Hotel Owner Tells Employees To Change Their Names
posted October 26, 2009 - 1:06pm
A hotel owner in Taos, New Mexico has told his employees to change their names to more Anglicized names. Larry Whitten, the new owner of Paragon Inn in Taos, has forbidden the Hispanic workers from speaking Spanish in his presence and had instructed a few of them
to change their names. If your name is Marcos, now it is Mark.
Whitten's tough management style has worked for him in the past as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in other parts of the country. He has bought more than 20 hotels in several different states and turned them into a profitable business. The Virginia-born Whitten and his wife recently moved to Taos to turn around the struggling Paragon Inn. Whitten says it's a common 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 pronounce. "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.
These rules and his firing of several Hispanic employees have angered his employees and many of the residents in this town of 5000. "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.
After the firings, the New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national civil rights group, sent Whitten a letter, expressing their 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 has denied the charge.
"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," Whitten explained. He said he was sorry for any misunderstanding and insisted he has never been against any culture. "What kind of fool or idiot or poor businessman would I be to orchestrate this whole crazy thing that's costed me a lot of time, money and aggravation?" Whitten said.
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Comments
Telemarketing Loves Spanish Names!
When I was working in telemarketing and as a market research interviewer in college, every woman's name was Linda, and men were John. This was because Linda was easier to pronounce and hear over the phone. Linda is two syllables and has a downward reflection which was easier to hear over the phone. Also when we sent out the marketing research form along with the toothpaste, on the form it said that Linda from the agency would call. This way who ever was on duty would call using the name Linda, and if he was male he would say that he was calling on behalf of Linda. Linda of course comes from the Spanish word beautiful and before it was a popular American name in the early 1960's due to the TV show Leave it to Daddy, it was a popular Hispanic first name.
Well, I think he might have had a legitamate business reason to change the first name for business reasons, maybe instituting a Spanish only rule was a bit too much, however.
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Taos
Taos is about 120 miles from where I live. It has a very diverse and eclectic population. Both sides make a convincing argument. It's just a very controversial topic.
Whitten seems objective.
Excellent article. You present subjects so clearly and well.
Whitten sounds practical but one can also see the side of the employees. Whitten seems to know his business and he isn't asking his staff to change their names legally. As far as his employees being forbidden to speak Spanish, when the Romanians seized Transylvania, with a population 99% ethnic Hungarian, they forbade the Hungarians to speak Hungarian. However, that was for a political reason.
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