Hotel Owner Orders Latinos to Change Names

Ex-Marine Causes Stir by Telling Hispanic Workers at N.M. Hotel to Anglicize Their Names, Not Speak Spanish

(AP)  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.

The Virginia-born Whitten had spent 40 years in the hotel business, turning around more than 20 hotels in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and South Carolina, before moving with his wife to Taos from Abilene, Texas. He had visited Taos before, and liked its beauty. When Whitten saw that the Paragon Inn was up for sale, he jumped at it.

The hotel sits along narrow, two-lane Paseo del Pueblo, where souped-up lowriders radiate a just-waxed gleam in the soft sunshine as they cruise past centuries-old adobe buildings. One recent afternoon, a woman slowly rode her fat-tire bicycle along a cracked sidewalk, oversized purple butterfly wings on her back and a breeze blowing her long, blonde dreadlocks.

The community includes Taos Pueblo, an American Indian dwelling inhabited for over 1,000 years, and an adobe Catholic church made famous in a Georgia O'Keeffe painting.

After he arrived, Whitten met with the employees. He 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. "I've been working 24 years in Texas and we have a lot of Spanish people there. I've never had to ask anyone to speak only English in front of me because I've never had a reason to."

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

Fired hotel manager Kathy Archuleta says the workers initially tried to adjust to his style. "We had already gone through four or five owners before him, so we knew what to expect," Archuleta says. "I told (the workers) we needed to give him a chance."

Then Whitten told some employees he was changing their Spanish first names. Whitten says it's a routine 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 understand or 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.

Martin Gutierrez, another fired employee, says he felt disrespected when he was told to use the unaccented Martin as his name. He 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.

"I don't have to change my name and language or heritage," he says. "I'm professional the way I am."

After the firings, the New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national civil rights group, sent Whitten a letter, raising 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 denied the charge.

The messages and comments he made in interviews with local media, including referring to townsfolk as "mountain people" and "potheads who escaped society," further enflamed tensions.

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. "Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere," he says.

Whitten grew subdued as a two-hour interview with The Associated Press progressed. He said he was sorry for the 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.

Whitten should have dealt with the situation differently, especially in a majority Hispanic town, said 71-year-old Taos artist Ken O'Neil, while sipping his afternoon coffee on the town's historic plaza.

"To make demands like he did just seems over the top," he says. "Nobody won here. It's not always about winning. Sometimes, it's about what you learn."

[plasternutty]

Okay this is my last comment:

When you call your customer service department for help (like a computer or phone company) how many of you think that the telemarketer with an East Indian or African accent is really named "Joe" or "Jacob" or "Amy"?

Come on. That's just silly. These names are obviously changed. My name is Natalie, and you wouldn't imagine how often people hear my name as Madeline or Melanie or some other random name. When I go to Starbucks and they ask my name, I've learned to tell them "Nicole", which is my middle name. They get that right! I'd be waiting forever for my coffee if I used my given first name. And they'd be upset that Melanie took off without her coffee. :)

[laserlvl]

I have lived in Taos for 15 years. It is one of the most RACIST communities on the planet. The Spanish, who came here 300 years ago to rape, plunder and enslave the natives hate the newer arrived Mexicans and the Indians. The Mexicans hate everyone else. And they all hate the Whites.

I was in the local Mcd's ordering breakfast. An older Hispanic man was behind me. I stepped back to review the menu. He then stepped in front of me and began ordering to the Hispanic clerk. I said "Excuse me, I was ordering." He snarled at me,"Just because you are white, does that mean you go to the front of the line?" I looked at him and replied,"You know, some day I'll leave here and go live with lots of white people. Some poor Hispanic guy will move in and I'll treat him just like you treat whites here." The old man smiled and said,"That's what we want. We want all you Gringos to leave." What a Hell Hole. Guy picked a bad place to run a hotel.

[winslowe1]

Sounds like he was merely addressing the issues that caused the hotel to become run-down in the first place.

[winslowe1]

His management style was successful everywhere else ... guess that says something about this community.

[loveshelling848]

The man bought the hotel, you are employed by him, if you don't like his rules then quit. I wouldn't like it if I owned a business and my workers were speaking a language I did not know. I would probably think they were talking about me too.
We do live in America and I believe English should be spoke by all Americans, if you want to continue to speak another language that's fine. But I believe you should at least try to speak English. I don't think you should be renamed, but people might not say your name correctly, so you might have to get use to that.

[WZx6]

Enjoy and embrace your culture. Mine is Scottish. That being said, we are in America, and frankly I believe your culture is secondary to the country you're in, espectially where there may be conflicts. I completely agree with the speaking English thing. Not only in front of the owner, but also at work where customers could potentially hear you. I could never imagine visting a foreign country and expecting them to completely cater to my culture and language. The name change i'm marginal on. Maybe if the names are difficult, have the employee apply for an up front positions, with the knowledge that the bump in position may require a modification. That way it's the employee's choice/agreement. Sounds like a lot of entitlement mentality going on. Perhaps spanish was spoken there before English, but so were ancient indian languages - so what. I'd have to agree with the above .... when in Rome.

[kiki67]

Mexicans are hard workers first of all. if u cant get a job dont blame us. secondly i dont have any problems with what this guy is doing, hes just doing it in the wrong place. My name is Enrique, and my bosses and teacher have never gotten it right. theyve all called me Ricky, since ever, and i dont mind, its hard to pronounce, if your not hispanic. i think my life would have way easier if i was called Ricky. it was my great grandpas name, i love him very much, but he live in mexico his whole life, and i live in Chicago.

[ososassy]

Does it not occur to all of you that while there are so many in your city that speak the "native tongue" that a good amount of most city's income comes from tourism? You folks that live in Taos may speak Spanish and are proud of your culture. That is fantastic. However, the people calling and visiting are not from the area, do not speak the language and may not have the ability to pronounce or understand the names? You make money in your community from the hospitality business. Nobody wants to call and try to make a reservation at a hotel and not understand the persons name that they spoke with. He asked spanish not be spoken around him. He did not ask you all to never speak the language again. He asked for a name change during business hours, not on your birth certificate. Nobody wants you to forget who you are or where you come from. People not from the area do want to know who they are speaking with and doing business with. Outsiders may feel insecure if they dont speak spanish and cant pronounce your name. They may be embarrassed if they cant say your name right. No one wants to go on vacation and feel uncomfortable or awkward when a name is misspoken or if they have to ask you to speak english. Look at both sides before you pull the race card. Like I said previously in a post, I have worked for him. He is not a bad man. He just wants the best for his guests. When I worked there we never once denied anyone a job or a room based on race. You all can cry, moan and groan that I am supportive because I am a mean, evil, know-it-all Texan but you would be wrong. I have lived here 6 years. I will never claim to be from here. I am from Illinois and proud to be a northern girl. I will tell you though Texas would welcome him back anytime. He takes care of his guests and they are all very loyal.

One last thing. For all of you throwing racial slurs back...such as "hick" and "redneck" you no longer get to pretend to be any better than him.

[garagehero]

Everything that comes out of his mouth makes things worse. He call the white locals,"mountainfolk and potheads"....he asserts that he walked into a Landmine of Anglo vs. Mexican vs. Indian vs. Spanish. Nonsense......all those groups have been living in harmony more or lesss, since the 1500s. This guy Whitten is "landmine".

[arevireba]

Hey Obama_is_Cool, how is it fair to change someone else's name to suit your needs? This man moves to Northern New Mexico, a region that has many Spanish-settled towns, including Taos. My family lives in Northern New Mexico and has for generations and still speaks Spanish amongst themselves, at church, even out in town. How is this a bad thing? I'll be damned if anyone would force me to change my name at work so it sounds more 'Anglo.' People visit Northern New Mexico by and large because of the very culture that Mr. Whitten is trying to whitewash.

[antoniof123]

This guy is an idiot, a moron, no other words can describe him.

[garagehero]

This is not about language. Nor is it about racism. Its about an unsophistcated and uneducated small business man with much experience in setting up mom & pop hotels and Inns in the backwaters
of America and suddenly deciding he wants to open an upscale, upmarket business. It just doesnt work that way. Its like a guy who runs a McDonalds or a Piggly Wiggly trying to open and run a Sachs Fifth Ave or a Wofgang Puck restaurant.....

[PVperson2]

No, this is about his idiot's paranoid fear that his employees were talking about him and his bigotry of anything Hispanic, his employees speak both English and Spanish, never was there a charge that they were rude to guests, this idiot just is arrogant in his demands, I hope he loses the hotel.

[panchovilladotcom]

boy i will pray for you and all of you that pretend that every thing you do can be justified,what folk like you are doing is nothing more than propaganda, you like it or not,you handed over the reins of this country good luck getting them back,you folks like mr. whitten are in a bit of a jam ole chap, this is liken to being mauled by a bear there is not a dammmmmm thing you can do about it,but just lay there till its over who knows u may be one of the lucky ones,honor God and love your fellow man,adios amigo

[PVperson2]

Jeez, are you on drugs or something, I don't understand ANYTHING your trying to say, maybe if you tried grammar, English or any other language.

[garagehero]

Here is the link and phone number. Lets tell his worthless ass we dont want trailer parks in Taos!!!!
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
http://paragoninntaos.com/map_contact.html

[rf35]

Thanks. I will call and e-mail my support for his policies.

[plasternutty]

I also emailed him my support.

[garagehero]

Is this guy an idiot? Just because you can run a Piggly Wiggly doesnt mean you can run a Sachs Fifth Avenue. Taos is an upscale and diversified place like Santa Cruz, Park City, Sedona or North Beach San Fran. This guy is the worst kind of hick. Go back to texas....we dont need no trailer parks in Taos!!!

[nowhiningallowed]

There's a huge difference between cultural artifacts, customs and cuisine and that of English and its proper usage, the language of the majority in America; notwithstanding, of course, what has been tolerated and accommodated. Also, Hispanic isn't a race, except by political correctness. Just because a person's skin color is "dark" doesn't mean they are of their own race.

[plasternutty]

First of all, I should say that I solidly support the hotel owner's right to make his own decisions. A lot of posts here are so filled with anger and frustration. May I try to add a bit of reason? Of course, your perspective may be much different than mine, but the point of making this post, for me, is to defend the owner and his REASONS. This blog has turned into personal attacks against this guy. How horrible and small. Those who live in glass houses, you know... And the same goes for those who attack the Hispanics in this case. We don't know these people. We only know the facts of the case. So let's focus on that?

As a small biz owner myself, I fear that to take away the right to control the impressions our employees give our customers may lead to a slippery slope of taking away our right to force employees to wear specific clothing, to shave their beard, to take out all facial piercings. This isn't a matter of having a big, prejudiced head or being power-hungry. It's good business. Successful owners and managers spend money and time on marketing their biz. Some focus on $50/day clients... some on $200/day clients. Some on singles, some on families. Some with pets and some without. This guy seems to have made an executive decision to cater to the middle- to higher-end clientele, most likely tourists, who speak English and who want a professional image from head to toe at the hotel they pay for.

Whitten took over the hotel this summer. For those of you who don't believe that the place needed a change, go to tripadvisor and read the comments from BEFORE this summer. Dirty, gross and rude employees. Whitten doesn't run "hick" hotels. He's in the business of flipping bad ones (like some in this country used to do with homes to turn a profit before the economy tanked). I don't know the employees, but it sounds like they needed a military-type attitude shift. This guy Whitten comes in with strict rules, lots of changes and even demands a worker to write the words "let me place you on hold" 100 times after failing to follow the rules (regarding phone etiquette). Sounds like elementary school. But Whitten's rule is to never lose a customer.

Have you ever been placed on hold without being warned? Or rudely spoken to? What's your impression of that business?

Whitten is doing what he knows is best for HIS company. The workers who were there before he arrived seem to have gotten used to a lax management style and did not want to comply with his strict rules. That's fine! There are many other failing hotels with dirty rooms and rude front desk clerks willing to hire. I say more power to this guy if he can provide Taos with another nice hotel. More power to Taos. More power to the happy customer.

I run a business in one of these "mountain hippie towns with a bunch of snowboarding, pot smoking bums" and many of them are my good friends! :) Many are proud to say such things about themselves, too! But I wouldn't hire them if they won't shave the beard, and they wouldn't choose to work for me, because they love their beard. So they find another job, and I find other people to work for me. We have many Hispanics here in town, as well as Australians, Asians and Europeans (and yes I may have some "illegal" friends). I absolutely require English to be spoken! I know enough spanish to understand the general theme of conversation, but what about my customers? I totally get the idea of thinking that someone is talking about you! I lived in Germany for a while and HATED not knowing the language - "are they laughing about me? did I do something stupid?"

Once I learned German, I felt SO much better. :)

For those of you who say, "Well, then he should just learn Spanish" ... are you kidding? He's trying to run a business! I don't work 8 hours per day... I work a minimum of 10, and THEN I have to spend more time working on marketing plans, office organization, accounting & taxes, my website, more. Why should he take the time and energy (and money?) to learn a language that isn't necessary to run this biz? His customers are most likely tourists who don't speak spanish. If they're foreign, they probably know a bit of english. Have you ever heard an Italian speaking German? My friend's german accent was so thick with italian, I could hardly understand what he was saying! It got to be really funny. And ridiculous. We ended up speaking english all the time. For an Italian tourist in Taos, to try to understand English with a hispanic accent (or an east coast or southern accent, for that matter), it's really difficult!

[zia-2009]

He should have learnt spanish as he was going to a place where people had been living for a thousand years - long before any gringos came and conquered the place.

[PVperson2]

I'm with you,. if your going to open a hotel in a majority Spanish area, then it would be wise to learn the local language, but he's Texan, they never were very smart, remember "Ma" Ferguson, "If English was good enough for Jesus, the it's good enough for us",.

[jt92202]

He bought a hotel in America, maybe he went about this wrong but it is his hotel and the last time I looked the boss decides the rules!

[plasternutty]

The blogger (nowhiningallowed) above's first sentence is right on. I believe that language can be separated from culture. Can anyone disagree with me that this country organized and became a world power as an "english-speaking nation supported by all sorts of different cultures"?

What would this country be without our many cultures? Try to think of one cool city or place to visit in the US that doesn't have its own unique culture, that most likely has been influenced by the others. Chicago is so interesting to visit BECAUSE of its irish, asian, african american, gay and other influences. If our country was culturally decorated by the white protestants only, how boring! Really. Think about it! New Orleans, Boston, New York, Taos... They're recognized because of their uniqueness.

So bring on the Hispanic culture! I love it (though I don't like beans or avocado, so that puts a damper on enjoying the cuisine). It's a beautiful thing. Go check out the Paragon Inn's website. Their pictures have Native American pottery and architectural styles illustrated. Whitten obviously sees the benefits of the city's rich cultural history, and appreciates the value of a beautiful town. It's business-savvy to go where the beautiful is. That's where people spend money. Whitten is taking advantage of the culture that brings tourists to Taos. Based on his website, I don't think he's trying to "Anglicize" the hotel. Please take a quick look for yourselves.

So, in conclusion, the logic isn't: He doesn't appreciate the Spanish language, therefore he hates all things Hispanic.

The logic is: He appreciates the beneficial Hispanic & Native American cultures which are bringing in the big bucks for his hotel, however, he views the Spanish language as harmful to his business success. There is a potential for losing customers. Therefore, he chooses to require English from his employees.

[texbelle123]

>by Kabul_Is_here October 26, 2009 6:59 PM EDT
>This guy is absolutely correct.In Rome you must behave like Romans.In >the USA you must speak English.Period.

When in Rome.... Well, Whitten is now in NEW MEXICO, and guess what? The majority of the population has Hispanic names. So, when in NEW MEXICO this idiot should change HIS name 'cause he's the one who doesn't fit.

I live a little less than an hour from New Mexico, and have frequently gone to Taos (among other places there) and would not expect to find the front desk of any hotel there populated with a "white" named person.

The state is what it is, and is populated by the people who are a wonderful blend of cultures .... that's exactly WHY we go there.

This guy is an idoiot, a bigot, a racist and just plain dumb. Especially coming from Abilene! Texas is also a largely hispanic state.
How on earth has he been "successful" in the Southwestern United States with such an abismal, prejudicial attitude?

Oh wait. Racists tend to be applauded by other racists. So people who can think have avoided his hotels, and bigots have felt right at home.
Thus, his success.

Well, I hope he fails now and has to move back to his racists roots.

[kecc1]

Many of my co-workers are Indian and Chinese and talk with their friends in their native language, but switch to English when one of us who do not speak these languages walk over. It's just plain rude to speak another language in front of someone who does not speak it. Whitten never should have had tell anyone to only speak English in front of him, they should have known better.

[plasternutty]

hear, hear!

[AbuMel]

As an Anglo (non-Hispanic, non Indian, American) who has lived in New Mexico for over fifty years, I have to say that Mr. Whiten should have boned up a little on New Mexican habits and customs before moving here. Perhaps he should have taken a course in basic Spanish as well, since Spanish is one of the two official languages of the state.

Mr.Whitten's attitude and actions illustrate exactly why Texans are often so disliked in New Mexico.

My answer to Mr. Whitten: Go back to Texas where you can play the part of the Ugly Texan for the gratification and pleasure of the other Ugly Texans who choose to live there.

[cy4466]

The only thing he's wrong about is the changing the name thing, nothing else. It's his business, he can do what he want, he just cannot act like a slave owner.