Waiter Fired After Refusing To Serve Latina Customers “Without Proof Of Residency”
A group of Latina women were subjected to ignorance earlier this month when they were essentially forced to hand over ID’s to a waiter before being served at a California restaurant.
Diana Carrillo tells The Washington Post the incident happened on March 11 when she, her sisters and a few family friends went to Saint Marc, an upscale eatery in Southern California. While waiting for their server, Carrillo says she was approached by a waiter who said they needed to provide him with identification to be sure the women were “from here.” Appalled, Carrillo and her guests informed the manager of the waiter’s actions and left the restaurant.
She also took to Facebook to reflect on the incident. “How many others has he said this too? I hope this employee is reprimanded for his actions,” she said. “No establishment should tolerate discriminatory actions from their employees.” Saint Marc quickly apologized on social media but deleted the post. The restaurant has promised to donate 10% of their weekend sales to Orange County Immigrant Youth United, an organization dedicated to helping undocumented immigrants. The waiter in question was also fired.
“This very unfortunate incident has been handled internally through the termination of the employee at fault,” a rep from the restaurant said on Facebook. “In no way are the actions of this former employee representative of the Saint Marc brand nor are they reflective of the opinions of anyone else on our team, including executive management. We have always celebrated being part of the diverse Huntington Beach community, which means valuing all guests and treating every individual with respect.”
“I’m more afraid for others in my community, people who are immigrants, Brenda Carrillo said. “If this were to happen to them, I’m sure they would be too afraid to speak out for themselves. Diane, Brenda and their two other siblings are the children of a working class couple who migrated from Mexico to the states over 30 years ago.
Within the current political climate, treatment towards Latinos as well as different religious groups has been the target of several hate crimes. Kent Bearden, the senior director of operations at Saint Marc, tells the Post, he wasn’t sure of the waiter’s intentions, given that his record was squeaky clean. “I don’t know if he had an agenda or not,” said Bearden. “My concern is he violated a company policy. We’re very specific about how we treat out guests. That individual did not treat a table of guests to the expectations that we set forth in that company policy, and that caused him to be terminated.”
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