The article presents the development of an idea: American continental unity as an object of study in Latin American intellectual history of the twentieth century. To achieve this, the article is organized in three stages: the idealist, which starts with José Enrique Rodó; the confrontation between Pan-Americanism and Americanism, which rises from the opposition against imperialism and the revindication of mixed heritages (mestizaje); and the confrontation between policies to implement development and revindicate continental unity driven by the Cuban Revolution. The paper emphasizes that gray area that emerges today, marked by an open questioning of national unity as a paradigm; in other words, the paper sets forth a question regarding the political and intellectual relevance of a topic.