José Angel Gutiérrez ● Hindu-Owned Motels and Hotels in the USA ● Our Voices/Nuestras Voces

Hindu-Owned Motels and Hotels in the USA

Part 3 of 4

José Angel Gutiérrez

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The Patel surname is not just used by the new FBI director;  it is very common among a sub-caste in India of the Gujarati Hindus. The surname Patel is the most used followed by Amin; over 70% of all Hindu-owned motels are owned by someone named Patel. Moreover, they are about 1/3rd of all motel owners in the US. I learned this over time while driving across the county usually to Kingsville, Texas  home of Bachelor’s degree alma mater.  In Kingsville, I have stayed at three different motels during  those days, all owned and operated by Hindus with the surname of Patel. They are not related but do know each other. Then, there was a legal client I provide defense from prosecution for soliciting sex for money and lewd behavior. He was the alleged client, not the prostitute. This Dallas-area motel was one of those that rented rooms by the hour but the client had to pay the full fare. This was how they got away with not being accused of knowing what went on in any given room much less being a place designated for prostitution.   The location of this so-called crime was in the Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. I am a lawyer. I interviewed the hotel owner, a Hindu man named Patel, who lived on the premises himself with his large 9-member family. They all lived in the manager’s quarters which was simply a larger than normal rentable motel room. Two of the older boys were enrolled in technology courses and had HB-1 visas that allowed them to work at the city’s Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). The 5 daughters all with heavy Hindu accents handled the desk, telephone calls, and cleaning supervision. The actual cleaning of the rooms was done by Mexican labor, invariably young to middle-age women, almost always without proper documents and earning less than $10 dollars a day. They could not complain and it was the only job they could find without papers. 

The motels I stayed in almost always smelled of Indian cuisine especially the purees called curry. The variety is almost as good as the various Mexican moles usually ordered by the colors as being red, green, black, yellow, etc. I never saw any Hindu dish on the menu if there was a restaurant. I could only smell it as coming from somewhere in the motel near the front desk.  

I always had a very hard time understanding the desk manager if it was the father. I simply do not understand their English when laced with a heavy Hindu accent. The Hindu man I interviewed on the prostitution case invited me to a meeting of other Hindu owners who felt the city police harassed them and their clients too much,. At this meeting of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), I learned that there are 3.3 million Hindus in the US in concentrations mostly in the South (32%) and West (29%). Over 48% are affiliated with Hinduism while only 15% are Christians and only 8% are Muslims. Collectively, they generate over $40 billion dollars in annual revenue and pay out no less than $12 billion in taxes to all levels of government from the occupancy tax, sales, tax, property tax, corporate tax, personal income tax, and a state tax. Sometimes, they pay double taxes because the motel is under a corporate name and then they pay themselves a salary. Double whammy right there. The more astounding figures are that 36, 807 Hindus own motels in the US and these are not the rent-by-the-hour establishments. No sir; more than half, (50.3%) are upscale properties. As if this was not enough they also send money  to India to other relatives. The US Treasury calls those cash transfers remittances.( More in Part 4).

Next to Hindus owning almost all the motel and hotels in the US including some upscale properties and 47.5% less than upscale, are the Chinese; the Communist ones, who are buying up US land left and right. As of 2023, foreigners owned 40 million acres of US agricultural land. The Chinese own 383,935 acres of this huge amount. This had become a pressing issue as of 2022 when the Grand Forks, North Dakota’s city council approved the purchase of 370 acres of land by the Fufeng Group from China; 12 miles from the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Now in the Trump  cabinet, Doug Burgum when he was the governor actively supported the sale. In Texas, near Del Rio in Val Verde County, another  Chinese group bought 140,000 acres of land for wind energy farm. That is the county that is home to Laughlin Air Force Base also. The head of this purchase is Sun Guangxin, that controls Guanghui Energy and was a former member of the People’s Liberation Army The state of Texas killed the project so Guanghui re-named his company Greenalia and has now based it in Spain. An earlier purchase by WH Group in 2013, another Chinese Communist group, was of Smithfield Foods, Inc. the largest pork producer in the US. The purchase also came with a plot of land and feed mills on 146,000 acres of land. The WH Group formerly was named the Shuanghui Group which utilized Chinese government financial backing to make the purchase of $7.1 billion dollars.

You would think Mexico would consider funding Mexicans abroad, mainly in the US, to buy properties, be they motels, hotels, farms, meat packing plants, refineries, gas stations and convenience stores. It has such a bank for that purpose., the Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior (BANCOMEXT) as does the US, the Export Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank). Assume good will, proper credentials, and a sound business plan. Why doesn’t Mexico create agricultural cooperative corporations with skilled technicians in agribusiness and machinery operators and fund them to buy US-based agricultural land, feed lots, and processing plants to produce food products for both the US and Mexican markets? Those of us of Mexican origin in the US can do the same identical cooperatives and apply to the Ex-Im bank to export those food products to Mexico. 

At one point in time the Mexican government created the Comisión de Coordinación para la integración de Migrantes en el Exterior (CCIME) then replace it and changed the name in 2003 to Instituto de los Mexicanos en el Exterior (IME). Neither CCIME nor IME has ever had an economic development program for us abroad in the US. Yet, those of us in the Other Mexico continue to send our hard earned monies back home which helps the Mexican government immensely. Isn’t it time to seek an audience with  the new president and make such a proposal among other demands?