Posted on 10/26/2009 1:20:09 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Hotel Owner to Workers: No Spanish!
By MELANIE DABOVICH, AP
TAOS, N.M. (Oct. 26) -- Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel.
The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names.
No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark.
Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country.
The 63-year-old Texan, however, wasn't prepared for what followed.
His rules and his firing of several Hispanic employees angered his employees and many in this liberal enclave of 5,000 residents at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, where the most alternative of lifestyles can find a home and where Spanish language, culture and traditions have a long and revered history.
"I came into this landmine of Anglos versus Spanish versus Mexicans versus Indians versus everybody up here. I'm just doing what I've always done," he says.
Former workers, their relatives and some town residents picketed across the street from the hotel.
"I do feel he's a racist, but he's a racist out of ignorance. He doesn't know that what he's doing is wrong," says protester Juanito Burns Jr., who identified himself as prime minister of an activist group called Los Brown Berets de Nuevo Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.aol.com ...
Is it liberal or conservative to keep a town looking and sounding a lot like it did in centuries past in order to bring in sightseers?
(Though to be consistent, the protesters should be riding horses, not Harleys)
Drives me nuts. Just address them in the same ridiculous accent they themselves use.
A local AM station here hired a new traffic chica named Nicole Huerta, which she pronounced "Neecoweta". If I ever meet her, that's what I'm using.
When I was a young kid, I was a service station attendant for a short period of time. My friend and I still laugh about this to this day, but drivers would pull up saying, “filegula”. It was a shortened Hispanic way to say, “Fill it with regular.”
I know what you mean about run-on names. It’s funny. Neecoweta... Heh heh heh...
“So what if the workers is named Jesus?”
Chaw.
Exactly. Notice that all of the ex-employees actually COULD speak English. He is totally right in assuming they are up to no good speaking Spanish in front of him...especially when they were so hostile from the beginning.
I remember back when Nicaragua was communist all the newscasters would pronounce it Nee-rah-wah, yet they would call Paris Paris, not Pah-ree, Italy as Italy not Ee-tall-yah.
It was so hypocritical.
Ed
Communications with customers is paramount in a service establishment.
If he opened a Chinese restaurant, and expected his customers to be mostly Chinese, he has the absolute right to demand that his employees speak Chinese on the job.
I notice that the invaders are claiming "disrespect."
Another third world hellhole strategy...
Most latins named Jesus who choose to anglicize their names go for "Jess."
Many of us have been there. So what?
The ambience is the town, not the hotel where you choose to be comfortable. Arguing that the locals are upset is so lame. I have never in my entire life stayed at a hotel in the town or city where I live. I don't see many locals as customers.
Consider yourself challenged on that assertion. And I speak Spanish fluently. If most of the customers don't speak Spanish, the owner is in the best position to decide what works for his hotel. You want insults in a language you don't understand? Stay somewhere else.
LOL
Last time I talked to someone in India for IT support , they said their name was “Bill” - with a very think accent.
It sems to work there, but New Mexico - it is just begging trouble.
I'd love to see a white news anchor deliver his signoff with the usual midwestern accent, and then pronounce his name with an exaggerated Polish accent or Irish brogue for emphasis.
See how the suits like *that*
Did you read the post I was responding to, as it seems not. If you had, you’d have been making that argument to the first guy who used it (the poster I responded to).
Of course it’s a stupid argument, because requiring a name change of your employees is stupid. It’s not the name, it’s the level of service (but you seem to have missed that as well).
LOL, good one. I agree.
Haven't you heard? "Hispanics" have lived in the New World since their ancient ancestors emerged from their Sacred Mystical Mother Soil. Spanish is the "indigenous" language of "Latin America" and the Conquistadores were redneck hillbillies named Billy Bob who enslaved them!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.