This research deals with the alterations that the legal capacity of persons with signs of intellectual disability undergoes in the legal spectrum of Peru and Brazil. It starts by observing how legal capacity was regulated and how today new ways of understanding it and of understanding in general the autonomy and subjectivity of people are postulated. A review is made of the recent history of the legal reforms that altered the Peruvian and Brazilian civil codes, and a closer look is taken at how the new regulations that heralded expectations of emancipation are being applied in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Lima.