Walmart Employee Tells Man to Stop Speaking Spanish Because She 'Lives in Texas'

A Walmart employee allegedly told a customer to stop speaking Spanish and speak English because they lived in Texas.

Joel Aparicio told the Houston Chronicle that he was shopping on Sunday shopping at a Walmart in Pasadena, Texas, when the self-checkout machine malfunctioned and a staffer came up to him to help him.

As the employee was working out the problem, Aparicio asked if the female Walmart employee spoke Spanish, which she replied no. He then asked if there was an employee available who did speak Spanish and could help him. The employee was able to fix the issue and left, but the problem with the machine returned moments later, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Aparicio told the publication that the employee told him, in Spanish, that he should not be in this country if he did not speak English. Aparicio then began to record the conversation with his cellphone.

"It's necessary to speak English then?" Aparicio asks the woman in Spanish, according to the video obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

"Yes, because we're in Texas," she responds.

"Only because of that?" Aparicio asked the woman.

The woman nodded in response. As he is being checked out, Aparicio tells her in Spanish: "You don't have green eyes, to only be speaking English."

"I live in Texas, so I speak English," she responded to him.

Aparicio told the publication that he is originally from El Salvador but has lived in Houston, Texas, for 13 years. He had been going to the Walmart in Pasadena for about 10 years without any issues, according to the Houston Chronicle.

"I felt bad," Aparicio told the Houston Chronicle. "No one had ever treated me like that in that store. They've always been friendly. I felt discriminated, to be truthful. Just because I didn't speak English."

Aparicio told the Houston Chronicle that he had received numerous threats from people who knew the woman after he had posted the video online.

"It doesn't have to be this way," Aparicio told the Houston Chronicle about the interaction with the employee. "She looked Hispanic. We have to try to help each other."

A spokesperson from Walmart said in a statement to Newsweek that the company policy is to treat everyone with respect.

"One of our core beliefs is respect for all individuals. Respecting the unique styles, experiences, identities, ideas and opinions of our customers and associates is fundamental to everything we do at Walmart. We value each of our customers and want everyone to be treated with respect while they are in our stores or anywhere in the community," the statement read. "We serve over 150 million customers in the U.S. each week, many of which are Latino and representing all walks of life, and we have no tolerance for disrespectful actions."