My (kind of) formal complaint against the West Valley Driver License Office

Dear West Valley Driver License Division Office,

Your city has a Hispanic population of over 46,000. With this statistic in mind, and as a college grad with a B.A. in Latin American Studies, I'd like to give you a little more information about your second largest racial group, to help you fix your system, policies, or at least your lousy customer service representatives.

It is a standard practice in Latin America to use two last names: one from your father and one from your mother. Your father's name comes first, then your mother's [maiden] name.

For example: Maria Cruz and Jorge Sanchez get married. They have a child named Juan José. So little Juan's name is going to be: Juan José Sanchez Cruz.

Not too hard, although I know it may seem a little complicated. So here's one more quick example:

Mother's name: Guadalupe Ramirez
Father's name: Alberto Vasquez
Child's name: Alberto Junior Vasquez Ramirez

Okay, I don't want to bore you, but just so I make sure you've got it, I'll even use some "Anglo" names to make sure there is no language confusion.

Mother's name: Mary Smith
Father's name: John Deer
Child's name: Little Johnny Deer Smith

Ta-da!

Now, when two people get married in Latin America, traditionally the woman only takes her husband's first last name (her father-in-law's last name) and when they have kids the maiden name of the mother is dropped off and not passed down to the next generation. Thus:

Groom: Alberto Junior Vasquez Ramirez
Bride: Juana Rodriguez Martinez de Vasquez

The word "de" means "of" and just means that she is married to someone whose last name is Vasquez. Some people don't follow this practice as strictly, but if a woman does take her husband's last name, she never takes both last names. Just the first.

And their child's name would be: Fulano Vasquez Rodriguez

Okay, so this practice has been going on for a really long time in Latin American countries, and so when a Latin American person comes to the United States, they (still) have two last names.

That creates absolute havoc for people in the United States, especially really official and legal places, like immigration, banks, DMVs...etc. We have this thing with people always having the exact same name. Otherwise, they could be pretending to be someone else.

Most latinos, for simplicity's sake, decide to keep just there father's last name, following the traditional pattern used in the US. However, some decide to keep both last names. And some, like my husband, aren't really given a choice.

My husband's last name has been arbitrarily picked by immigration officials. So on his Visa (which was his first legal form of ID in the United States) both last names were provided as his surname. His next government issued ID was his Work Permit, which only had his first last name. With that form of ID he was able to get his Social Security card, so that also only has his first last name.

Then they decided to switch it up and put his two last names on his Green Card.

Yesterday my husband went to your office to get his driver's license. He said he just wanted his first last name on his license, so it would match his Social Security card. One of the workers there said that would be impossible and insisted on including his second last name as well. Okay, I guess...that's okay. It shows on his Green Card as "Cabrera Saldana" so I guess we can handle that.

But then they put a hyphen in between the two last names. So now my husband's last name reads "Cabrera-Saldana." That is in no way, shape, or form, my husband's last name. It's different. And after working at a bank and working with immigration for over 2 years, I know that tiny details like that make a difference. They make life suck for us.

So I told my husband to go back and tell you to take the hyphen out of his last name. But you refused. You said that it had to be that way for the system to recognize it. I don't know what system you are using that wouldn't allow you to put a space between two last names, but it needs to be fixed to accommodate the thousands of Latinos that come into your office every day with the same problem. (I've checked with a few other Latinos who had no problem putting their two last names [without a hyphen] on their license.)

This is not the first problem of this nature that I've had with your office. When I tried to change my last name after my husband and I were married, you insisted that I take his two last names, because that's how his name appeared on our marriage certificate. Even though my Social Security card, which I changed first, only had his first last name. The person helping me said, after I tried to explain to him that it was his mother's last name and I didn't want to take it,

"I know how it works in Latin America, but we legally we have to do things this way. Unless you have some way to prove that it is his second last name."

So my husband whipped out his ID card from Peru. On his card it says, "First last name: Cabrera, Second last name: Saldana." In Spanish. The person helping me said,

"I know what this says. I know that this is how it's done in Latin America. But I can't accept this; it's in Spanish."

They made me bring in my husband's birth certificate, with a certified translated copy in English before they would allow me to change my name to Hannah Cabrera.

I don't know who is in charge over there or who I need to launch a formal complaint against, but as soon as I find out, they will be sure to get a lovely message from me.

Life is too short to spend hours in line at your office over and over again because you can't handle the fact that some people have names that are a little different.

Sincerely,

Hannah Cabrera