A significant number of publications anthologizing American poetry were increasingly present in Hispanic countries in the last two decades of the 20th century. Curiously enough, most of these titles focused on one kind of avant-garde poetry, dealing with experimental forms and challenged social codes. A total of 134 American poets were translated in these collections. The author discusses two recurrent issues systematically referring to the material bases of production in these collections of poetry: 1) selection and 2) the ability of the translator in approaching texts.