 The issue became critical during the period of independence, when those who fought against the Spanish domination in particular faced the task of forming nations of a population that was diverse in race, culture, and origin. Liberators such as Bolívar and Martí understood well the challenge and rejected race in particular as a divide among the different populations from which they sought to forge unified nations (see Aguilar Rivera and Schutte in Gracia, 2011). They proposed notions of national unity based on a mixed population under ideals of political self-determination.