That might be the case, as although I have visited Columbia, I have not lived there. I find it unusual for any “small” child not to regard their own skin colour as normal — whatever it might be — and not requiring specific mentioning. In older children, yes, then it can become an issue, something that they carry an awareness of, perhaps of a difference. I’m an editor and those sort of things leap off the page at me. It sounds forced, deliberate and clumsy.

One of my daughters is of mixed race, and at five years of age, she would comment on the difference between her and her sisters, but not choose a word to describe her own colour. Her sisters were envious of her pretty skin colour.