This article proposes a reading of letters sent by Peruvian Ricardo Palma (1833-1919) to four maxican intellectuals. Palma, the “beggar librarian” as he was called in his country, is driven by the will to re-form the collections of the National Library in Lima and promote an international cultural communication. Nevertheless, establishing lasting relations between Peruvian and Mexican authors wasn’t possible because of distance and mutual ignorance.