In North Carolina, One Mexican Restaurant's 'Derogatory Image' Of Latinos Upsets Residents
A number of residents of Charlotte, North Carolina have been angered by the placement of two statues outside a new Mexican restaurant, Hot Taco, on East Bland Street in South End.
A petition asking the restaurant to remove the statues, which depict two sleeping Latino men, has begun circulating.
"This particular image of the dozing Mexican – the quote unquote lazy Mexican – you know is probably one of the most of the popular images, derogatory images for Latino culture," Amalia Deloney, the woman who started the petition, told WBTV.
"This is something I was certain had been dealt with. I didn't expect to see it in 2015. I didn't expect to see it... so prominently displayed."
On her Change.org petition, Deloney wrote, "The stereotype that Mexicans are lazy is one that Mexicans and other Latinos are still battling to this day — despite the fact that many of our friends and family work long hours in low-wage service sector jobs or on dangerous construction sites, where wage theft, racial profiling, and other abuse driven by an anti-immigrant climate are a daily reality."
One woman who signed the petition, Janira Castro, is a restaurant marketing manager who told the news station, "There is a plethora of wonderful images you can use to celebrate this culture that you're using to make money. Even if you don't get it, understand how it makes somebody else feel – and that's what important."