If we talk a bit about how a Santa Rosa mother was insulted after she phoned a fancy bakery regarding a cake for her daughter’s Quinceanera celebration, maybe the affront will be less likely to happen again.

 
Rose Latham’s account isn’t the first I’ve heard from Sonoma County people who believe they were treated poorly at a business because they are Hispanic. This is what happened:

 
Latham is Mexican-American and she works with her husband, longtime Santa Rosa dentist Gary Latham. She’s planning a Quinceanera, a traditional 15th-birthday coming of age party, for her daughter, Natalie.

 
Days ago, Latham phoned a local high-end wedding and special-event cake bakery. She said in a message that her name is Rose and that she and her daughter would like to arrange to come in and taste cakes for a Quinceanera.

 
Latham said a woman phoned her back and the first words out of her mouth were that the bakery creates cakes that are not very affordable. Latham was taken aback but replied that she was prepared to pay whatever a special party cake costs.

 
Again, she said, the bakery employee told her dismissively that the cakes are quite expensive, costing at least hundreds of dollars.
Would the response have been the same if in her original phone message she’d identified herself as Mrs. Latham and said she was interested in a party cake, rather than that she was Rose and was looking for a cake for a Quinceanera? She very much doubts it.

 
Assumptions, we need to remember, can hurt.