Camachos Cantina and Grill

City of Industry, CA

Maribelle of Fontana CA (10/20/03):

We arrived at 9:00 with our limo we were dropped off out front of the door. Many in our group wore jeans they were let in with no problems. Most of our group was American. Me and my friend Theodore (Mexican) stayed behind because we were smoking a cigarette. When we approached the door, security guards had been watching us. So when we approached the security said instantly he can't come in like that.

My friend was not wearing jeans. His clothes were not baggy and he had on a dress shirt with a collar. He has a shaved head that is his perfered hair style; he is 6 foot 2. I said why can't he come in? They said his shirt has a tag that says Dickies on it. It is just a brand. I said I called your guest list and no one said anything about tags on clothes. I felt as if he was a victim of racial profiling because he looks a certain way. I felt humiliated.

I said I called before coming no one said it would be a problem. I let them know our entire group had entered and we had a limo and why was this a problem? I asked to speak to the manager so I then spoke with Javier Ortiz I informed him of the situation and I let him know that his security Pete was being very rude. I felt like like my friend was being discriminated by the way he looked. I had even offered to have him tuck in his shirt if that would make any difference to them.

In the meantime I saw several gentlemen walk in with jeans, baggy clothes and they had no problems entereing the night club. I was upset. So the Manager Javier Ortiz was pleading my case to Pete Lopez, he was so arrogant and refused to let us in. About 20 minutes later they allowed us entrence, after standing there and being treated like lower class citizens.

The security asked for our identifications and their mannerisms and attitudes further provoked my friend. He flipped off the security guard that was rude the whole night. I also voiced my frustrations letting the club manager know that I would not spend one dime in this club. And how do they expect us to feel now that they let us in? Should we be glad after 30 minutes of begging for an entrence we walked away?

I came back and asked for business cards and names of the parties involved. I let Javier know that his security company was very rude and unprofessional. And I also informed him that in the future they should let people know the dress code is no shaved heads. Or shirts that say dickies. I was really upset with this situation.

The economic damage that occured was that we lost out on an evening with our coworkers. We had to sit in a limo the whole night. We paid to go in a limo for no reason just to sit in front of this club for the entire evening until everyone was rounded up and we got a ride home.

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