VivirLatino

Not only is it discriminatory but isn't it illegal?

Needless to say how complete racist and ignorant this is, how the hell is a tourist attraction going to make everyone order in English? So dumb..

He was also quoted as saying that he and his family had to learn English when they immigrated, and so should everyone else.

His outrage is not at the tourists, but the immigrants that do not know the language and seem to have no desire to learn English (not the ones that are working hard at learning it).

I must say that I partially agree with his sentiments. As Italians, Africans, Eastern, Indian, etc need to learn English, why should the Spanish speaking population get a free ride in today's America? Most public use objects have English/Spanish options yet not other languages, unless in a heavily populated area such as China towns.

I'm sure that anyone reading this will disagree 100%. At least both sides of the argument are displayed.

Saying that immigrants should learn English because it will make their lives easier is one thing; English Only and making a language a requirement for patronizing a business is quite another.

Also, I'm pretty sure there was a time, not long after this man's family immigrated from Italy, in which their English skills were seriously lacking and they too had to resort to using their native tongue to communicate. The same is such with the recently arrived Latino immigrants. During that time, there was all kinds of anti-Italian sentiment, much like the anti-Latino sentiment of today. Sounds like hypocrisy to me.

You people just don't get it. This is a business owner, in America. He has the right to refuse to serve anyone. Do you boycott stores that require shirts and shoes? Well some people may not have shoes. Maybe they lost their shoes running from border patrol, should they be served where the law requires shoes? Oh, I forgot latinos don't respect the law unless it is for their benefit. Screw all you beaners! Gino's made it before you came here and he will survive if you don't buy anything from him. Many people could learn something from this. People are tired of catering to non english speaking people no matter where you come from. If you don't want to learn english, go the fuck home!

I have to weigh in with Mr. Vento on his Speak English campaign. I doubt, actually, that he truly requires everyone to speak perfect English - he's a businessman who wants to sell cheesesteaks. He'll most likely still sell to anyone even the nearly incomprehensible. He's making a statement regarding a "situation" that has been allowed to exist too long in this country. We are an English-speaking country. If you want to come here to live, you should learn to speak English as others should learn to speak French, or Spanish, or German if they go to live permanently in those countries. As has been pointed out more than once, I don't see why Spanish-speaking immigrants should be singled out for this extra help. Why not the French, German, Indian, etc immigrants as well? Soon we'd be hitting numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 and so on on the telephone before we ever got to the English-speaking operator and the bi-lingual signs would be so large, they'd never be able to contain all the text of the original message. If he did take down the sign, what Mr. Vento might want to do, instead, is ask people to present a birth certificate, a passport or a green card when they order - and call the immigration authorities if they couldn't produce one. Might mean the rest of us would have to carry a little extra paperwork around with us, but it would be worth the trouble.

I'm wonder what the reaction would be in Mexico if, for example, a restaurant in Cuernavaca had a sign saying "This is Mexico, when ordering speak Spanish."

LOL ... I'm wonder when I learn myself English.

I agree with Oso, if an American went to San Miguel de Allede and there was a sign that said you have to speak spanish to order because it's Mexico, There would be hell to pay. Everyone is trying to make the US out to be an English speaking country...NEWS FLASH...the hispanic population is growing and Spanish is become the second language...Maybe he should learn a little spanish like everyone else.

It's his business after all so he decides what he does with it, no matter how offensive the sign is to some folks. I've lived in several countries and the U.S. is the only country where speaking a foreign language might be considered offensive or inferior. Most other countries consider billingualism an asset, being born outside the U.S. may be an advantage in this case since public schools here only teach English. ALmost every other developed country in the world includes foreign language education starting in elementary schools. I wonder what that says about "America". I remember an argument I had with a fellow in Kent, He said that "Americans think that the world is flat and there is only one country on it" By the way the official name of the country is United States of America, "America" is the continent tha includes Canada, Chile and every other country in between where Engllish is not the official language. That's my $.02

A common language is the bond that holds a society together. Remove that bond and society disintegrates.
See BALKANIZATION:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization

The common language is ENGLISH. Fluency is not expected nor demanded, only the bare bones basics.
In answer to the person who said "First of all, I've never seen a Spanish speaker expect a non-Spanish speaker to understand what he's saying" I call utter and total BS.
Try that in Mexico, and the first thing you will get is "You are in MY country, Yanqui, and we speak Spanish.", and I say that this is one hundred percent correct.
Mexicans are right to demand that American residents speak Spanish in their home country.

We are right to expect the same with English.

It is the height of rudeness to migrate to another another country and not show enough respect for that country to learn its language. When I moved to Germany for a while, I learned German. Hell, when I moved to New Orleans, I learned some Creole!

No one asked you to come here. The least you can do is have the courtesy to assimilate!

Amen to Joe's comments. This is a terrible that he is getting sued. Don't we still have free speech in this country? It is his window, and he can put whatever sign he wants to in it. If it was my place I would do the exact same thing. When you come here you have a choice, assimilate or leave. Noone says to abandon your culture, but you have to accept the one that is already here (i.e. SPEAK ENGLISH!!!!!!!!!!!!).

i think thats a load of crap!!! viva mexico

mexico is taking over they think they have it so bad. Man I wish i were an illegal immigrant no taxes free healthcare etc life must be great for them while the legal americans are suffering big time.