Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names

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TAOS, N.M. – 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.

Okay, I can see not wanting people to speak in a language you don't understand in front of you--that is kind of rude. But asking people to change their names? No. Just...no.

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"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.

"Everybody hates everybody else! I'm just making them all get along!"

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Then Whitten told some employees he was changing their Spanish first names. Whitten says it's a routine practice at his hotels to change first names of employees who work the front desk phones or deal directly with guests if their names are difficult to understand or pronounce.

Everybody who has trouble understanding names like Marcos raise your hand.

...

Anybody? Hello?

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The messages and comments he made in interviews with local media, including referring to townsfolk as "mountain people" and "potheads who escaped society," further enflamed tensions.

But...but they're a bunch of Spanish-speaking liberals who don't understand the superior white Texas culture!

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Whitten grew subdued as a two-hour interview with The Associated Press progressed. He said he was sorry for the misunderstanding and insisted he has never been against any culture.

"I have piles and piles of friends from other cultures. I even let them use my bathroom...as long as they have Anglo names."

There are whole cities with racist white people, mostly in the Eastern half, southern part near the border, and in the top left corner. The reason it always ends up a blue state is because of areas like Taos/Santa Fe/Los Alamos/Albuquerque. So as a result I'm expecting to hear about the battle to get this guy hosed soon.

You do know that if someone is racist around here we ask if they're from Texas or something, so uh, yeah. I don't mean any offense to my friends who live in Texas.

Nihilist wrote:

You know that's what a lot of people from Texas like to do here, you know.

D:

This guy is from north Texas which is more white. If he was in south Texas, he would be ran out of the towns/cities from the angry mobs with pitchforks.

Nihilist wrote:

I don't mean any offense to my friends who live in Texas.

D'[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

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Okay, I can see not wanting people to speak in a language you don't understand in front of you--that is kind of rude.

WHAT

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(he thought they'd be talking about him)

WHO IS THIS FUCKING VAIN. THIS IS THE SAME ARGUMENT USE BY ANTI-GAYS "BUT WHAT IF THEY HIT ON ME?" RSAAGXDGNDFGH

Mafiosa wrote:

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(he thought they'd be talking about him)

WHO IS THIS FUCKING VAIN. THIS IS THE SAME ARGUMENT USE BY ANTI-GAYS "BUT WHAT IF THEY HIT ON ME?" RSAAGXDGNDFGH

Considering he IS their boss.

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...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)...

¡Pinche cabrón!

Listen, if Michael Hickenbottom has to go by a less lame name for his job, these people can too.

Granted, if this guy were any less adept at handling a situation tactfully and with respect for the morons he is dealing with, he'd be, uh, me.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Listen, if Michael Hickenbottom has to go by a less lame name for his job, these people can too.

I see no problem with the name Michael Hickenbottom. It is as fine a name as, say, Jupiter Snodgrass or James Vivian Woolcock.

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The messages and comments he made in interviews with local media,
including referring to townsfolk as "mountain people" and "potheads who
escaped society," further enflamed tensions.

Because everyone knows that insulting the inhabitants of the town you are trying to run a hotel in is the sure-fire way to get them all on your side! Right?


Gah - he reminds me of that Justice of the Peace with all of his "Oh, I'm not racist - I've always treated Spanish-speaking people like this!". Is this Racists-in-the-News-Week, or something?

Yeah, he isn't winning "Boss of The Year" anytime soon I can imagine.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Listen, if Michael Hickenbottom has to go by a less lame name for his job, these people can too.

Aw, cut the guy some slack. Shawn Michaels is a much more marketable name than Michael Hickenbottom. Also, you're playing to a wrestling audience; do you really want the word 'hick' associated with you any further? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I kid because I love; really!

Aggie wrote:

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Listen, if Michael Hickenbottom has to go by a less lame name for his job, these people can too.

Aw, cut the guy some slack. Shawn Michaels is a much more marketable name than Michael Hickenbottom. Also, you're playing to a wrestling audience; do you really want the word 'hick' associated with you any further? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Or, for that matter, 'bottom'?

Seriously, though, WTF is his problem? He can say "martini", right? So leave off the 'i' and you have Martín. I can see a policy of "Don't correct the guests if they screw up your name" -- that's a customer relations thing, you don't want to tell the people giving you money they're doing it wrong -- but this is just ignorant. At least Spanish is nice and phonetic, unlike the weirdass names doting parents are giving their kids these days. "It's pronounced 'VEH-gee-nuh', stupid!"

And then insulting the population of the town he's trying to run a business in. Yeah, this guy is a couple of teeny soaps short of a housekeeping cart.

According to the news, its basically the story of a Marine that wandered into a free-spirit hippie town.

I smell sitcom!

Aw, I was gonna post this.

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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)

There's a simple solution, dumbass--learn Spanish. And don't tell anyone about it, so if they are talking shit about you, they won't know you can understand them.
But does it occur to this asshole to learn someone else's language, instead of forcing them to speak his?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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"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.

Oh, well, that's so much better than knowing he's being a racist asshole on purpose.

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"It has nothing to do with racism. I'm not doing it for any reason other than for the satisfaction of my guests, because people calling from all over America don't know the Spanish accents or the Spanish culture or Spanish anything," Whitten says.

Oh, bullshit! Where in America are these people who have never seen Hispanics or know anything about them?

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After the firings, the New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national civil rights group, sent Whitten a letter, raising concerns about treatment of Hispanic workers. Whitten says he sent them a letter and posted messages on the hotel marquee, alleging that the group referred to him with a racial slur. LULAC denied the charge.
The messages and comments he made in interviews with local media, including referring to townsfolk as "mountain people" and "potheads who escaped society," further enflamed tensions.

I have no words.

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"It has nothing to do with racism. I'm not doing it for any reason
other than for the satisfaction of my guests, because people calling
from all over America don't know the Spanish accents or the Spanish
culture or Spanish anything," Whitten says.

Speak for yourself, Mr. Gyrine. But don't speak for me.

Besides, how much of the "Spanish everything" do you need to know when you're booking a room? If the name in "Thank you for calling the Paragon Inn. This is XXXXX, how many I help you?" is John, Juan, Ivan, Joao, Johannes, or Jasvinder, how is it going to change "I'd like to reserve a double, non-smoking, for next weekend"? For all it matters, he could just say "This is the front desk" and gave no name at all.

How can the European hotel industry possibly survive? People from Spain might want to stay at German hotels, and people from France could want to visit Italy. How could Carlos possibly do business with Konrad, or Jacques reserve a room from Pietro? What happens when Vladimir, Katsumi, and Joe from New York need rooms? Somehow, they all manage, even if it involves one person with a phrasebook complaining about the eels in his hovercraft.

And in Taos, of all places. Taos, New Mexico. Think there's maybe just a trace of Spanish heritage there, and maybe tourists might not be so surprised to have Martin-pronounced-like-martini answer the phone?

What a dumbass.

Aggie wrote:

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Listen, if Michael Hickenbottom has to go by a less lame name for his job, these people can too.

Aw, cut the guy some slack. Shawn Michaels is a much more marketable name than Michael Hickenbottom. Also, you're playing to a wrestling audience; do you really want the word 'hick' associated with you any further? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I kid because I love; really!

That was kind of my point.

Eileen: They should speak his language because he's their boss and, I imagine, a large portion of their customers speak English. Halfwit.

Wandy: The European hotels can survive because they teach their kids all sorts of languages real young. They do this because they're aware that they're the Land of 1000 Languages, and if you want any hope of communicating with the largest economic power in the world, you better speak some English. I find it pointless to learn German, because as some exchange student from Germany explained, everyone over there smarter than a tree stump has been taught English in the fifth grade.

Over here, we allow our kids to learn useless shit like French or Italian when Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic should be the only languages we waste time and money on. Also, we aren't really looking for fluency over here, just enough to function on a week long trip to NeverNever Land (formerly known as France). In theory, we're spending time learning more practical stuff like reading (in English) and math and science and higher levels of the same. In practice, we're learning about tolerance, diversity, how to have safe sex with a cucumber, and sitting on the couch all day stuffing our fat faces with MOAR FAT!

And we're STILL better than Europe. :psy-4:

I'm one of those assholes who thinks that Hispanics should learn a little English so I can help them at work. But this? I laugh at the poor guy. It seems like he really can't figure out why this is wrong and I feel really bad for him.

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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.

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The hotel sits along narrow, two-lane Paseo del Pueblo, where souped-up
lowriders radiate a just-waxed gleam in the soft sunshine as they
cruise past centuries-old adobe buildings. One recent afternoon, a
woman slowly rode her fat-tire bicycle along a cracked sidewalk,
oversized purple butterfly wings on her back and a breeze blowing her
long, blonde dreadlocks.

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The messages and comments he made in interviews with local media,
including referring to townsfolk as "mountain people" and "potheads who
escaped society," further enflamed tensions
Taos Mayor Darren Cordova says Whitten wasn't doing anything
illegal. But he says Whitten failed to better familiarize himself with
the town and its culture before deciding to buy the hotel for $2
million. "Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that
you would do elsewhere," he says.

There's also some lack of business logic ---it seems Taos' appeal is Hispanic history and alternative-lifestyles hippies. Maybe guests that phone in WANT exotic sounding names. I mean, the article even mentions a chick bicycling around with butterfly wings. Should've clued him right there what sort of customer the town appeals to.

This, my friends, is why you investigate the area before plucking down $2 millions on real estate.

unskilled78 wrote:

Mafiosa wrote:

Quote :

(he thought they'd be talking about him)

WHO IS THIS FUCKING VAIN. THIS IS THE SAME ARGUMENT USE BY ANTI-GAYS "BUT WHAT IF THEY HIT ON ME?" RSAAGXDGNDFGH

Considering he IS their boss.

Unskilled78, chinga tu madre y tu hámster con un tenedor. :psy-4:

Nihilist wrote:

Unskilled78, chinga tu madre y tu hámster con un tenedor. :psy-4:

Mafiosa wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Okay, I can see not wanting people to speak in a language you don't understand in front of you--that is kind of rude.

WHAT

At risk of jacking the thread, it is generally considered poor form to speak in a language that everyone present can not understand if you are able to avoid it.

KelinciHutan wrote:

Mafiosa wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Okay, I can see not wanting people to speak in a language you don't understand in front of you--that is kind of rude.

WHAT

At risk of jacking the thread, it is generally considered poor form to speak in a language that everyone present can not understand if you are able to avoid it.

I've never had this problem. Maybe growing up in a bilingual household is why it doesn't bug me, I dunno.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Eileen: They should speak his language because
he's their boss and, I imagine, a large portion of their customers
speak English. Halfwit.

Mikey, they were speaking Spanish to each other. As in, not attempting to communicate with English-speaking customers.
Spanish-speaking employee #1 and Spanish-speaking employee #2 were talking to each other - maybe one of them needed to know where the vacuum cleaner was, or whether room 205 was booked - and yet were told to speak English.

If they had been attempting to speak Spanish to customers who didn't understand them - that might have been cause for some English-speaking-only-rules - but they weren't.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Wandy: The European hotels can survive because they teach their kids all sorts of languages real young. They do this because they're aware that they're the Land of 1000 Languages, and if you want any hope of communicating with the largest economic power in the world, you better speak some English. I find it pointless to learn German, because as some exchange student from Germany explained, everyone over there smarter than a tree stump has been taught English in the fifth grade.

Been taught =/= having learned properly. Yes, most Europeans are able to converse in English. The younger generation has a better grasp of it, but that doesn't mean all of us can understand you perfectly if you speak English. Not everyone you're dealing with is going to be able to communicate with you on the level you need.

Also, we made the effort to learn your language - for you to spend ten minutes learning some simple sentences from any of ours is just good manners, isn't it? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

English is the language of the Right Honorable Queen Victoria of England. Because of that, all who do not speak it are heathens and savages. To not speak English is an offense of the highest order. If I were there, these devils would be missing their tongues for the disrespect.

Baron Chuddlington III wrote:

English is the language of the Right Honorable Queen Victoria of England. Because of that, all who do not speak it are heathens and savages. To not speak English is an offense of the highest order. If I were there, these devils would be missing their tongues for the disrespect.

Foul impostor, to besmirch the Queen's name like that. Everyone knows her first language was German. Being the language of our dear departed Prince Consort, it is a tongue we must all learn.