In this article, we focus on Alfonso Reyes' essay "El presagio de América", paying special attention to the standpoint of the Mexican essayist in the historical debate about the Discovery of America. We will conclude from the results of our rhetorical analysis that Reyes defends the utopian identity of the New World. Schematically, his argumentation can be reduced to two rhetoric systems (transitivity and reciprocity) as Perelman describes them. Nevertheless, several textual strategies hide the rigidity and firm orientation of Reyes' reasoning