking about all of us," Guttierez said.

Guttierez said Trump's plan to deport illegal immigrants was an "ugly, hateful fantasy."

Some Hispanic delegates had high praise for Kaine, especially given his fluency in Spanish, which he has already showcased on the campaign trail.

"I think Tim Kaine brings a lot to the table," said Pennsylvania state Rep. Leslie Acosta. "The fact that he is fluent in both languages, I think, is very appealing to the Latino community."

Vilma Colom, the first Latina city councilwoman to serve in Chicago, said she believed Clinton had to choose Kaine in response to Trump's selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

"I think, due to the fact that Trump has a strong white male running that has control of a lot of religious groups, she needed to strategically restructure her selection," Colom said.

Hilda Solis, former labor secretary under President Obama, praised Kaine as she took the stage during the Hispanic caucus meeting. Solis was nominated to be co-chair of the convention Monday amid a shake-up at the top of the Democratic Party.

Rodriguez said he was confident the Hispanic community would have another opportunity to put one of their own in the White House someday.

"I still think our time will come to pick a Latino to run," he said. "It wasn't this year."