Forgive me if this is in poor taste or offensive, I will love my daughter regardless. Technically, my daughter is 25% Hispanic/Latina (Cuban) and 75% white.
My husband, the “mother” of the child (he’s trans but he birthed her) is white for sure, whereas I’m half-white and half-Cuban with a mom who had German parents and a Dad who came from Cuba to the USA as a child.
We were going to name her Violeta, partially to honor her Latina roots, but people preferred the English Violet so we named her Violet.
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Honestly, she’s going to be whatever the hell you tell her she is.
Or decide on her own later. My mom is a korean immigrant but wanted me to identify as white like my father . Now i identify as both.
Or tell her she has a mix, and let her decide what she wants to be. I’ve seen plenty of people who look one way but claim roots and heritage from something I didn’t know about. She’s not just white, nor just brown. She’s Violet.
The first chapter of Larry Niven’s Ringworld mentions this. At that point they have had transporter technology for a while, where you step on a pad and instantly you’re somewhere else in the world. Opening up that level of ability to move around meant people mixed as well, and after a few generations everyone tended to be more similar than different. Probably not realistic, as there will still be culture and prejudices that influence pairing for a while, even if everywhere and everyone was just a step away.
Race is a made up social construct:
https://scienceandsociety.duke.edu/does-race-exist/
She can be whatever she wants.
She’s a mutt. No big deal, most of us are.
It’s what we’re supposed to be. Blending, swapping traits, improving the species through diversity.
There’s no need to label the “type” of human she is.
Unless she goes through a particularly weird rebellious phase and has other cubans to integrate with, with her pedigree, she will be very white. Outwardly, she will likely just look like a tan white girl. Socially, based on the international mixing and gay integration in your family, she will be socialized as a part of the globalization class, who give up any real cultural identity in the service of improved integration with people of many diverse cultures - and this class is predominantly inhabited by white people. She might go through a phase where she wants to learn more about her cuban heritage. But being part of the globalization class, she will identify the living elements of cuban culture as trashy, and will quickly (though discreetly) reject them - if she ever comes into contact with them at all.
She’s just her. I think you should keep a record of the races for history and health reasons, but socially, she’s Violet. If you’ve already decided to change her name, that’s cool too, but I really love the name Violeta. She’s your kid, and you get to decide what’s best as her parent. Most folks are just trying to help, but I think it’s nicer to let you and your partner decide what feels right.
For example, if you pick a name, stick with it and make sure people follow it. If you call her Violet, and someone starts calling her Violeta, politely correct them. If her name is Sophie, don’t let people call her Sophia. If it’s Marcos, don’t let them call him Marcus. You get what I mean.
When she’s older and if she wants to go by Violeta instead of Violet, that’s totally her choice and we should respect it.
These early decisions really stick with them for life. It might feel like a lot, but if you and your partner talk it over, share what you want, and stick to your guns, you probably won’t have regrets. As long as you stand behind your choices together, it’ll all be okay.
American
On the US census, “hispanic” is not a race; it’s an “ethnicity”. So your daughter will be faced with the choice of selecting a “race” and then also choosing “hispanic” or “non-hispanic.” Many other surveys use the same scheme.
How your daughter makes these decisions is up to her. As a social construct, race is what we humans make of it. 100 years ago, Irish and Italians were often not “white.”
