[lg policy] Taos (New Mexico): hotel manager invites scorn with “Anglicization” policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Taos hotel manager invites scorn with “Anglicization” policy





Larry Whitten was brought in to reverse the fortunes of a hotel in
Taos, New Mexico. So he did what any smart businessman would do- he
started by pissing off and alienating the heavily-Hispanic staff.
Whitten has been successful at turning around other run-down, money
bleeding hotels before, but it’s unclear whether obliterating cultural
identity among staff has been a winning strategy in the past. First
order of business- staff were forbidden to speak Spanish in his
presence. As Whitten doesn’t speak Spanish, he insisted that he was
unable to tell if staff were speaking ill of him in their native
tongue. Okay, minorly offensive. While not having sufficient English
is certainly a difficulty for some people, and Whitten could be
painted merely by that as insensitive, it wasn’t the most offensive
thing he did.

Next up- your Spanish name is unacceptable. Whitten actually insisted
that hotel staff, many of whom had long careers successfully serving
guests- “change” their names to suit his idea of a better, whiter
staff. Marcos, not a difficult name to pronounce for anyone, would
have to be called “Mark” at work. And Martin (pronounced mar-TEEN),
would have to defer to plain old Martin during work hours.

Surprisingly, the strict zero-tolerance Latino policy didn’t go over
very well. The uber-sensitive staff didn’t like having to hide their
country of birth like a prosthetic limb in an Abercrombie & Fitch
store. Some employees were fired for- well, it looks like perhaps they
were fired for being Hispanic, and Whitten doesn’t get the
controversy. He feels he just was plopped down into a “landmine of
Anglos versus Spanish versus Mexicans versus Indians versus everybody”
and is “doing what he’s always done.” But fired employee Martin
Gutierrez told press that he doesn’t need to “change (his) name and
language or heritage,” adding that he’s “professional the way I am.”
But as Whitten seems to wonder, is it possible to be both of Hispanic
heritage and professional? The mind boggles.

http://www.inquisitr.com/44569/taos-hotel-manager-invites-scorn-with-anglicization-policy/


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