aem wrote:

>
> Used to go to lunch at a little food stand where the cook was Mexican
> and the owner/front man was Chinese.

> Incidentally, I didn't assume the cook was Mexican because they spoke
> Spanish. You can't make that assumption in SoCal.
>


You can't really assume that anywhere these days. We had a new
roof installed last summer and every one of the roofers spoke
Spanish including the foreman. When I asked during a lunch break
where they were from, only one was Mexican.

The rest were from Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, and Panama.
Every one of them was an incredible worker. They had all the wood
shakes stripped off, two layers of roofing felt and new ones applied,
and the yard cleaned of nails and debris in a total of 1 1/2 days.
And we have a large house.

They were very polite, letting us know what they were doing and
where, and each thanked me individually for the cold sodas, ice water,
donuts and coffee we provided. It pays to treat human beings
like...human beings.

gloria p
in suburban Denver