Sonya's scratching her bowler hat

When Bolivia's Miss Universe candidate, a fair-skinned 6-footer from Santa Cruz, was asked by pageant judges last year what a common misconception about her country was, she gave the following answer: Bolivia is primarily "poor people, short people, Indian people." She went on to say that she was from "the other side, from the east ... We're tall, white, and speak English." Needless to say, the comment caused a flap in this country, where outside of Santa Cruz, the majority of citizens are from various indigenous ethnic groups.
In the U.S., not much attention would be given to what a beauty contestant had to say about anything. But middle class cambas are obsessed with Western, big-boobed, bottle blonde beauty. Plastic surgery clinics are almost as common as gyms. And several pages in each of the daily newspapers are devoted to coverage of models and beauty pageants.
So Sonya and I weren't sure what to think when we saw the following photo run in one of the city's newspapers. Was it a progressive step toward inclusion or a mean-spirited poke at the underclass?