I clearly haven’t been changing enough nappies since our daughter, Inês, was born a couple of months ago as I only noticed what I am about to mention a week or ten days ago.

Through my mother’s side of the family (the Salvadorian side) many of the women (but not all…it sometimes jumps generations) are born with a bluish birthmark on their lower back/ upper buttocks that lasts anywhere from six months to a year or two before disappearing. This apparently is known as the Mongolian Spot and, as the name suggests, is an indicator of Native American blood and our Asiatic origins; in our case Pipil/ Mayan most probably.

When Inês was born, I remember sort-of turning her round gently to see if I could find it,  but without success. I had mentioned this in conversation to my mother in law a number of times and it was she who told me, a few days ago, that Inês had it and that I should have a better look. And yes she does!

What is fantastic about all of this is the genetic mix that Cristina and I have handed down to our daughter; what with the historic complexities of my paternal Anglo-Welsh heritage, the intricacies of my maternal Iberian Catholic, Sephardic Jewish and Native Central American blood… and then there is Cristina’s thoroughbred Catalan and Spanish heritage of countless generations past with everything that has happened in Iberia over the last couple of thousand years. I think that all this can only be beneficial to Inês and other “mongrels” like us, like her.