Hotel owner tells Hispanic workers to change names



(AP) 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.

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 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.

Whitten says he immediately noticed that they were hostile to his management style and worried they might start talking about him in Spanish.  "Because of that, I asked the people in my presence to speak only English because I do not understand Spanish," Whitten says.

Some employees were fired, Whitten says, because they were hostile and insubordinate. He says they called him "a white (N-word)."

Martin Gutierrez, another fired employee, 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. 

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.

(Dino B. ) -- Wow, not since Roots have I heard of an employer forcing their employees to Anglise their name. Marco is now called Mark at this NM hotel and Maco, oops I mean Mark isn't allowed to speak Spanish at his job for any reason (not even on his smoke break)?

I ask you what if your corporate gig demanded that you Anglise your name during working hours and banned you from speaking a particular language while on company property; how well would that sit with you??

Posted by urbanpeephole at 10/28/2009 3:24 PM
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