Lawsuit a sign of the times

Did Universal Orlando Resort inadvertently kill Jose Calderón Arana, and was the instrument of death a warning sign? A warning sign in English? If it had also been in Spanish, the 38-year-old Calderón Arana would not have died of a heart attack in 2016. That’s what his lawyers contend in a lawsuit filed in December.

I don’t know about you, but they don’t want to pick me for the jury.

Perhaps Calderón Arana had no clue the “Skull Island: Reign of Kong” ride was any different than “A Day in the Park with Barney.” I sort of doubt it.

Granted, Calderón Arana was a native of Guatemala and did not speak English. But a native of Mars should have noticed the sign bordered in red that said “WARNING!”

Below it were red-circled illustrations that depicted stick figures with heart problems, back problems, motion sickness and other medical conditions. Each had a diagonal red line through it.

A Martian could have seen all that and thought, “Hmm, maybe these earthlings are trying to tell me something.”

So I don’t think any rational jury would find Universal negligent. That said, it wouldn’t shock me if Universal is found guilty or it just writes a big check to make the case go away.

The reason is the plaintiff ’s argument is rooted in an issue that transcends tourism and makes people on both sides see red.

How obligated is the United States to incorporate Spanish into its daily functioning?

Central Florida is certainly bilingual. Some days I swear I hear more Spanish being spoken than English.

That’s fine by me, though problems inevitably arise if Spanish is all they speak.

I was in a Walmart Supercenter a few months ago futilely searching for some item. I found a blue-vested employee and asked her where I might find it.

She looked at me as if I were from Mars. “No speak English,” she said. I understand the need to have Spanish-speaking employees. I just never thought I’d have to speak it in order to go shopping in America.

The encounter was more funny than frustrating to me, but many people aren’t so easily amused. A week rarely goes by in which you don’t hear about a fast-food employee yelling at a customer to order in English or some other ugly incident.

Conversely, just raising the issue is increasingly taboo.

In our world of identity politics, you are likely to be labeled a xenophobe if you don’t fully embrace Spanish in all forms. That’s the subliminal play Calderón Arana’s lawyers will make.

They will point out that almost 900,000 people tourists from Spanish-speaking Mexico, Argentina and Colombia visited Orlando in 2017. Universal will be portrayed as not caring as much about Latinos as it does Canadians or Brits or Kentuckians.

Barney might as well be wearing a MAGA cap. Universal might come up with a pretrial settlement just to avoid that kind of publicity.

What it should do is let the facts speak for themselves.

Orlando had 72 million visitors in 2017, and only 6.1 million were from outside the U.S. That means about 5 million were not from the three major Spanish-speaking countries.

Many of them couldn’t read English, yet they realized rides like Kong might not be for them. It uses animatronics and 3-D screens to simulate a truck expedition through King Kong’s island, where the big ape spends its days battling all sorts of prehistoric creatures.

“The movement of the truck is dynamic with sudden accelerations, dramatic tilting and jarring actions,” the sign at the entrance reads. In English, of course.

Calderón Arana’s lawyers say Universal should have had warnings in all major languages. That would presumably include French, German, Japanese, Arabic, Hindustani and Mandarin Chinese.

And don’t forget Portuguese, since more people from Brazil visit Florida annually than from anywhere except Canada and the United Kingdom.

Just to be safe from lawyers, should there be a warning sign in Klingon?

Calderón Arana’s death was a tragedy, but it was not due to Spanish bias or King Kong or Universal negligence.

It shouldn’t take a big red sign for a jury to see that.

Just to be safe from lawyers, should there be a warning sign in Klingon?