They're Taking Over

[babyloc]

Re: They're Taking Over

well...the U.S doesnt have a national language really...not even English

English is the most commonly spoken language and Spanish is the second..so both are considered the languages although there are NO official languages

[Yuriatin]

Re: They're Taking Over

Ahhhh - yes - I know that - that's why I was asking, why were <span style="font-weight: bold">you</span> saying Spanish was one of the national languages ...

As for why latinos should <span style="font-size: 8pt"><span style="font-style: italic">(or any other immigrant)</span></span> learn to speak english ...

I personally think there are many reasons – not the least of which, that’s what the USCIS requires of someone wanting to become a us citizen.

One of the stories in the program last nite profiled a 17 yr girl in California.

She was / is having a hard time graduating because she misses so much school. Weeks &amp; weeks &amp; weeks &amp; weeks on end.

Why – because her mother owns a little store front.

The mother speaks NO english and forces the girl to stay there and work and translate for her at work – not only at the store but the daughter is responsible for paying the household bills, translating for the mom at dr’s appts, etc, etc, etc. Soledad asked her why she is missing so much school – she said she cant say no to her mom – that she HAS to help her.

At the end of the day, the girl didn’t graduate on time.

She also got pregnant.



<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: babyloc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">well...the U.S doesnt have a national language really...not even English
</div></div>

[jaith2]

Re: They're Taking Over

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: babyloc</div><div class="ubbcode-body">well...the U.S doesnt have a national language really...not even English

English is the most commonly spoken language and Spanish is the second..so both are considered the languages although there are NO official languages



</div></div>

&amp; only 11% speak spanish....guess they don't want to know what the rest are chattin about.

[CeaBee]

Re: They're Taking Over

In Miami, they're very accomodating.

I remember when i first moved to ATL and I was at a govt office, and i hear the worker tell the lady that she can't help her ..cause she the lady doan speak ingles, and the worker doan speak espanol.

and the worker nuh give nuh suggestion, mek nuh accomodation or mek nuh attempt fi find a spanish speaking co-worker.

i was like darn....

[kia027]

Re: They're Taking Over

but in Miami the unofficial language <span style="font-weight: bold">is</span> Spanish

Yes the Spaniards were one of the first colonizers of the western world. they were not the first to discover the western world. The native americans were already here and the chinese came in 1421 and found the native americans here

[Yuriatin]

Re: They're Taking Over

<span style="font-size: 17pt"><span style="font-weight: bold">Hotelier to Hispanic workers: <span style="color: #FF0000">Change names</span></span></span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Hispanic employees protest after being told to change their first names</span>
The Associated Press
updated 12:10 p.m. ET, Mon., Oct . 26, 2009



TAOS, N.M. - 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. <span style="color: #FF0000">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</span>.

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.

&quot;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,&quot; he says.

Former workers, their relatives and some town residents picketed across the street from the hotel.
<span style="color: #FF0000">
&quot;I do feel he's a racist, but he's a racist out of ignorance</span>. He doesn't know that what he's doing is wrong,&quot; says protester Juanito Burns Jr., who identified himself as prime minister of an activist group called Los Brown Berets de Nuevo Mexico.

New owner comes in
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.

&quot;Because of that, I asked the people in my presence to speak only English because I do not understand Spanish,&quot; Whitten says. &quot;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.&quot;

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

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

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.

&quot;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,&quot; 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. &quot;He told me he didn't care what I thought because this was his business,&quot; Gutierrez says.

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

'Over the top'
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 &quot;mountain people&quot; and &quot;potheads who escaped society,&quot; 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. &quot;Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere,&quot; 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.

&quot;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?&quot; 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.

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

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33479833...and_ethnicity/