Low-Profile Language Perplexes ATM Users

Charles K. Wilson, El Paso Times, May 3

David Herrera looked intently at the automated teller machine as others queued behind him, considered the options and made the logical conclusion.

“H-m-o-o-b?” the University of Texas at El Paso graduate student spelled as he studied an option listed on the Wells Fargo webATM screen. “I know it’s a language. You’ve got Spanish, Chinese, and then it must be another language.”

Which language it was, however, was his — and everyone else’s — guess recently as customers concentrated on PINs and cash withdrawals at the Wells Fargo Bank at 2500 N. Mesa.

“Is it Jewish?” asked Albert Montes, an El Paso Community College student. “Maybe Middle Eastern?” suggested Pat Smith, another UTEP student.

It turns out that Hmoob is the English transliteration of the language spoken by the Hmong tribe of Laos and other parts of Southeast Asia. It is one of four language options offered on Wells Fargo’s 25 webATMs in El Paso.

Pronunciation tip: The word is not “hamoob” or “moob.” More like “mong.”

So why the Hmoob option on ATM machines on the U.S.-Mexico border?

“Do we have any people that speak that?” asked Erika Favela, a Lower Valley resident and UTEP student. (The 2000 census turned up no indications of any Hmong in far West Texas or Southern New Mexico.)

The answer, said Wells Fargo, is the ability of the new webATM terminals to accept multiple languages and the concentration of Hmong speakers in the Fresno, Calif., and Minneapolis-St. Paul markets. Outside of Wells Fargo, a sampling of banks and credit unions found that ATMs in El Paso feature only English and Spanish.

According to the U.S.-based Lao Human Rights Council, about 300,000 Hmong live in the United States.