Hotel owner tells Hispanic employees to Anglicize their names

A hotel owner in New Mexico is facing harsh criticism for firing Hispanic employees and telling others to avoid speaking Spanish while in his presence. Larry Whitten also asked the hotel staff at the Paragon Inn to Anglicize their ethnic names.

Marcos, one of the hotel employees, is now referred to as “Mark.” Even Martin who pronounces his name as “Mahr-Teen” must remove the accent from his name and and refer to himself as Martin.

Whitten said he fired a few of his Hispanic employees because they were hostile, insubordinate, and called him “a white N-word.”

The 63-year-old Marine Vet says “I asked the people in my presence to speak only English because I do not understand Spanish. I’ve been working for 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 had a reason to.”

The New Mexico chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens was not pleased with Whitten, especially after he was quoted in the located media saying that the people of Sangre de Christo are “mountain people” and “potheads who escaped society.”

After much pressure from the LULAC, Whitten apologized for his actions during a two hour interview with the Associated Press. He also insists that he is not racist and is not against any culture.

“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 Spanish accents or the Spanish culture or Spanish anything,” said Whitten.

Regardless of how delusional Whitten is, former workers, their relatives and some residents from the town protested across the street from his 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,” said protester Juanito Burns Jr.