Shocking moment racists tell Burger King manager ‘go back to Mexico’ when they hear him speaking Spanish
- ‘Go back to Mexico if you want to keep speaking Spanish,’ said one woman
- That was after she and her friend heard him speaking Spanish to an employee
- ‘Guess what ma’am? I’m not Mexican,’ replied Puerto Rican Roberto Castillo
- Burger King chain said ‘there is no place for discrimination in our restaurants’
Two racist customers at a Burger King in Florida told the manager to go back to Mexico – when he is from the US territory of Puerto Rico.
Another customer videoed the heated exchange as the Spanish-speaking manager told the two women to leave his restaurant in Eustis, 40 miles north of Orlando.
‘Go back to Mexico if you want to keep speaking Spanish,’ one of the woman is heard to say from her seat after overhearing manager Ricardo Castillo speaking in Spanish with an employee.
Eustis, Florida Burger King manager Ricardo Castillo remonstrates with two women customers who told him to ‘go back to Mexico’
The two elderly women abused manager Roberto Castillo after they overheard him speaking in Spanish to an employee
‘Guess what ma’am? I’m not Mexican,’ said Castillo, who is of Puerto Rican descent.
‘You’re being prejudiced and I want you out of my restaurant right now.’
‘I’m not being prejudiced,’ one of the women insists.
‘I want you to leave,’ repeats the manager.
The altercation ended with then two elderly women getting up and leaving.
Fellow customer Neyzha Borrero captured the video, whoch has since been viewed 22,000 times on social media, on her mobile phone.
‘When I heard ‘You cannot speak Spanish in public,’ I grabbed my phone and I was like, ‘Hold up’,’ she said.
‘I am able to speak both English and Spanish,’ said Borrero, who is also Puerto Rican.
‘There are people that can speak other languages. They shouldn’t feel discriminated in their country.
‘They should be proud they can learn another language and contact more people.’
Burger King said the owner of the Eustis franchise was ‘looking into the matter.’
‘There is no place for discrimination in our restaurants,’ said Burger King spokeswoman Dori Alvarez.
‘We expect employees and guests to treat each other with respect.’
The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico was annexed from Spain by the USA in the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American war of 1898.
Puerto Ricans are US citizens, although they do not elect members of Congress since the territory is not a state of the union.
Florida, another former Spanish colony, has a large Spanish-speaking population.