[DogByte6RER]

The Whitten Inn (formerly The Paragon Inn) looks like a nice place to stay:

http://taosguide.com/businesses/view/164

http://www.paragoninntaos.com/

[2banana]

"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.

Wonder how many non-hispanics in that group!

[DogByte6RER]

A YouTube video link of the protesters...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxQNjK8B5B4

[Cacique]

bump for later

[NC28203]

So what if the workers is named Jesus?

[Nea Wood]

I just love these people who belong to groups called the “brown” this or that, calling other people “racist.”

[Hans]

The problem is now endemic in business. As more recent immigrants decide to reverse the process - namely its for the English speakers to learn Spanish, Polish, or what not.
I see actual regression as the hapless fools start the ‘Tony Randall’ method of foreign pronunciation. Rather than use the English pronunciation of the foreign word I am daily faced with listening to someone on the other end of the telephone gutturally spitting out some southern Mexican dialect.

[chrisser]

I can’t say I agree 100% with the gentleman’s tactics.

That said, isn’t that the point of freedom?

He’s free to run his hotel as he sees fit.

His employees are free to abide by his rules or seek employment elsewhere.

The townspeople are free to not stay there if they choose not to.

Once upon a time, before the rise of the perpetual victim and his cheerleading squad, this issue would have been resolved by reward with more business, or punishment with less.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Any analysis of why this hotel failed when neighboring hotels with, presumably, their own Mar-teens didn’t? Whatever else was wrong, maybe this spot, which touts a long standing old fashioned Hispanic charm from yesteryear, wasn’t the best place to try to turn a hotel into a piece of white bread. I hope Whitten figures out how to make lemonade out of this lemon. Maybe bringing in a co-owner who is bilingual to be with him, tell him what is being said, and teach him the language would make sense. Not every single solitary occurrence of Hispanic culture in the US is a pestilence, as long as they are willing to cooperate with English speakers.

[DoughtyOne]

Martin Gutierrez, another fired employee, says he felt disrespected when he was told to use the unaccented Martin as his name. He says he told Whitten that Spanish was spoken in New Mexico before English. "He told me he didn't care what I thought because this was his business," Gutierrez says.

Yes and Indian was spoken thousands of years before you came along. What's your point?

[dragnet2]

looks like a nice place to stay:

Brown Berets and low riders? Sure...lol..

I do feel he's a racist, protester Juanito Burns Jr., who identified himself as prime minister of an activist group called Los Brown Berets de Nuevo Mexico.

The hotel sits along narrow, two-lane Paseo del Pueblo, where souped-up lowriders cruise past centuries-old adobe buildings.

[Republic of Texas]

It's not like he's requiring them to learn Mandarin. It's English. In America. Making people change their name is stupid and over the top, and will only hurt his business.

[brushcop]

If it’s true about his “fear” of them speaking about him (in Spanish), I’ve got news for him, you BET they’ll be talking about him, it’s called human nature!

I was raised speaking Spanish, I’d sure like a shot at managing that hotel. They could use their proper names, they could speak Spanish but the rule would be not in front of guests (I don’t care in front of me, big deal) because there is the age-old assumption that they are “talking about you” (likely about the weather and their kids more than anything, like everybody else). Common courtesy stuff.

Don’t know what the problem with the hotel is, maybe guests were not feeling comfortable there beause of a rising racial territorial thing that I’m seeing everywhere. Too much pride getting in the way of good business practices.

I would play off of their good manners (it they have any, surely they do), reward employees that are friendly, efficient and use their good ideas to give them some “ownership”, darn Larry, sort of a hard edge there buddy, soften up a bit, smile, observe, bring them into the business.

[detective]

This story quotes all these people from Hispanic community groups as saying the Spanish speaking employees of the failing hotel were all treated unfairly because they were Spanish speaking. If this guy had been successful at turning around failing hotels in the past he couldn’t be so stupid as to deliberately antagonize his staff over minor things. It is far more persuasive to say you were fired because you were Spanish speaking and the owner is a racist then to say you were fired for stealing, insubordination or being incompetent. These workers made the hotel a big money loser. I know people in the hotel business, employee theft is a big problem.
This guy does not want to create controversy, no businessman does. That’s why they are so easy to push around. They always want to avoid trouble.
Activist groups like the brown berets need controversy to survive, they try to create controversy. The MSM loves controversy. This is what is probably going on.

[Random Access]

Spanish is the language of the conquistadors. Any “Hispanic” with any sense of pride should only speak Quechua or another native language. Especially at job interviews.

[Unam Sanctam]

Requiring speaking English is one thing, but requiring people to change their names is ridiculous.

[Azzurri]

"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.

Sounds like John Burns Jr fancies himself as the prime minister of the PC Thought Police.

[Cyber Liberty]

He should demonstrate his thanks to the good folks of Taos by padlocking the joint.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Like others have said before me on this thread, requiring the workers to speak English does not bother me. Requiring the workers to use Anglicized names is over the top (not to mention insulting to the staff, I’m sure). For example, I know a couple of members of the cleaning staff where I work, and I certainly don’t call José “Joe” or Francisco “Frank.”

[Rybashka]

He’s not racist for requiring workers to Americanize their names. His only crime is that he’s a small player.

When I call up Dell customer support and get an obvious fake name from someone in India, is Dell racist for having made the offshore workers adopt American names?

International hotel chains are even worse. To make international travelers more comfortable (or just easier to call their waiter by name), they make foreign employees who deal with the public adopt fake Western names. Isn’t it more racist for an imperialistic Western multinational to go to, say, Beijing and tell employees that they can’t even use their own names in their own country?

[Altura Ct.]

Hotel Owner to Workers: No Spanish!

Just say no!