The politics of pizza

A pizza chain called Pizza Patrón, with 59 locations in Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado, recently announced that it would accept pesos. Clearly it’s a bit of a publicity stunt, although a guy speaking for the chain told Reuters that “for us it makes sense. Our stores are located in predominately Hispanic communities and so the majority of our customers are Hispanic.” Lots of the chain’s customers, he added, travel back and forth to Mexico a lot, so they might have pesos in their pockets.

Well. You can sort of guess the next part:

Against the backdrop of rising anti-Hispanic tensions as America grapples with an estimated 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants, there are some who do not regard it as a harmless marketing gimmick.

“This is America, we speak English and our currency is the U.S. dollar. I will no longer visit your restaurant due to your demonstrated inability to assimilate into the culture of this country,” said one irate former customer in an e-mail sent to Pizza Patron on Monday morning.

I’ll let you draw your conclusions about the American-ness of paying for pizza in $USD, vs. the American-ness of a pizza chain that boasts that it serves “Hispanic communities the highest quality pizza at the lowest possible price.”

Anybody out there tried this place? I sure like the logo.