En el contexto de la modernizacion literaria latinoamericana ocurrida –entre 1870 y 1910– que dio lugar al fenomeno del modernismo, caracterizado por el surgimiento de una nueva expresion literaria como fruto de la absorcion de factores historicos modernos, este articulo muestra el caso particular de Colombia, pais que fue definido por los pensadores del modernismo como una sociedad hispana tradicional, condicionada por la resistencia a los procesos de secularizacion establecida por la alianza entre Estado e Iglesia, con su consecuente postergacion de la experiencia de la modernidad. T ales problematicas se analizan desde la identidad de Atenas suramericana que adquirio Bogota durante las dos ultimas decadas del siglo XIX, la cual se baso en el fortalecimiento de una dirigencia politica inclinada al ejercicio de las letras, encarnada en pensadores como Miguel Antonio Caro, Rafael Nunez y Jose Manuel Marroquin, quienes fueron tambien figuras fundamentales en el proceso historico de la Regeneracion que permitio, mediante la Constitucion de 1886, el restablecimiento de los vinculos entre Iglesia y estado. La Regeneracion constituye una empresa politica autoritaria y discursiva que ademas de establecer modelos de nacion, trata de eliminar otros modelos posibles, introduciendo la vision de una Europa decadente. Es asi como la Regeneracion impone un tipo de belleza en oposicion a la cual nace la estetica modernista en Colombia, en el pensamiento de Baldomero Sanin cano. Palabras clave: Palabras clave: modernizacion literaria latinoamericana, modernismo, secularizacion, Atenas suramericana, Regeneracion. Resume: This article is based on the context of the Latin American literary modernization occurring between 1870 and 1910, which gave place to the phenomenon of modernism, characterized by the emergence of new forms of literary expression as a product of the absorption of modern historical factors. This study focuses on the particular case of Colombia, a country defined by the thinkers of modernism as a traditional Hispanic society, conditioned by resistance to secularization processes established by the alliance between Church and State, and the resulting delay of the experience of modernity. These problems are analyzed from the identity of South American Athens acquired by Bogota during the last two decades of the XIX c., based on the recurrence of political leaders inclined to literary activities, represented by figures such as Miguel Antonio Caro, Rafael Nunez and Jose Manuel Marroquin. These men of letters constituted figures of parallel importance in the historical process of the Regeneration, which, by means of the Constitution of 1886, allowed for the reestablishment of ties between Church and State. This Regeneration constituted an authoritarian political and discursive strategy, which established models of nation, at the same time as it attempted to eliminate other possible models, by means of the image of a decadent Europe. In this way the historical movement of Regeneration imposes a concept of beauty, in opposition to which modernist aesthetics emerges in Colombia, which can be seen in the thought of Baldomero Sanin Cano. Key words: Latin American literary modernization, modernism, secularization, South American Athens, Regeneration.