The main objective of this paper is to show the presence of certain classical values and medieval structures -without absolutising their importance- within the unfinished process of the construction of a specifically Latin American modernity. First, we will analyse the intellectual context of New Spain during the sixteenth century, which was profoundly influenced in a broad sense by European Renaissance humanism. Secondly, we will look at the emergence of a creole consciousness in Peru from the seventeenth century onwards and in New Spain throughout the eighteenth century as a result of cultural hybridisation.