A national hero in Cuba and a champion of independence across Latin America, Jose Marti produced a body of work that has been theorised, criticised, and politicised. However, one of the most understudied aspects of his life remains his time in the United States and how it affected his attitudes toward racial politics.

Marti saw first-hand the treatment of slaves in the Cuban countryside and as a young man in Havana had mourned the death of Lincoln. But it was in New York City, near the close of the century, where he penned his famous essay My Race, declaring that there was only the human race.

In the United States he encountered European immigrants and the labour politics that accompanied them, and he became aware of the hardships experienced by Chinese workers. Marti read in newspapers and magazines about the mistreatment of Native Americans and the adversity faced by newly freed black citizens. Anne Fountain argues that it was here confronted by the forces of manifest destiny, the influence of race in politics, the legacy of slavery, and the plight and promise of the black Cuban diaspora that Marti fully engaged with the spectre of racism. Examining his entire oeuvre rather than just selected portions, Fountain demonstrates the evolution of his thinking on the topic, indicating the significance of his sources, providing a context for his writing, and offering a structure for his treatment of race.