In 1867, young Gastón Máspero arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, to translate a book written by the Argentine historian Vicente Fidel López, who, while during his exile conducted his campaign to run for office, also devoted himself to Quechua and the linguistics from Perú. The year he spent in Montevideo coincided with the presence of other travelers, antiquarians and pioneers of archaeology in South America, as well as with the exhibition of major Egyptian collections at Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. He was in the right place at the right time. Eventually, in spite of having concentrated on Egyptology, would never lost contact with Americanism or with the South American countries.