Based on a description of a selection of ethnographical cases, this article states that there are two perspectives for understanding literacy as a social practice: Universalistic and relativistic. Universalistic perspective assumes that literacy has by itself cognitive and cultural effects, and that it is possible to generalize its forms, taking as a starting point the Western tradition. In contrast, relativistic perspective assumes that literacy acquires its meaning in connection with local contexts, and its forms depend on particular events. In this paper, both perspectives are used for interpreting two cases observed in Colombia: First, an adult literacy program in El Codito (a peripheral neighborhood in Bogota) in which the curriculum was adapted to the relativistic perspective; second, a reading club for young people in Guatavita (a village close to the same city) based on dialogical and critical pedagogies. At the end, it is argued that universalistic and relativistic perspectives coexist in both of the observed cases.