A California woman said she caught on cellphone video a convenience store clerk angrily ranting at her for speaking Spanish.
Grecya Moran told KABC-TV that Thursday when she entered a Shell station in San Jose, she was initially greeted in Spanish by one employee while another stood nearby. Moran said the second employee interrupted the short conversation and demanded they speak English.
"I even went up to her and I apologized," Moran said. "I said, 'Excuse me, I'm sorry. All she was saying is-- she was greeting me in Spanish. How my day's going.' And she said, 'I don't care. You talk in English because this is America.'"
The woman grew more hostile, Moran said, so she took out her phone and began recording the encounter.
The videos can be viewed here (warning: they contain explicit language).
“You’re not a United States citizen,” the employee says in the video.
“I am, I was born here,” Moran replies.
“Well, show me,” the employee says.
Moran replies that she doesn’t need to prove her citizenship to the employee, who keeps hurling insults and obscene hand gestures at her.
As of Tuesday afternoon, one of the videos had more than 16,000 views.
The manager of the gas station told KABC-TV that the employee was fired the day of the confrontation.
Moran reported the incident to the San Jose police. The Police Department is still processing the report, police said.
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