'Murca, Dang It

[filkertom]

A hotel's new owner wants his Hispanic employees to change their names.

Comments

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Okay, call me a bigot if you must, but I can understand the sentiment of wanting someone who was willing to acknowledge that their country was such a shithole that they would do anything to get out of it through fair means or foul to adapt in any and every way they can to the culture of their newly-chosen homeland.

The name thing is a tad much, though.

[kayshapero]

This is Taos we're talking about; odds on, those employees were BORN in the US, and already familiar with English. Insisting they carry on private conversations in the language of the boss's choice however is a Bit Much.

[hiddenriver.livejournal.com]

Once again, when you're talking about New Mexico, Spanish speaker != immigrant. They were there first, and in many communities English is a second language. It's more likely that "non-Spanish-speaker" = immigrant from somewhere else in the U.S., as is the case with this hotel owner.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Why are you automatically assuming that the employees were immigrants, legal or otherwise? Plenty of second- and third-generation Americans still speak Spanish at home. It's called bilingualism, something many white Americans don't understand.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Bilingualism is perfectly fine. My quarrel is with those who refuse to learn English.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll call you a bigot.

There's a whole lot of people speaking Spanish in the United States who do so because their grandparents spoke Spanish in the United States at their age.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

And, as noted by several people, in New Mexico, that's particularly likely. It's a majority Latino state.