During the 1840s and 1860s, Juan Bautista Alberdi consolidated his legacy as an important personality in the history of what we now understand as Argentina. In his trajectory as an exile from the Rosas regime, intellectual author of the Constitution of 1853, servant of the diplomatic corps and staunch opponent of the Paraguayan War, the brazilian Empire was somehow present in his life throughout these years. His registered opinions, public or not, in relation to the monarchy of the tropics fluctuated during the different stages of his life, and such opinions would not go unnoticed by the press in the capital of the Empire. The present work seeks, therefore, to approach the life and trajectory of the intellectual and the way through which some of his writings were presented to the reading public in Rio de Janeiro in the proposed timelines. The objective is to show that in the period in which there was an intention to establish national projects, the press was instrumental for the literate people, who, like Alberdi, benefited from a printed culture that contributed to the construction of national narratives and identities.