Hotel Owner Tells Hispanic Workers to Change Names

I find it morally reprehensible that hotel owner Larry Whitten would require his Hispanic employees to anglicize their names. I find his actions offensive for two primary reasons: (1) Names are the keystones of personal identity. Stripping someone of their name is, in essence, denying someone of their culture, personal history and individuality, and (2) Taos, New Mexico is a city engrossed in Hispanic culture, history and language. Mr. Whitten’s request for his employees to change their names is a violation of personal identity as well as an attempt to homogenize a city rich in heritage where divergent cultures are juxtaposed and enjoy a harmonious balance. His assumption that the hotel would be more efficient and successful with employees with typical Caucasian names insinuates that the hotel was doing poorly because employees had Hispanic names and spoke Spanish amongst each other. While I could see how business would be hindered if Spanish was the only language spoken at the hotel, I cannot subscribe to the fact that Hispanic workers in a town embracing Hispanic culture and heritage had anything to do with the hotel’s initial downfall. Simply changing employees names will not change the fact that they are Hispanic and have their own culture and heritage that they bring to the town of Taos.
I would really like to believe that Mr. Whitten is not a racist. Perhaps, as Juanito Burns Jr. intimates in the article, Mr. Whitten is just a Taos outsider, ignorant of the cultural landscape of the city.