By Natasha Dado
Suzanne Lossia, a cast member from the new highly anticipated
reality television show Motor City Wives is getting people
around the country interested in learning about who Chaldeans
are.
Lossia
Lossia, a
Chaldean American isn't missing any opportunity she gets to
introduce the community to Americans. "No one really knows who
the Chaldeans are, now I'm going to show them," Lossia said.
Speaking to The Arab American News, Lossia said after she
appeared as a guest on a radio show discussing Motor City Wives,
listeners called in afterwards asking about Chaldeans, and where
they’re from. The show is expected to debut this Fall. It's
still uncertain which network will pick it up; according to
reports VH1 will.
Lossia's appearance on the show is significant, considering no
Chaldean has knowningly ever starred on a national television
show, and the community is still very much un-heard of
throughout the country. In the United States only three states
including California, Arizona and Michigan are known to have
large and established Chaldean communities.
Chaldeans are Catholics from Iraq, and widely known as the
indigenous people of the country; one reason they don't identify
as Arabs.
Lossia offers insight and a glimpse into the community on the
show. "I love everything about being Chaldean. I love the food,
our people and language," she said.
Lossia grew up in West Bloomfield, where she attended West
Bloomfield High School. She's the only cast member on the show
from Oakland County.
There are still many unanswered questions surrounding the show
and its cast members who are rumored to be Detroit native and
rape singer Eminem's ex-wife Kim Mathers, Flavor of Love 2
winner Deelishis, Sara Stokes of Making the Band, and former
Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's relative Ayanna Kilpatrick
Ferguson. "There are a lot of rumors going on. You'll just have
to wait and see."
There’s much negative national attention surfacing over Detroit.
Its image has been tarnished by damaging media portrayals.
Lossia says the show will help dismantle some of the negative
stereotypes about Detroit. She praised the city, and has hope
for its future. "Detroit is beautiful. We're going to bring it
back," she said.
Motor City Wives was filmed in metro-Detroit for seven months,
and shooting is now complete. Scenes were filmed in downtown
Detroit and local malls.
Lossia is divorced, and has two children ages 14 and 16.
Divorce isn’t easily accepted in the Chaldean community, but
today it has become more common among the younger generation.
Responding to critics the show will attract Lossia said,
“Everyone who knows me, knows what type of person I am. I’m a
phenomenal mother,” she said.
One of her sons maintained a 4.0 GPA at Brother Rice High
School, another is expected to begin school there. Lossia is
very family oriented. "I'm all about family," she said.
She was initially skeptical about appearing on the show, but her
family was very supportive of it, and eventually convinced her
to.
"My family is so supportive and they pushed me to do this." She
still maintains a good relationship with her ex-husband and
children’s father Tony who owns hotels in Indiana and Kentucky.
Lossia says being on the show has given her the opportunity to
step outside her own community and interact with people from
different backgrounds.
She enjoyed working with the show’s cast members, and says she’s
being herself and not acting on the show.
Lossia has also received positive feedback and encouraging
messages from the Chaldean community. The show could prompt
other Chaldeans who are interested in television careers to
persue their passions.
While the show could lead to different career opportunities, for
now Lossia says she would never consider leaving metro-Detroit
because her family, and children who attend school in the
region. Lossia was asked to be on the show after being spotted
by one of the show's producers, she also says she knew one of
the cast members on the show.
