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 ...
It could be a plus point here, in a town that prides itself upon its new world Spanish history, to keep Spanish names with a reasonable number of syllables. On the other hand you can see the point if it was a fellow from India with a name like Rajmarananathan or a Central American Indian with a name like Xacataltaqa. It would be easier for callers if their phone names were, say, Roger or Jack.
Taos sells the Hispanic New World ambience. I’ve actually BEEN there. You’re free to try to sell, say, ping-pong in a baseball town, but don’t complain if you flop.
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.
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.
Yep. They can speak whatever jibberish they want off the clock. He is not telling them how to live their lives.... only what he expects of them at work.
For a Marine it would be difficult to compromise on running the place like an army (or should I say a battleship?) down to every last detail including what they call each hand.
It is a shame if the fooferaw over this has obscured more substantial difficulties like theft and wasting work time.
Requiring speaking English is one thing, but requiring people to change their names is ridiculous.
Sounds like John Burns Jr fancies himself as the prime minister of the PC Thought Police.
This language issue is elementary, our Country’s “Official” language is the same as the language that it was born under via the Declaration of Independance, Constitution and Billof Rights.
People speaking routinely in any other language are simply rude, tourists or have no legal reason for being here. Duh.
Is his hotel flopping? I mean the reports are that activist groups are flocking on his hotel like a hornet’s nest, to be sure. Still, it sounds like most of his employees stayed on. They weren’t so infuriated as to denigrate him across the board.
Perhaps they realized his method might pay off and they would still have jobs long into the future.
This sounds for all the world like an attempt to black-ball the guy who tried something different.
At this point the question is, will his hotel flop on it’s own, or will it flop because the usual suspect Hispanic activist groups assassinated the owner’s and there-by the hotel’s reputation.
Perhaps he should just promise $10 million or so to these complainer groups so they’ll go away, like Jessie Jackson always does after payouts.
That’s easy, they’ll just call him Barack...wait, that might be too ethnic still
He should demonstrate his thanks to the good folks of Taos by padlocking the joint.
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.”
so he asked folks with difficult names, who deal with the public to use a version of their names people can pronounce and understand. so? it’s HIS business.
I don’t know if “most” did or didn’t stay there.
It’s certainly complicated by the presence of the protesters. Whitten does not appear bent on hearing them out any time soon. If they do demand payola for silence like Jesse Jackson does, we know they didn’t really care about the character of the town but about the grease on their palms.
There are other things like the suffering economy that also complicate the situation. Maybe Taos simply has too many hotels now.
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?
Just say no!
Yep. They can speak whatever jibberish they want off the clock. He is not telling them how to live their lives.... only what he expects of them at work.
This is a good point....I think many have missed. He is requiring them to speak English while on duty....not off duty.
You can bet, even with the liberal, Spanish-background community of Taos....that most of their clientele speak only English...not Spanish. Reality is that most areas where Spanish is spoken are the least advanced economically
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.