ABSTRACT
Betty came bouncing into my living room and stayed for more than three hundred nights. Betty—more formally known as Beatriz Aurora Pinzón Solano—captivated me with her raucous laugh, her braces and her thick-framed glasses, her awkward demeanor and, yes, her financial wizardry. The Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty la fea (I am Betty, the Ugly One) (Figure 3.1) was the one show I couldn’t miss. I was not alone: more than 80 million people throughout Latin America and the United States watched the program, and it was a topic of conversation in myriad chatrooms, websites, newspaper columns and just around the watercooler in the office.
