San Antonio Mayor Juliàn Castro has been chosen to deliver the keynote address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Castro will take center stage during primetime as one of the few Latinos to deliver the keynote address at his party's national convention.

"Being the keynote speaker at the convention this year is an honor I don't take lightly," Castro said in a video message on his website. "I know I've got some big shoes to fill. Two conventions ago, the keynote speaker was a guy named Barack Obama. I remember watching his speech in 2004 and being inspired."

Castro praised President Obama's record on healthcare, the wars and the economy, saying that Obama deserves a second term to see his policies through.

"We've come so far over the past three and a half years under Obama's leadership," Castro said. "And I know he's not done yet. We got a lot more work to do."

Many say that tapping Castro as keynote speaker is a sign that his party see him as rising star who could one day run for leader of the free world.

Barack Obama's 2004 keynote address introduced him to the national stage at the age of 43. Four years later, he was elected as the nation's first black president.

At 37-years-old, Castro is the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city. First elected on May 9, 2009, he won re-election in 2011 with nearly 82 percent of the vote.

In 2010, Castro was named to the World Economic Forum's list of Young Global Leaders and Time magazine placed him on its "40 under 40" list of rising stars in American politics.

Castro serves on the board of directors of the National League of Cities and has taught courses at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Trinity University, and St. Mary's University.

Mayor Castro earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University with honors and distinction in 1996 and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2000. In 2001, at the age of 26, Castro became the youngest elected city councilman at that time in San Antonio history.

Castro's twin brother, Joaquin, serves in the Texas House of Representatives.

This is one of the many ways the Obama campaign is looking to Latino voters to help him in a second term.

In 2008, Hispanics made up 9 percent of the voting population. President Obama carried that group with 67 percent of the vote, compared to John McCain's 31 percent.