Exodus: Human Memory of the Historic Center of San Salvador.
- May 20
- 1 min read
Cine Libertad. Centro de San Salvador. Frente a Los Encuentros. Zona de bares de mala muerte. Centro de San Salvador. Plaza San José. Centro de San Salvador. Bar El Congreso. Frente al edificio de la Lotería. Centro de San Salvador. Juan Pablo Segundo. Centro de San Salvador. Avenida. Centro de San Salvador. Tianguis atrás del ex Cine Libertad. Centro de Salvador. Tianguis atrás del ex Cine Libertad 2. Centro de San Salvador. El Aguacate. Centro de San Salvador. Mercado de Los Relojeros. Centro de San Salvador. Calle atrás de Cine Avenida. Centro de San Salvador. Avenida. Centro de San Salvador. Atrás de la Texaco Juan Pablo Segundo. Centro de San Salvador. El Pulpo. Centro de San Salvador. Avenida. Centro de San Salvador. Hotel frenta a Parque Centenario, ex Zona Roja. Centro de San Salvador. Mercado Tinetti. Centro de San Salvador. Lotería aledaña a Mercado Central. Centro de San Salvador. Mercado de Los Relojeros. Plaza Libertad. Centro de San Salvador. Mercado Tinetti. Centro de San Salvador. Calle aledaña a Mercado Central. Centro de San Salvador. Iglesia El Rosario. Centro de San Salvador. Tercera Avenida, afuera del Bar Queens. Centro de San Salvador. Iglesia El Calvario. Centro de San Salvador.
Gallery and text by Luis Alfredo Alvarado Alfaro. Photographer.
As the infrastructure of the Historic Center modernizes and becomes “beautified,” many of the people who have historically given it life are being displaced, persecuted, or rendered invisible. The closure of popular businesses, the disappearance of working-class gathering spaces, and the constant persecution of informal commerce by CAM agents have transformed not only the urban landscape, but also the human dynamics that historically gave identity to these spaces, leaving the informal sector increasingly marginalized and without viable alternatives for survival.
My vision through photography prioritizes the individual, understanding that the true face of the city is not found in its restored buildings, but in the people who have historically inhabited it. Among these faces coexist stories of resistance, memory, and idiosyncrasy; lives that persist within spaces I learned to value through coexistence and through the desire to connect with my surroundings in a different way.
In my photographic documentary, the work functions as a kind of “staging” of urban transformation and gentrification, which inevitably alters the lives of those who still remain in the Historic Center of San Salvador.
Many of the people who are currently being displaced from the Center — street vendors, sex workers, unhoused people, or those affected by alcoholism and drug use — have also historically been abandoned, criminalized, or ignored, without any real efforts being made to address the social conditions that led them to inhabit these spaces.
A city does not marginalize only when it expels its people, but also when it makes no attempt to understand them.
May 20, 2026
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