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Florida Women Under Fire For Telling Burger King Employee To “Go Back To Mexico”
The people of Florida keep on Flordia’ing…and it’s not pretty.
The general manager of one Burger King restaurant in Florida was told by one of his customers to “go back to Mexico” if he wanted to keep speaking Spanish.
The exchange was captured in a video that was later posted onto social media, which shows Ricardo Castillo–who is Puerto Rican, not Mexican–being berated by two women as they eat in the restaurant in Eustis, a city 40 miles north of Orlando.
“You’re in America, you should speak American English,” one of the woman can be heard saying. “Yeah, yeah, go back to Mexico if you want to keep speaking Spanish, go back to your Mexican country, your state, your country.”
A customer named Neyzha Borrero recorded the heated exchange on July 6 and ended up posting it on Facebook. She told CNN the women complained to the manager because he spoke Spanish in front of them.
Before she started recording the video, Castillo was doing some paperwork on a table when one of his employees came in and spoke with him in Spanish, according to Borrero. “The two ladies were next to the manager, and after the employee left, they told Castillo they wanted to complain.” Thinking it was about the meal, the manager offered to give them credit or a free dessert. But instead, they said that he shouldn’t be speaking Spanish in public because “we are in the USA.”
After being told to go back to Mexico, Castillo can be heard saying, “Guess what ma’am, I’m not Mexican, I’m not Mexican but you’re being very prejudiced and I want you out of my restaurant, right now.” He threatened to call police when one woman said she would only leave after finishing her meal.
A spokeswoman for Burger King said the following in a statement to CNN:
“There is no place for discrimination in our restaurants. We expect employees and guests to treat each other with respect. This incident took place at a franchised restaurant and the owner is looking into the matter.”
Borrero said the women didn’t come back and the manager was calm after the exchange. “We applauded him because he never disrespected them at all. He was very professional.” She also added that it’s not the first time she has witnessed this kind of episode. “Sadly, it’s something that happens every single day.”
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