Postcolonialism is briefly presented as an academic approach in contemporary literary studies, with two opposite currents as far as the study of Latin American literature is concerned. The first constructs the relationship between Latin American and European literature as oppositional, whereas the second focuses in a more harmonious way on their interrelationship. It is argued that both currents cluster around a divergent reading of the ‘cannibal’ metaphor. The article then centres on the position of the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, who covers both postcolonial tendencies. This is shown by focusing upon a specific case, his early novella Aura. Attention is paid to the tension between Europe and Latin America, both on a literary level (intertextuality) and on a historical level (colonization and nation-building).