"Hotel owner tells Hispanic workers to change names"

This week I’d planned to write about another influential Hispanic figure, but I couldn’t let this opportunity pass by to share with you a story that wasn’t only disturbing but really motivating to me at the same time. It motivates me to continue to do what I do best and that’s to encourage and motivate “MI GENTE” (my people). It’s funny because today my friend commented on my Facebook, “Is there anything else you do besides “Latino”. I was like, “NO”! I am Latina, and I support my Latinos. I have friends from all backgrounds and I will always try my best to support them in anything that they do. “Siempre y Cuando” (“Only If”) it’s a positive thing.

So besides my friend’s ignorant comment and I can say that because we’ve been friends for more than 11 years. The story I’d mentioned previously is a story By MELANIE DABOVICH, Associated Press Writer. The title reads, “Hotel owner tells Hispanic workers to change names.” Now when I read the headline, I thought to myself. “Are you serious”? I began to read the story and when I read, “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.” I thought to myself, can this really still be happening after 23 years of being in this country and having an African American President and a Hispanic woman as our head of Supreme Court?


I grew up in a predominantly “Anglo” community from the age of 8 to 18 years old and I’m the only one from my immediate family, (Father, Mother and Sister) to have a non-traditional Hispanic name. They are Francisco Alfonso, Ruth Gloria and Paola Carolina. As I type that out it’s very humorous to me because out of all three of them I’m probably the only one troubled by this story of Larry Whitten, Taos, NM Hotel Owner. He of course denied the allegations and stated that, "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." Now can I please ask you to re-read, “don’t know the Spanish accents or the Spanish culture or Spanish anything?” I mean is this guy for real? I have to laugh and it’s out of a mix of disappointment and anger for the people that had to endure this form of racism. Please take the time to view the link http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_trouble_in_taos and let me know what you think! What if this was you? I will end this post with another quote from this story, “No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark.” As some would say, “El tipo esta loco”!