About a year ago, Francisco Garcia decided to launch a new business drawing from his years in architecture and design. The name of his San Diego-based company is Modern Architecture Services, or MAS for short.
"When I came up with my new business name, I came up with it because it describes what we do: 'modern architecture services,'" Garcia, 42, says. "And the acronym of that, MAS, means 'more' in Spanish.
"I was concerned, seriously, about how that could sway potential clients because of having a Spanish name. It's a hesitation I didn't have before."
The businessman's concern comes as President Donald Trump wraps up his first week in office, with an executive order signed Wednesday to compel the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump campaigned on the promise of building that wall; he also made disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants when kicking off his campaign, referring to many of them as "rapists" and "criminals."
The President is also expected to take more executive action to revamp U.S. immigration policy, which may include a temporary ban on refugees and immigrants from certain Muslim-majority countries. On the campaign trail, he proposed and then walked back plans for a "Muslim ban."