I tend to not be a label user for a few practical reasons: given my background, I would have so many; I’m a fusion lover, so mixing and matching is more my thing; and, I like staying in the growth flux, so what I was before could change (and has) depending on my learning curve, my urge, my new stage in life. Having said that, I love when our human labels have evolved to represent healing, transparency, and authenticates identity for the person who self-labels.
When I moved to this country, I was described as Hispanic, Latina, Spanish, White-Latina, and lastly, Person of Color. I felt dizzy, defensive, sometimes bored, and instead of explaining my background over and over, I opted to simplify with phrases like “I didn’t grow up here” or “I am bilingual, bicultural” or “No, I’m not Spanish”.
One night, after watching a Bollywood romance, followed by a period piece set in the countryside of Colombia, a sneaky photoshop filter dropped before my eyes, like a psychedelic experience in vibrant technicolor. I not only saw the fuchsias, oranges, yellows, and turquoise in both movies, I FELT THEM inside my skin. The “color” in these movies were the expressions, the non-verbal communication, and the absolute vibrations with which they resonated.
I felt familiar goosebumps watching the unapologetic dancing, the pulsating beat, the unashamed sensual bodies in both movies. I connected deeply with the gestures of love: the gazing, the touching, the unabashed romance, and the gestures of respect between them. I felt moved by the greetings, the kisses, the bows, the hugs, the formality, and the tenderness! I was witnessing a personified EXPRESSION OF COLOR, a communication code indeed, a language unto itself. I recognized this code from the very depths of my root chakra. These dancing, vibrating, affectionate, responsive expressions of colors were me. The Latina me, the global me, the human me, in that order.
As we say in Spanish, “me cayó el cinco!” – the penny dropped: We are Colorful People, not just People of Color.
People of Color felt too simple all of a sudden. It relegates us to our color only. Color is years of evolutionary adaptation, communication in nature between animals, a common language of spiritual frequencies, and an eternal DNA strand weaving human sameness with diversity. Color, as a human vibration, is a connective code. Colorfulness is an embodied expression of rhythm, beat, sensuality, fashion, greetings, passion, ritual, and tenderness!
We are a Colorful People, the WHOLE of us. We are the vibrant, embodied human, with the need to show our colors, express ourselves, live in our beautiful, diverse bodies. We are meant to love our intensity and to love each other intensely. Like beautiful peacocks, we are called to fan our unique and diverse beauty.
“Me cayó el cinco”, for sure: I NOW IDENTIFY AS A COLORFUL PERSON IN THIS COLORFUL WORLD.
