Mulatto
Mulatto is a word referring to a person who is born to one black parent and one white parent. The term may be considered offensive or rude to some, because of its origin. The term is also used to refer to a light brown color, because of a mulatto's skin color. Many people prefer terms such as "biracial" and "of mixed race" over "mulatto".
In some cultures, such as in Cuba, there are a number of terms describing skin colour, and none of them is taken as evaluative. There are simply descriptive terms. And in the Spanish language the term mulata would be used for females of mixed race.[1][2]
There are other descriptive terms which are used in the Caribbean and Latin America, without their being regarded as racial in the pejorative sense.
Mulatto Media
Juan de Pareja by Diego Velázquez, CE 1650 – Juan de Pareja was born into slavery in Spain. He was of mixed African and Spanish descent.
Portrait of Dr. Abdullah Abdurahman
Spaniard + Negra, Mulatto. Miguel Cabrera. Mexico 1763
A Redenção de Cam (Redemption of Ham), by Galician painter Modesto Brocos, 1895, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. (Brazil) The painting depicts a black grandmother, mulatta mother, white father and their quadroon child, hence three generations of hypergamy through racial whitening.
Advertisement in the Virginia Gazette placed by Thomas Jefferson offering a reward for his escaped slave named Sandy who was defined as "mulatto".
Creole woman with black servant, New Orleans, 1867.
"Mulattoes returning from town with groceries and supplies near Melrose, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana." (Marion Post Wolcott, Farm Security Administration, July 1940
Three different race classifications appear in this public notice by the executor of the last will of Andre Deshotels, deceased, regarding emancipation of his former slaves. (Opelousas Patriot, St. Landry Parish, November 3, 1855, via Chronicling America digital newspaper archive)
Casta painting of a Spaniard, a Negra and a Mulatto. José de Alcíbar, 18th c. Mexico
De Español y Negra, Mulato. Anon. 18th c.
