This paper is the result first part of an investigation into traditional literature palenquera and native literatures in Colombia and Latin America. Here a critical view of the different conceptions of Hispanic and Latin American literature by major critics and theorists of literature in the twentieth century is presented. The main objective is to reveal the contradictions and paradoxes that were woven around the desire for a “proper” literature of our continent. The analysis is interpretive and qualitative. The results show that some of these authors (Angel Rama, Roberto Fernandez Retamar and Pedro Henriquez Urena) presented proposals that go against all those manifestations of native peoples and cultures of the continent is exposed. Also, here is shown how these great thinkers built an imaginary of Latin American literature from forms and characteristics of the literary tradition of European artistic concepts.