Hispanic mother reports discriminatory message on Starbucks cup in Texas

A Hispanic mother publicly reported being the victim of a discriminatory act at a Starbucks located inside a Target store in Irving, Texas, after receiving her order with an offensive message written on the cup lid.

Blanca López, an immigrant and mother of two daughters, visited the establishment on June 23, where her daughters decided to treat her to a horchata latte to celebrate the end of the school year. However, what was supposed to be a special family moment turned into outrage when one of the girls noticed a handwritten phrase on the coffee lid: “What do you call a sick eagle? Illegal.”

The phrase, which plays with the rhyme in English between eagle and illegal, was interpreted by López as a disrespect to her heritage. “For me, it’s offensive,” she told CBS News Texas. “Am I supposed to laugh? What do they want me to do?,” she added, visibly affected.

The mother assured that she showed the glass immediately to a store manager, who apologized and promised to speak with the team. López kept the glass as evidence and expressed that she is still waiting for a formal response from the company, as she stated in an interview with CBS News Texas.

“Why do they call me that? How do they know if I have papers or not? Why did they write that?”, López wondered, visibly affected by the symbolic weight of the word “illegal”, in a context where people close to her have faced recent deportations.

The incident sparked outrage in the Hispanic community of Irving and prompted activist Carlos Quintanilla from the organization Acción América to organize a protest outside the venue. “It is not just inappropriate, it is disturbingEspecially now, when many media outlets link the illegal with the criminal.”

Both Starbucks and Target issued statements indicating that they are investigating the incident. “We want everyone in our stores to be treated with courtesy and respect; we apologize and are addressing the situation,” said Target. Starbucks, for its part, reiterated that it maintains a zero tolerance policy towards discriminatory behavior.

The case occurs in a context of migration tension in the United States, with immigrant communities particularly sensitive to messages they perceive as hostile or exclusionary.

Blanca López insists that an apology is not enough. “I am an immigrant, and that is why I was offended. They have no reason to call me that,” she concluded.