Putting in perspective one of the most controversial aspects of the conceptual heritage of structural semiotics: the principle of immanence, this contribution seeks to problematize and propose some hypotheses regarding the emergence and development of semiotics in Chile. For this, both theoretical and also practical (political) conditions of the local appearance of this discipline are examined globally. The development of structuralist thought is resumed in Latin America and especially in Chile after the 1960s and an attempt is made to establish its contribution to the human and social sciences in a context of theoretical confrontations more or less triggered by those held in France, in a beginning with Marxist currents and then with Christian-inspired humanism.