TVnotas Is Shocked / Amused That Ilia Calderón Is Dating A Japanese Man

It’s typical of tabloids from all countries to comment on the dating habits of various stars, to speculate about their private love lives and the people they’re with. So it’s not surprising at all that TVnotas would feature a pictorial on Colombian journalist and news anchor Ilia Calderón and a man who appears to be her new boyfriend. What is a little disconcerting (although still not entirely surprising) is their insistence on defining him -and, to an extent, Ilia herself - by his / her nationality and race. 

On their cover, TVnotas advertises the story under the charming headline “¡Morenaza con japonés!” Which, you know. Yeah, she’s dark-skinned. And, yes, he’s Japanese. But are these the most interesting things about them? Would they have reported on this couple had they both been Latin American?

We’ll admit that, given cultural norms, it is probably shocking to some that a Colombian woman would date a Japanese man, but why this shock has to be reflected on the cover of a magazine in such an overblown, tacky fashion is beyond us. 

We wonder about their decision to frame the story in this way and what it says about the Latin American media’s perception of inter-ethnic dating: Is it shocking? Amusing? Taboo?Whose perception are these tabloids reflecting? We know U.S, English-language tabloids are not reflective of the ideas held by every American, but their take on issues like women’s bodies (STARS WITH CELLULITE! TORI SPELLING COLLAPSES! MARY-KATE OLSEN LOOKS LIKE A BLOATED CHUPACABRA!), marriage (the pinnacle of any hetero relationship, as long as you have a pre-nup), divorce (failureville!), parenting and materialism do play a role in helping to define popular culture. If we placed this particular issue of tvNotas in a time capsule, what would it say about Latinos in general?

[tvNotas, print version]