‘We didn’t do anything wrong’: El Paso waitress tells veteran that they don’t serve what he ordered. Then he catches her giving it to another table
A man went to La Perla, a rooftop bar located at the Plaza Hotel in El Paso, Texas. Then the waitress treated him and his wife with hostility, which he concluded was racial profiling.
United States veteran Isaac Castillo (@steo619) and his wife first noticed that they were being treated differently when a waitress at the hotel ignored them repeatedly. They went to the hotel’s restaurant to celebrate their anniversary and his birthday, making it a special occasion for the couple. But, they ended up waiting 20-30 minutes just to get noticed by the staff there.
Castillo and his wife concluded that they may have been racially profiled, with Castillo telling his audience about the encounter in a video with over 70,000 views. While the hotel offered complimentary items to the couple, they refused to take them, instead opting to warn others about their experience.
A dinner gone wrong
Castillo and his wife chose to spend a night at the Plaza Hotel, a popular location in El Paso, Texas, because of its amenities and offerings. The rooftop bar, which is located on the 17th story of the hotel, offers views for miles in El Paso. So, they opted to go there and have some drinks to celebrate an anniversary and birthday at the same time.
But, when they got there, they noticed that they were the only Hispanic couple there. At first, Castillo didn’t think anything of it. Then, the waitress took over 20 minutes to serve their table.
“ I’m like, well, maybe she’s busy,” Castillo explained. “She just keeps passing us up and passing us up and passing us up. So I’m like, what the [expletive]? I walk [into] the bar myself and I’m like, ‘Hey, could I order a drink?’ And he goes, ‘No, you have to wait till the waitress [comes].’ And I say, ‘Well, the waitress isn’t coming towards us.’”
Castillo noticed that people on the left and right of him were getting served, but the waitress was still ignoring him and his wife. Eventually, Castillo was able to get the bartender to make a drink for him, but it was only after pressing him and telling him the waitress in that section of the hotel wasn’t being attentive.
The waitress drops by—and rudely places their menus on the table
It seemed like Castillo was able to get the server’s attention because he ordered a drink. When she finally dropped by his table, he said she rudely placed menus on the table for him and his wife.
Castillo’s wife noticed this and mentioned it to him. So, he went and talked to a host about the issue. The restaurant offered the couple one free drink for the difficulty, but Castillo refused the accommodation, ordering another drink without requesting any special treatment.
Castillo and his wife finished up at the table, but then they noticed another couple enjoying a coffee. Castillo’s wife is on a strict diet, which means that she’s not drinking alcohol at the moment. So, he figured he would order a coffee for her before they left the table.
But, when Castillo requested a coffee, the waitress let him know that they couldn’t give him one. It apparently wasn’t on the menu. Castillo and his wife thought this was incredibly strange, especially considering the fact that they could see other white guests drinking coffee directly next to them.
The encounter made them uncomfortable, so they decided to leave the hotel.
Leaving the hotel and overhearing something pointed
When Castillo and his wife got up to leave, they decided to take one small detour. They wanted a few pictures on the balcony to capture the night. That’s where they overheard something strange and pointed.
“ I looked through the window and they’re talking and the lady says, ‘Oh my God, did they leave yet? Did they leave?’ I’m like, ‘what the [expletive]’? … We didn’t do anything wrong. You know, the only thing we did wrong is be Mexican and be there,” Castillo said.
The couple reported the situation to the front desk staff the next morning. Castillo emphasized that he wasn’t trying to get anyone fired, but that he wanted the hotel to take accountability and act differently toward Hispanic couples who stay there in the future.
Castillo’s experience with racial profiling
Castillo concluded that the situation was racial profiling based on a number of factors. Earlier in his stay, he was approached by a white gentleman who asked him which way Mexico was at the time. According to Castillo, the gentleman and his guests were the ones who had ordered the coffee next to them in the restaurant. He didn’t think about it at the time, but the question, alongside their treatment by staff members there, had a racist undertone.
“ This dude was saying, where’s Mexico to, I guess for me to go to Mexico,” Castillo explained.
That, on top of recent ICE raids and treatment of Mexican Americans across the country, set the tone for Castillo and his wife. He mentioned that it wasn’t a Democrat or Republican issue. Instead, it was a human issue related to his skin color and the treatment he received.
Castillo ended his video by saying, “ You’re just Mexican to them and they’re gonna treat you differently. And it’s sad ’cause I never, I never had that situation before. But yeah, I just wanted to add that little part.”
Commenters weigh in on his experience
Other commenters shared similar experiences with other El Paso hotels, venues, and restaurants, with the Plaza Hotel being a hotspot for similar incidents.
One viewer even had a remarkably similar experience to Castillo and his wife. She went to the Ambar, another bar and restaurant located inside the Plaza Hotel. But she was denied entry, even after her white husband got inside the lobby and sat down at the bar.
“The same thing happened to me at Ambar on Feb 8,” one woman claimed. “My husband and I agreed to meet at the bar of Ambar. He went to [the] car to drop off my purse. I walked up to the front to ask if I could be seated at the bar and they told me no, only hotel members are able to sit at the bar. Told me it would take [two] hours for me to even get a table and get my drinks out to me.”
The woman walked across the street to another one of the Plaza Hotel’s bars, Anson Eleven, and called her husband to let him know she couldn’t get into Ambar. Viewers shared that it might have been classism, not racism, that informed the hotel staff to ignore Castillo and his wife, with other commenters adding that they were ignored for over an hour while waiting for a table at the Plaza Hotel’s other restaurants. But, many others concluded that the hotel may ignore Hispanic guests frequently.
@steo619 #elpasotx #PlazaHotelElPaso #shocked @Cinthia Castillo ♬ original sound – Isaac Castillo
The Mary Sue reached out to Castillo via TikTok and the Plaza Hotel via email for comment.
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