MULATICA SIN COLOR

‘Mulatica Sin Color’ is something my father used to call me a lot as a child. When my mom used to hear him say it, she would say “don’t call her that!” before I even fully understood what the words meant. ‘Mulatica’ (which some see as a derogatory term due to its origins in colonization and slavery, though in Spanish and especially Cuba it’s generally not considered offensive) at its core means mixed girl, and ‘sin color’ means without color. The only part I understood at the time was ‘sin color’. The word ‘without’ said to me that I was missing something, something I should’ve had. I never viewed myself as lacking anything until then.