Death Threats To Pizza Chain Taking Pesos

Dallas-Based Pizza Patron Becomes Flashpoint In Immigration Debate

(AP)  A pizza chain has been hit with death threats and hate mail after offering to accept Mexican pesos, becoming another flashpoint in the nation's debate over immigrants.

“This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico,” one e-mail read. “Quit catering to the damn illegal Mexicans,” demanded another.

Dallas-based Pizza Patron said it was not trying to inject itself into a larger political debate about illegal immigration when it posted signs this week saying “Aceptamos pesos” — or “We accept pesos” — at its 59 stores across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California.

Pizza Patron spokesman Andy Gamm said the company was just trying to sell more pizza to its customers, 60 percent of whom are Hispanic.

Wal-Mart, H-E-B supermarkets and other American businesses in towns along the Mexican border accept pesos. And some busineses in New York and Minnesota communities along the northern border accept Canadian dollars.

The difference here is that many of the pizza joints are far from the border, in places like Dallas, more than 400 miles away, and Denver, more than 700 miles.

“If people would understand that the majority of our customers are Hispanic, then it might make more sense for a company to sell pizza for pesos,” Gamm said. “It doesn't make sense in Connecticut. And it doesn't make sense in North Dakota or in Maine. But it makes perfect sense here in Dallas, in Phoenix, in Denver — areas far from the border that have significant Hispanic populations.”

The company said it has received hundreds of e-mails, some supportive, most critical.

While praising the pesos plan as an innovative way to appeal to Hispanics, a partner in the nation's largest Hispanic public relations firm said a backlash was inevitable.

“Right now there's a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric going around that could make them a lightning rod,” said Patricia Perez, a partner at Valencia, Perez & Echeveste in Los Angeles.

Pizza Patron proclaims on its Web site that “to serve the Hispanic community is our passion.” Its restaurants are in mostly Hispanic neighborhoods, and each manager must be bilingual and live nearby, said Pizza Patron founder Antonio Swad, who is part-Italian, part-Lebanese.

The take-home menus are in both English and Spanish, and the dishes include the La Mexicana pizza, with spicy chorizo sausage; La Barbacoa pizza, topped with spicy pulled pork; and chicken wings flavored with lime, peppers and garlic con queso.

Many Pizza Patron customers have pesos “sitting in their sock drawers or in their wallets,” Gamm said. “We're talking small amounts, where it would be inconvenient to stop and exchange on the way back — maybe 10 or 20 dollars' worth of pesos.”

The promotion will run through the end of February and then be re-evaluated, Swad said.

In the first week, payments in pesos have accounted for about 10 percent of business at the five restaurants operated by the corporation, Pizza Patron said. The others are franchised, and the company will not get reports until the end of the week.

The company has set a conversion rate of 12 pesos per dollar, which is slightly higher than the official rate of about 11 pesos per dollar. Any change is given in U.S. currency.

At a Pizza Patron in Dallas, Veronica Vargas bought a pizza Wednesday for her son Nathan's fourth birthday. She paid with pesos her father brought home two weeks ago after a trip to see family in Mexico.

She said she is an occasional Pizza Patron customer, but came that day because she could pay with pesos. Her father wasn't going to use them because he had no plans to go back to Mexico anytime soon.

“I would mostly think a restaurant would do this in a border town,” she said. “But it got me over here.”

[sqlwitch]

I live near a major Canadian tourist destination. Although we are not particularly near the border, it is common for American visitors to assume that our businesses accept US dollars, and, in fact, many establishments do. However, I have witnessed ugly scenes when US tourists were politely asked for either Canadian currency or a credit card. It would appear that things are very different when the zapatillo is on the other foot!

[bhappy2-2]

GOOD! They should be discouraged from taking pesos. If the ILLEGAL ALIENS can't figure out that they are in America and use American money they should JUST GO HOME. This isn't going to get any better until we put a stop to the ILLEGALS. It's time to put up the fence, and on the fence put a sign that says "TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT, SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN". Then, follow through. We probably wouldn't have to shoot too many before they got the message.

[randyco2]

humancitizen - another American in denial of those that helped make the USA such a powerful nation. What an ungrateful pri(k!

[bhappy2-2]

randyco2- The LEGALS helped build this country. The ILLEGALS are dragging us down. They have done NOTHING to help this country. If we allow these CRIMINALS to take over OUR COUNTRY we have only ourselves to blame. On another article someone (I can't remember the name) made a comment about drafting them into our armed services. I think this would work, except we would have to train all of our militery personnel to speak a dozen different languages. If they want to come in LEGALLY and serve their NEW COUNTRY I would not be against it. As it stands now, we are suffering because we are allowing CRIMINALS to control here what they would be locked up for in THEIR COUNTRY. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!!!

[lees2002]

I read this article and didn't see where it said anything about "illegal" immigrants.... I've had the US dollar accepted by merchants in foreign countries....What's the big deal???

[capthook55]

Pesos in border towns for tocos, ok
Pesos in Denver? No way!

Try paying the tax on that pizza in pesos and see what the state tax agency or the IRS say.

[r_u_kidding1]

Mr. Captainhook55, please tell me what state you live in that you pay your sales taxes directly to the IRS, instead of letting your merchant take care of ensuring that the tax-collecting authorities are paid. Because it sounds like a really inconvenient place to buy a pizza, and I'd like to save myself the hassle.

[r_u_kidding1]

As for "catering", it's my understanding that the events most likely to be catered are weddings and quinceaneras, and most Mexicans I know would be kind of embarrassed to serve their guests pizza on such an important occasion.

[kailumego1]

How insane, some people are, to actually issue death threats because this pizza chain accepts pesos. And how hypocritical are some people to subscribe to such nonsense. Major corporations outsource jobs to Mexico, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, etc., and American citizens are in an uproar over areas that are predominately occupied by Hispanics using American dollars and pesos to buy pizzas. Some individuals need to check their priorities, I would think Americans would be more enraged or livid over their jobs being outsourced than a Pizza chain trying to make a "buck". After all this is capitalism, and major corporations such as Eastman Kodak, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc., have built factories in countries like Mexico, thereby, exploiting their labor and exporting those goods at markups of 100-200% back to the U.S., of which I don't see anyone sending death threats to these companies.
Give me a break, Canada accepts U.S. currency and you don't see Canadians sending death threats to those individual proprietors, some Americans are so immature.

[revanch]

People are so narrow minded, illegal aliens are not just Mexicans, it involves people from everywhere else, including the ones we allow to come and fly planes into our buildings. These people are here for work and make money to send home to their poor families. Americans go to Mexico and use US dollars to pay for their prescriptions, liquor, services and contraband just to get it cheaper, its kind of a double standard. Why pick on the Mexicans,they proudly take care of the stuff that all ethnic/white americans, who take things for granted like building houses for Katrina victims, cleaning, cooking, landscaping,and many other things that some americans think they are too good to do.Apartment owners, the US doesn't pay your property taxes or anything belonging to you, yet they want to tell you who you can or can't rent your apartments to. Just remember Mexicans and Native americans were here first. As for Pizza, everbody likes it and people have to eat

[legaltexan]

Thoughts From Outer Mexico
As a child, many of the people I considered to be my best friends were the children of immigrants from Mexico. The Houston Heights was then a lower middle class neighborhood, and my schools were almost evenly populated by Anglo's, Blacks, and Hispanic's. Although my Hispanic friends were the children of immigrants, there was never any allegiance shown to the country of their parents origin. Spanish was spoken at home to their parents, but generally nowhere else unless it was necessary. My friends were Americans of Mexican decent, not Mexican American's. The last thing they would have wanted would have been to be seperated even more from American society.

Today in Houston it is very common to encounter non english speaking clerks in retail locations of all types through out all areas of the city. This is the response of retailers to the influx of customers who do not speak english. The vast majority of these customers are not the product of legal immigration, but are criminals who have broken the laws of The United States Of America. So what is the response of many of the local and national retailers. The response is to hire criminals to communicate with the criminals. I have recently had this happen in two of America's biggest retailers Wal___T and Tar__t. Recently I have started seeing
Not-Legal-Not-Welcome.org bumperstickers and

Border Fence, build it and they won't come bumperstickers.

[govwatchernj]

Whatever is Dollars of Pesos, People get use to it.
Besides the Dollar will no longer be the currency of this country what once was United States.( well soon be known as North America Union )

Get familiar with the word "AMERO " which will be the new currency and the best news not only for this country but for Mexico and Canada.

Enjoy the transformation going behind doors.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

[rhw698-2009]

There has been many comments about other countries taking us currency. This is true and logical due to the fact that US citizens visiting spend huge amounts of money and US currency is highly valued. Mexican visitors (LEGAL VISITORS) to the USA on the other hand are a very small part of the US economy and pesos are of such little value that there is no reason to except pesos for legal visitors. ILLEGAL mexicans have no intention of returning to Mexico and thus need to get rid of pesos. Accepting pesos supports ILLEGAL ALIENS ! No other reason is valid.

[rhw698-2009]

Dear reavanch,
The indians and mexicans were here first ? OK...... neanderthal and cro-magon man were here before them, monkeys before that, single celled organisms before that, how far back you wanna go ?
If the white settlers had not came, some other nationality would have sooner or later. Or do you figure the indians would have did it ? North America would be hundreds of seperate indian tribes, some living in peace, others raiding and killing any other tribe they encountered. There would be no written language, hundreds of signed and spoken dialects and you'd be living in a house made of mud or buffalo skin .
Maybe the mexicans would have taken over ? Yes, let's all wonder at the marvolous democracy of Mexico ! Why do you think a fence at the border is wanted, to keep people out of Mexico ?

I give you your new honorary native anerican name....."TALKS WITH HEAD UP ***"

[kailumego1]

These same individuals rant and rave about the violence in black communities, which is a known fact, yes black on black crime is a problem, but conveniently forget their sordid perversion for violence, Tom Metzger, David Duke, George Burdi, the white Aryan, etc. And a little known mention, for obviously reasons, the gratuitous violence of the %u201CMob%u201D research Richard Kuklinski, the notorious %u201Cice man%u201D, who has admitted killing over 200 people, a considerable were random kills. And do you think he was an anomaly, think again, the %u201Cnew mafia%u201D, has changed its code of ethics, we%u2019ll be hearing a lot from them. I would think with the bloodthirsty killings by these guys, wives poisoning their husbands for insurance money, husbands killing their wives over their mistress, etc, etc, etc, that individuals such as yourself would have your hands full, instead of flagrantly babbling about others misfortunes.

[kailumego1]

Moreover, when European settlers arrived on North America, the Native population welcomed them, unbeknownst of their [European settlers] thirst for violence and mayhem. It was the European ideological belief as far as %u201Cland ownership%u201D that conflicted with Native philosophy, you see Europeans believed in private ownership, while the Natives believed otherwise.

Your comment is very typical of one who%u2019s full of arrogance and ignorance; the Neanderthals and Chromatic were not occupants on North America, but Europe, and the %u201Ccradle of civilization%u201D began in Africa. And as you are so foolish to pontificate, or point out, the violence of other civilizations, none of these other civilizations could come close or match the %u201Cbarbaric%u201D nature of Europeans, research Greek, Roman, etc. history. It always amazes me when arrogant whites so proudly spout ludicrous nonsense about other ethnicities, while negating their longstanding history of violence and degradation.

[kailumego1]

RHW698, you know absolutely nothing about Native Americans, from reading your post. Try reading some valid material before you state such ridiculous nonsense, 1) there had existed Native civilizations in North America that were parallel or more sophisticated than Europeans, the Hopi [Hopewell] tribe, 2) before the Spaniards annihilated the Aztecs, which, by the way, was genocide, they had a highly structured and modernized civilization, with aqueducts, paved streets, sophisticated and elaborate architecture, and a centralized government, 3) Natives weren%u2019t the bloodthirsty savages that white America had postulated, as a matter of fact, for the most part they were peaceful and tried to avoid physical confrontations when necessary, it was European settlers that were brutal and violent %u201Csavages%u201D, of which they coined the idea of %u201Cscalping%u201D Indians as a means of gaining a reward, or monetary compensation.