Hotel owner, Larry Whitten, was on a mission to resurrect a failing hotel he just purchased. Doing so entailed some moves that have riled people up and have some even calling him prejudice.

The former Marine’s new rules included:

• Forbidding Latino workers from peaking Spanish in his presence.
• Ordering Latinos to “Americanize” their names, so Marcos became Mark, etc.

The 63-year-old spent 40 years in the hotel business and turned around more than 20 hotels across the country, so he thought doing so in the tiny town of Taos, Texas would be a piece of cake. He didn’t expect to confront such opposition.

Whitten says he only did what he’s done in all the other hotels he’s revived. Changing the first names of employees who work the front desk phones or deal directly with guests is apparently common practice in Whitten’s past businesses.

“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 of Spanish anything,” Whitten says.

But fired employees feel disrespected, including Martin Gutierrez, who was told to use the unaccented Martin as his name.

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

It doesn’t help Whitten’s cause that he referred to townsfolk as “mountain people” and “Potheads who escaped society” during local media interviews.

Taos Mayor Darren Cordova concedes that although Whitten isn’t doing anything illegal, he made the mistake of not familiarizing himself with the culture of the town prior to purchasing the hotel. “Taos is so unique that you would not do anything in Taos that you would do elsewhere,” he says.

Is this a case of prejudice or is Whitten just doing what he has to do to save his hotel? Tell us in the comment box below.

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