Ante el ascenso de Estados Unidos, el gobierno de Espana tomo conciencia de la importancia de celebrar el IV Centenario del Descubrimiento de America en 1892 y promover la idea de una “comunidad espiritual” con sus antiguas colonias, basada en un idioma, una religion y una historia comunes. Uno de los eventos organizados fue la Exposicion Historico-Americana en Madrid que pretendia “reconstruir e l estado de civilizacion” en el que se encontraban los pobladores del continente americano a la llegada de los espanoles . Las recien conformadas naciones hispanoamericanas, promovieron un movimiento sin precedentes encaminado a la recoleccion y catalogacion de “antiguedades indigenas”, que por primera vez serian las protagonistas de un evento de caracter internacional. Dicha exposicion constituye asi un espacio propicio para analizar el papel del hispanismo en la construccion de una imagen nacional alusiva al pasado prehispanico. Abstract At the end of the 19th century, before the rise of the United States as a world power, the Government of Spain became aware of the importance of commemorating the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America and promoting the idea of a “spiritual community” with its former colonies, based on common language, religion and history. One of the events planned for that purpose was the Historic-American Exhibition, organized in Madrid in 1892. The goal of this exhibition was to rebuild the “state of civilization” in which the settlers of the American continent had been living prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. The newly formed Latin American nations promoted an unprecedented movement, aimed at collecting and cataloguing “indigenous antiquities”, which for the first time would be the protagonists of an event of international character. This exhibition is an ideal space to analyze the role of Hispanism in the construction of a national image related to the pre-hispanic past.