Writer shares tales of happiness, sadness from mail order bride tour
Jan 30, 2012, 9:53 AM | Updated: Oct 14, 2024, 11:49 am
 Men on the tour got a first glimpse of the women online. (Image courtesy AmoLatina.com) |
Writer Harmon Leon traveled to Columbia to take part in a mail order bride tour with a couple dozen lonely American men looking for love.
“I write a lot of stories where I kind of examine weird, obscure, bizarre subcultures,” Harmon Leon tells 97.3 KIRO FM’s Ross and Burbank Show. “On this trip, I just wanted to go along with 24 men to Columbia on a mail order bride tour where they are seeking wives.”
Leon said that the trip touched on “every kind of layer of an onion of the happiness and sadness of life.”
Listen to Writer shares stories from mail order bride tour
He says many of the men had a history of troubled relationships.
“The sadness is you can kind of see their entire backstory written all over their face.” Leon says the men paid about $1500, plus travel expenses to go on the tour, and for the most part, seemed like pretty average guys. “Kind of just the average guys you see everyday and really don’t think much about.”
Leon says the women though were stunning. “They’re just absolutely beautiful.”
He says the women generally participate in the program in attempts to improve their social or economic situation, or to just have a luxurious travel experience.
“The guy pretty much has to pay for everything when they go on dates down there,” says Leon.
The matchmaking does have its challenges though. Leon says that most of the women do not speak English.
“Imagine a blind date with the worst small talk all done with a translator with a two to three minute downtime between responses,” says Leon, “trying to make a connection with someone.”
He said he only knew of one marriage that resulted from his tour and he wonders about the challenges ahead.
“You’re on this tour and they plan like really fun activities and you have the luxury of having a translator to tag along with to translate. I just can’t even imagine when you marry someone and then you get back to America and there’s no translator there and you’re a month into it, just kind of the sad trajectory course that would take.”
Read Harmon Leon’s full account of his journey at SFGate.
By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
