Tulum hotel management prohibits employees from speaking Mayan to each other
The mayor of Tulum offered legal advice to the workers of the Copal hotel, whose managers prohibited their employees from speaking Mayan among themselves.
Mayor Marciano Dzul Caamal urged the Mayan workers of the Copal hotel to denounce discrimination from their managers and bosses, who prohibited them from communicating among themselves within the establishment in their original language, and to this end, he offered them legal support. The mayor also reminded the company that it is established in Mayan territory and, therefore, owes respect to the native population.
The position of Dzul Caamal, of Mayan origin, was given in support of the Copal hotel workers, who demonstrated a few days ago against the company for violations of their human rights, including the prohibition to speak to each other in their native language, giving them spoiled food and forcing them to work longer hours than they are entitled to. In a videotaped message, in Mayan and Spanish, which he posted on his social networks, he expressed his solidarity with his "Mayan brothers and sisters".
"To my Mayan brothers who are suffering discrimination at this time by the directors and managers of the Copal hotel in Tulum, I want to tell you that your municipal president is a Mayan like you; I am with you and I am showing you the support of legal advice so that you can give way to your lawsuit before Human Rights because they are prohibiting you from speaking your mother tongue," he said and warned:
"We are going to work with them, but that they respect us, they have no reason to prohibit us from communicating with each other, our brothers, in our mother tongue. Discrimination cannot be allowed in this municipality of Tulum, here is your municipal president to support you in this situation," he stressed.
He insisted that he is also a Mayaparlante and for this reason, he offered his support to the affected workers, "because we should not be left behind and we should not be discriminated against for being Mayan. And if that is what they are doing, denounce it, because it should not be," he urged. Finally, he said: "Those who are here should understand that they are in the land of the Mayas and at least they owe us that respect".
