Famous people from El Salvador
Here is a list of famous people from El Salvador. Curious if anybody from El Salvador made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.
Óscar Romero
Author
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was a bishop of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He became the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador, succeeding Luis Chávez. He was assassinated on 24 March 1980. After his assassination, Romero was succeeded by Monsignor Arturo Rivera. In 1997, a cause for beatification and canonization was opened for Romero, and Pope John Paul II bestowed upon him the title of Servant of God. The canonization process continues. He is considered by some the unofficial patron saint of the Americas and El Salvador and is often referred to as "San Romero" by Catholics in El Salvador. Outside of Catholicism, Romero is honored by other religious denominations of Christendom, including the Church of England through the Calendar in Common Worship. He is one of the ten 20th-century martyrs who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London, a testament to the wide respect for him even beyond the Catholic Church. In 2008, he was chosen as one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy by the Europe-based magazine A Different View.
Rodolfo Zelaya
Soccer
Rodolfo Antonio Zelaya García is a Salvadoran footballer who plays internationally for the El Salvador national team.
Mágico González
Soccer
Jorge Alberto González Barillas, popularly known as El Mágico, is a Salvadoran retired footballer. A forward gifted with superb ball-control skills, he is mainly associated with Cádiz Club de Fútbol, while also representing the El Salvador national team for well over a decade.
Álvaro Torres
Latin pop Artist
Álvaro Torres is a Salvadoran singer and songwriter.
Mauricio Funes
Politician
Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena is the President of El Salvador. He won the 2009 presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front political party and took office on 1 June 2009.
Antonio Saca
Politician
Elías Antonio Saca González is a Salvadoran politician who was President of El Salvador from 2004 to 2009.
Roque Dalton
Author
Roque Dalton García was a Salvadoran poet and journalist. He is considered one of Latin America's most compelling poets. He wrote emotionally strong, sometimes sarcastic, and image-loaded works dealing with life, death, love, and politics.
Maximiliano Hernández Martínez
Politician
Maximiliano Hernández Martínez was the President of El Salvador from 1931 to 1944. While he served as President Arturo Araujo's vice-president and defense minister, a directorate seized power during a palace coup and afterwards named General Hernández president of El Salvador. In the 1931 presidential election, Hernández Martínez was initially a candidate for his newly formed National Republican Party. He joined forces with Arturo Araujo of the Partido Laborista, running on a reformist platform. The ticket won the election, considered the first free multiparty election in Salvadoran history and the last for over half a century. The reason for the coup was that the military personnel had not been paid their salary. This historical fact about the military not being paid is not always taught in Salvadoran schools; the causes of the coup d'état are often attributed to the fall in prices of coffee abroad. The reality is that officers were not paid and the Finance Minister had paid only the police, who remained loyal to the president. The army officers were angry and ousted president Araujo. An ardent fascist, Hernández Martínez led a military government that actively suppressed opposition, most notably the Salvadoran peasant revolt of 1932 led by Farabundo Martí, where thousands of indigenous Salvadoran people were systematically murdered if they were suspected of collaboration with the communists. This massacre came to be known as La Matanza, and the specific number of victims is unknown but estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000 for the entire rebellion. However, there is a major American historian named Thomas Anderson, who says there were no more than 10,000 killed. He does accept that the military killed people without a judgement and that they were usually killed by a firing squad after being compelled to dig their own graves. Usually they only needed to be Indian, usually male, from the town, and listed as voters of the Communist party in that town. He censored the media, banned political opposition, abolished local elections, rigged national elections, and severely repressed dissidents. On the other hand, his regime expanded voting rights to women for the first time, enacted some social security programmes and attempted to intervene in the economy, in contradistinction to the economic policies of Liberal regimes that ruled El Salvador since the 1870s.
Keoki
Musical Artist
Superstar DJ Keoki is an electronic music, among other genres, DJ. Born in El Salvador and raised in Hawaii, Keoki began advertising himself as "superstar" shortly after moving to New York City.
Jaime Alas
Soccer Midfielder
Jaime Enrique Alas Morales is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for San Jose Earthquakes in Major League Soccer on loan from Rosenborg BK. He is the older twin brother of Juventud Independiente player Juan Carlos Alas and younger brother of El Salvador national team member Dennis Alas.
José Napoleón Duarte
Politician
José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes was a Salvadoran political figure who from 1980 to 1982 led the civil-military Revolutionary Government Junta that took power in a 1979 coup d'état. He also served as civilian President of El Salvador between June 1, 1984, and June 1, 1989. His regime is noted for large-scale human rights abuses and massacres amongst the civilian population, backed by the Reagan Administration and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Farabundo Martí
Deceased Person
Agustín Farabundo Martí Rodríguez, popularly known as Farabundo Martí, was a social activist and a revolutionary leader in El Salvador during the 1932 Salvadoran peasant massacre.
Rafael Burgos
Soccer
Rafael Burgos is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for Győr in the Hungarian first division Nemzeti Bajnokság I on loan from Austrian Bundesliga club SV Ried.
Joel Aguilar
Football Referee
Joel Antonio Aguilar Chicas is a Salvadoran football referee who currently resides in San Salvador. He has been a full international referee for FIFA since 2001. He was selected as a referee for the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada, where he refereed the matches between the United States and South Korea on June 30, 2007, New Zealand and Gambia on July 5, 2007 and Austria and Chile on July 8, 2007. Aguilar was selected as a referee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, he did not officiate in any matches during the tournament. He was one of the four so-called 'reserve officials' that would act only as 4th officials, and replace active referees if needed due to injury. He was selected as a referee for the first leg of the 2011 CONCACAF Champions League Final, contested by Rayados de Monterrey and Real Salt Lake in Monterrey, Mexico. Also, Aguilar was selected as the referee for the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final in Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. This match featured Mexico against the United States. Mexico won the match 4-2. The extensive curriculum for Joel Aguilar has led him to show in various international tournaments at club level and international level, such as:
Alfredo Cristiani
Politician
Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard, popularly known as Alfredo Cristiani was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994.
Mari Possa
Pornographic actor
Mari Possa is a pornographic actress and reality TV personality.
Erwin Raphael McManus
Pastor
Erwin Raphael McManus is an American author, lecturer, and pastor of Salvadorean descent. McManus is the lead pastor of Mosaic Church, a Christian community in Los Angeles, California which has been named one of the most influential and innovative churches in America. He made his name first by becoming a popular speaker on issues related to postmodernism and postmodern Christianity, but also writes and lectures on topics such as culture, change, creativity, and leadership. McManus was named by Church Report in January 2007 as one of the "50 Most Influential Christians in America."
Ronald Cerritos
Soccer
Ronald Osvaldo Cerritos Flores is a former Salvadoran footballer, who played as a striker. Cerritos is the all-time leader in assists of the Major League Soccer team, the San Jose Earthquakes, with 47.
Eliseo Quintanilla
Soccer Midfielder
Eliseo Antonio Quintanilla Ortíz is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for Isidro Metapan and internationally for the El Salvador national team.
Ivan Menjivar
Martial Artist
Ivan Menjivar is a Salvadoran-Canadian mixed martial artist currently fighting in the bantamweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Francisco Flores Pérez
Politician
Francisco Guillermo Flores Pérez is an ex president of El Salvador. He led the country from June 1, 1999 until June 1, 2004 as a member of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance.
Pete Sandoval
Death metal Artist
Pete Sandoval is a Salvadoran born-American death metal drummer His first significant stint as a drummer was for the grindcore band Terrorizer, formed in 1986, where he began to demonstrate some of his talent. Heavily influenced by the grindcore music around him, Sandoval quickly developed his abilities as a drummer with little formal training or musical education. In 1988, Sandoval was invited to join the death metal band Morbid Angel. Concurrently, the original lineup of Terrorizer was dissolved after the departures of Sandoval and guitarist Jesse Pintado. Sandoval had never used two bass drums before joining Morbid Angel. He had to practice frequently in order to get his feet up to speed, and recorded the Altars of Madness album within only a couple of months of joining Morbid Angel. According to Morbid Angel guitarist Trey Azagthoth, the band would occasionally walk in on Sandoval passed out on the floor in a pool of sweat. After being woken up, he would immediately say, "Time to get back to work!" After mastering double-bass usage in Morbid Angel, Sandoval also implemented them in Terrorizer's World Downfall album when the band briefly re-united to record it.
Mauricio Cienfuegos
Soccer Midfielder
Mauricio Cienfuegos is a retired Salvadoran soccer player.
Osael Romero
Soccer Midfielder
William Osael Romero Castillo is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for Alianza F.C. and internationally for the El Salvador national team.
Salarrué
Diplomat
Salvador Efraín Salazar Arrué, known as Salarrué, was a Salvadoran writer, poet and painter Born in Sonsonate to a well-off family, Salarrué trained as a painter at the Corcoran School of Art, in Washington, D.C., from 1916 to 1919. He then returned to El Salvador and, in 1922, married fellow painter Zélie Lardé, with whom he had three daughters. In the late 1920s he worked as editor for the newspaper Patria, owned by Alberto Masferrer, an important Salvadoran intellectual. To fill in blank spaces in the newspaper, Salarrué wrote a series of short stories which were collected thirty years later as Cuentos de Cipotes. These and the stories in Cuentos de Barro became Salarrué's most popular and enduring work, reflecting an idealized version of rural life in El Salvador and making him one of the founders of the new wave of Latin American folkloric narrative. Salarrué lived in the United States from 1947 to 1951 while representing his country in diplomatic posts. He died in Los Planes de Renderos, near San Salvador, and is buried in the Cementerio de los Ilustres.
Schafik Handal
Politician
Schafik Jorge Handal was a Salvadoran politician. Born in Usulután, he was the son of Palestinian immigrants from the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
Léster Blanco
Soccer Midfielder
Mark Léster Blanco Pineda is a Salvadoran footballer currently playing on loan with Honduran club Real España.
Raúl Díaz Arce
Soccer
Raúl Díaz Arce is a retired Salvadoran football player. He is El Salvador's second most prolific goal scorer behind Jorge "Mágico" González, with 39 goals in just 68 appearances.
Manuel José Arce
Politician
General Manuel José Arce y Fagoaga was a decorated General and president of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1825 to 1829.
Juan Francisco Barraza
Soccer
Juan Francisco Barraza Flores was a famous football player and manager from El Salvador. He is widely regarded one of the best Salvadoran footballers of all time.
Alberto Masferrer
Author
Vicente Alberto Masferrer Mónico, known as Alberto Masferrer, was a Salvadoran essayist, fiction writer, and journalist, best known for the development of the philosophy of vitalismo. He was born in Alegría, Usulután on July 24, 1868. He did not receive a formal education, instead claiming to have been educated by "the university of life," but he did travel widely, having lived in several Central American countries, as well as in Chile, New York, and several European nations. During his public career, he served as an ambassador of El Salvador in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Belgium, and served as a professor in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Chile, and Argentina. Having served in the government of Arturo Araujo, he was sent into exile in Honduras by the dictatorship of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez following the uprising of 1932 known as the Matanza, dying that same year on September 8 in the city of Tegucigalpa. He was well respected during his life, having earned the praise of such major Salvadoran figures as Arturo Ambrogi, Miguel Ángel Espino, Claudia Lars, and Salarrué.
Consuelo de Saint Exupéry
Author
Consuelo de Saint Exupéry, officially Consuelo Suncín, comtesse de Saint Exupéry, was a Salvadoran-French writer and artist, and the wife of the French aristocrat, writer and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Hugo Pérez
Soccer Midfielder
Hugo Ernesto Pérez Granados is a former Salvadoran American soccer midfielder. During his fourteen-year career, he played professionally in the United States, France, Sweden, Saudi Arabia and his native El Salvador. Although born in El Salvador, he gained his U.S. citizenship as a youth and earned 73 caps, scoring sixteen goals, with the U.S. national team between 1984 and 1994. He was a member of the U.S. team at the both the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He was the 1991 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year and was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2008.
Armando Calderón Sol
Politician
Armando Calderón Sol was President of El Salvador from June 1, 1994 to June 1, 1999, representing the Nationalist Republican Alliance. Armando Calderón Sol was born in San Salvador, on June 24, 1948. Armando Calderón Sol attended the exclusive primary and secondary school Colegio Externado San José, graduating in 1966. In 1977, Calderón Sol received a graduate degree in Jurisprudence and Social Sciences from Universidad Nacional de El Salvador. He is a lawyer, a businessman, and one of the founders of ARENA. During his term as Mayor in San Salvador from 1988 to 1994 he built the Monument to "Hermano Lejano" at the end of the Comalapa Highway and Blvd. Los Proceres and also built the bust monuments along the Proceres Boulevard. He promoted physical exercise and initiated a bicycle circuit in the San Jacinto neighborhood on Avenida Cuba. Later when he ran for president in 1994 he won the presidential office during the second elections against the Leftist candidate Dr. Ruben Zamora from the CD-FMLN coalition. Calderón Sol is acknowledged in the press for restoring the status-quo after the civil war, which ended on January 16, 1992. He advocated the privatization of state-owned telephone companies and pension funds to try to stimulate the economy and modernize the country's infrastructure. He is also known for having promoted reforms to make El Salvador competitive in the maquila industry, removing trade barriers across the board, including removal of protection of local agriculture. This had the unintended consequence of disrupting small scale farming, drive migration to larger cities and create a cheaper labor supply for the maquilas. Calderón Sol is also credited with the integration of former guerrillas combatants back into civilian life. He is also known for having initiated the privatization of the telecommunications company Antel, as well as the electrical works CAESS, public hospitals and pension funds. He followed president Alfredo Cristiani's neoliberal approach, and his structural adjustment programs.
Andrés Flores
Soccer Midfielder
Andrés Alexander Flores Mejía is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for Isidro Metapán.
Dennis Alas
Soccer Midfielder
Dennis Jonathan Alas Morales is a Salvadoran association football player, who plays as a midfielder for C.D. Luís Ángel Firpo. He is the older brother of Alianza F.C. Player Juan Carlos Alas and El Salvador national team member Jaime Enrique Alas.
Óscar Osorio
Politician
Óscar Osorio Hernández ruled as a member of the revolutionary government Council of December 14, 1948 to September 14, 1950. He was President of El Salvador from September 14, 1950 until September 14, 1956.
Rudis Corrales
Soccer
Rudis Alberto Corrales Rivera is a Salvadoran footballer.
Imanol Uribe
Screenwriter
Imanol Uribe is an award-winning Spanish screenwriter and film director. He was born in San Salvador, and is of Basque ancestry. Uribe was married to María Barranco. He has won the Goya Award for Best Director for Días contados as well as the San Sebastian Film Festival's Golden Shell for Bwana.
Jaime Rodríguez
Soccer Defender
Jaime Alberto Rodríguez Jiménez is a retired football player from El Salvador. He represented his country at the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain.
Fidel Sánchez Hernández
Politician
Fidel Sánchez Hernández was a politician, general, and former President of El Salvador. It could be said that Sánchez Hernández led his country during a tumultuous era. While ruling El Salvador from 1967 to 1972, Sánchez Hernández faced war and economic turmoil. Before becoming president, Sánchez Hernández was an army general in El Salvador and had brief stints as a military attaché in Washington and in Paris. President Julio Adalberto Rivera promoted him to Minister of the Interior in 1962, and he served in that office until 1967, when he succeeded Rivera to the position of president. He continued Rivera's progressive programs and created a mostly civilian cabinet. The 1967 election was considered the one of the few in the period of military domination to have been fairly conducted, indeed the gains made by the opposition in the legislative and local elections the following year suggested El Salvador was on the road to democratisation, a trend that would not be continued as elections in the 1970s were blatantly rigged.
José Matías Delgado
Politician
José Matías Delgado y León was a Salvadoran priest and doctor known as El Padre de la Patria Salvadoreña. He was a leader in the independence movement of El Salvador from the Spanish Empire, and from November 28, 1821 to February 9, 1823 when he was president of the Central American constituent congress which met in Guatemala City.
Víctor Turcios
Soccer
Víctor Samuel Turcios Pacheco is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for Finnish club Rovaniemen Palloseura. He was born on Isla Zacatillo, a small island which is part of La Union.
Carlos Humberto Romero
Politician
General Carlos Humberto Romero Mena is a former President of El Salvador, elected on February 20, 1977 in a fraudulent election and inaugurated on July 1, 1977. Romero held power until October 1979 when he was deposed with a reformist coup d'état by dissident, politically conservative and moderate military officers and civilians. The coup d'état that deposed President-General Humberto Romero was preamble to El Salvador's twelve-year civil war. Romero was a member of the National Conciliation Party, and also served as Defense Minister from 1972 to 1973. President-General Romero's rule was military dictatorship in the style of his predecessors. Romero's time in office was largely characterized by escalating violence and instability. In the late 1970s, political unrest increased, because of El Salvador's severe socio-economic inequalities unaddressed by his government and widespread discontent with government policy culminated in widespread protest and rebellion, which was met with reprisal by government forces. In response, security forces and government death squads regularly tortured and assassinated unionists, clergy, intellectuals, independent farmers, university officials and demonstrators. Government repression killed 687 civilians in 1978 and an additional 1,796 in 1979.
José María Cañas
Deceased Person
José María Cañas Escamilla was a Costa Rican military figure, born in Suchitoto, El Salvador. He moved to Costa Rica in 1842 along with General Francisco Morazán, where he married Guadalupe Mora Porras, sister of President Juan Rafael Mora Porras. He was named Secretary of War during the Mora Porras presidency. As a general, he commandeered the Costa Rican Army during the third and most important part of the campaign against filibuster William Walker. He was known as an affable and kind person amongst his troops. Cañas was also responsible for the development of Costa Rica's Pacific Ocean port, Puntarenas, where he served as commander for several years. Cañas imported Chinese laborers to Puntarenas, employing many of them as laborers on his estates. A benevolent patron to these workers, Cañas's memory is, to this day, held in high remark by many of their descendants. Years after Cañas's death, his children were still well received in Puntarenas by members of the thriving Chinese-Costa Rican community. In representation of Costa Rica he signed the Cañas-Jerez Treaty, the Cañas-Martínez Treaty and the Cañas-Jerez Treaty that dealt with the demarcation of the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Salvador Sánchez Cerén
Politician
Salvador Sánchez Cerén is a Salvadoran politician and former teacher. Following the 2009 presidential election, he is the Vice President of El Salvador and is currently running for presidential position under the FMLN political party for the 2014 elections.
Moisés García
Soccer
Moisés Xavier García Orellana is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo in the Salvadoran Premier League.
Claudia Lars
Author
Claudia Lars, born in Armenia, El Salvador on December 20, 1899 as Margarita del Carmen Brannon Vega, was a Salvadoran poet. She died in San Salvador in 1974. She was the daughter of Peter Patrick Brannon and Carmen Vega Zelayandía.
Anastasio Aquino
Deceased Person
Anastasio Mártir Aquino was a Salvadoran indigenous leader who led the Insurrection of the Nonualcos, a campesino uprising in El Salvador during the time it belonged to the Federal Republic of Central America. Aquino was born into a family belonging to the Taytes of the Nonualco, an Indigenous tribe of the Pipil nation that occupied the territory of the current Department of La Paz.
Eduardo Bhatia
Politician
Eduardo Bhatia Gautier is a Puerto Rican politician and Senator. He is the current President of the Senate of Puerto Rico as he was sworn in as the 15th President of the Senate on January 14, 2013. Bhatia is also a former Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, the Washington DC office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and officially represented the Governor in the United States on issues important to Puerto Rico.
Christian Castillo
Soccer Midfielder
Christian Giovanni Castillo Martínez is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for Suphanburi FC. He also plays internationally for the El Salvador national team.
Feliciano Ama
Man
José Feliciano Ama was an indigenous peasant leader, a Pipil from Izalco in El Salvador, who participated and died in the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising. Ama had his lands taken by the wealthy coffee planting family, the Regalados, during which he was hung by his thumbs and beaten. This was in the context of liberal reforms which stripped the indigenous population of access to their communal lands, which were appropriated by private landowners. Ama was a day laborer in Izalco. He married Josefa Shupan, who came from an influential Pipil family in Izalco. 1917 he became member of the catholic brotherhood Cofradía del Corpus Christi. His father-in-law Patricio Shupan was mayordomo of the brotherhood, who died in 1917 after participating at a dinner with president Carlos Meléndez. After Shupan's death Feliciano Ama became head of the brotherhood, which consisted exclusevily of Pipil. In the early morning of January 22, 1932 Feliciano Ama lead the Pipil peasants of Izalco into the uprising against the landlords. With several hundred supporters he marched to the capital of the department Sonsonate. There the mayor was killed by insurgents from Juayúa, but landlords accused Ama, who fled into the hills of Izalco. There he was found by soldiers from the garrison of Izalco under commander Cabrera, captured and hanged in the center of Izalco.
Ramón Sánchez
Soccer Midfielder
Ramón Alfredo Sánchez Paredes is a Salvadoran football player.
Manuel Enrique Araujo
Politician
Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo was President of El Salvador from 1 March 1911 through 8 February 1913.
Arturo Armando Molina
Politician
Colonel Arturo Armando Molina is a former President of El Salvador. He served between July 1, 1972 and July 1, 1977. Molina was a member of the National Conciliation Party, and had served as Secretary to the Presidency following since 1969. In 1975, Molina began the first land reform ever in Salvadoran history. He was strongly opposed to both left-wing and right-wing agitators. In 1977, he ran for Minister of Defense and went into self-imposed exile, returning to El Salvador in 1992.
Marcelo Arévalo
Tennis Player
Marcelo Arévalo González is a professional tennis player from El Salvador. He is the brother of tennis player Rafael Arevalo, they play in the El Salvador Davis Cup team.
Tomás Regalado
Politician
General Tomás Regalado was President of El Salvador from 14 November 1898 until 1 March 1903. He was a military ruler and gained power by deposing Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez, a man he had previously helped achieve control of the country by taking part in a conspiracy to oust Carlos Ezeta four years earlier. Elected to a four-year term in 1899, he promoted the construction of railways, declared an amnesty for political exiles, and began the construction of a National Theatre in Santa Ana. Upon leaving office, he remained active in the Army of El Salvador and was appointed Minister of War by his handpicked successor Pedro José Escalón. During a war against Guatemala in 1906 he led a Salvadoran invasion force and went into battle whilst drunk. Seriously injured, he soon died on the 11th of June . His coup d'état led to the dissolution of the Greater Republic of Central America after his government withdrew from it. Regalado was the last in a series of presidents who had come to power by force during the 19th Century. His peaceful transfer of power to Pedro José Escalón in 1903 allowed for a degree of political stability that persisted until the events of 1931-32.
Evelyn García
Professional Road Racing Cyclist
Evelyn García Marroquín is a Salvadoran cycle racer who rides for the Fenixs team. She is something of an all-rounder, having won time-trials and mountain stages in the past. She has won the Vuelta a El Salvador on two occasions, the only woman yet to do so, in 2004 and 2007. She was born in Santa Ana. García competed in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Summer Games, both times in the road race and the 3000 m individual pursuit. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Women's road race, finishing 26th.
Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo
Politician
Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo was president of El Salvador 1 July 1962 - 1 July 1967. Carballo was born in Zacatecoluca. He was a military officer who helped lead a military coup in 1961. From January 1961 to September 1961 he was a member of the Civic Military Directory which ruled El Salvador at that time. In 1962 he was elected President for a 5-year term as the candidate of the National Conciliation Party. As a president he signed the Alianza para el Progreso with the United States and accepted a good amount of money to build low-cost housing for Salvadoreans such as the Zacamil buildings and other public works. The Times Magazines from March 16, 1962 said "Colonel Julio Rivera, is loosening the control of "the 14," a group of land and banking families who have ruled the country since Spanish colonial days", and recognized the biggest effort from the 19 Latin American countries that signed the document during U.S. President John F. Kennedy. At the same time, he started a Secret Service called ANSESAL and the head of this agency was Coronel Medrano, a CIA informant. He is known to have started Death Squads in El Salvador using military intelligence and personnel. They would interrogate and eliminate leftist suspects in both the countryside and in the capital. After leaving public office he then went on to serve as Embassador of El Salvador to the United States and The United Nations. During his tenure as president, he was often seen driving through the streets of San Salvador in his 1965 Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Arturo Araujo
Politician
Arturo Araujo was the president of El Salvador from March 1, 1931 to December 2, 1931. He was overthrown in a military coup led by junior officers, and was forced to flee the country for Guatemala. An agricultural leader and engineer, Araujo had been elected in what is generally reckoned as the country's first honest presidential contest. Arturo Araujo was a distant relative of Manuel Enrique Araujo. Pachita Tennant Mejía de Pike, who is familiar with the history of Salvadoran families, says that the Araujo family mostly comes from the town of Jucuapa, in the department of Usulután, El Salvador. However, Arturo Araujo's family originally came from Suchitoto, in the department of Cuscatlan, moving to Santa Tecla around 1885. His parents were Enriqueta Fajardo de Araujo and Dr. Eugenio Araujo, Finance Minister in the Administration of General Francisco Menéndez.
José Castellanos Contreras
Diplomat
José Arturo Castellanos Contreras was a Salvadoran army colonel and diplomat who, while working as El Salvador's Consul General for Geneva during World War II, and in conjunction with a Jewish-Hungarian businessman named György Mandl, helped save up to 40,000 Jews and Central Europeans from Nazi persecution by providing them with false papers of Salvadoran nationality.
Rutilio Grande
Deceased Person
Rutilio Grande García, S.J. was a Jesuit priest in El Salvador and a promoter of liberation theology. He was assassinated in 1977, along with two other Salvadorans. Rutilio Grande was the first priest assassinated before the civil war started. He was a close friend of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero. After his death, the Archbishop changed his conservative attitude toward the government and urged the government to investigate the murder.
José Cortéz
American Football Placekicker
José Antonio Cortéz is an American football placekicker who last played for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League during the 2005 season.
Ariane de Rothschild
Family member
Ariane de Rothschild, is vice-president of Edmond de Rothschild Holding SA since 1999. She is the wife of Baron Benjamin de Rothschild with whom she has four daughters.
Jorge Meléndez
Politician
Jorge Meléndez Ramírez, was born to Rafael Meléndez and Mercedes Ramírez. His wife was Tula Mazzini, and they had three children: Jorge, María de los Angeles, and Ricardo. He was the younger brother of president Carlos Meléndez. He served as President of El Salvador from 1 March 1919 to 1 March 1923.
Gerardo Barrios
Politician
Gerardo Barrios was President of El Salvador 12 March 1859 - 26 October 1863. Barrios was a liberal and supported the unity of Central America. He was, from a young age, part of the army of the last president of Federation of Central American Estates, Francisco Morazan. After his death he became the leader or the unionist movement. He served as president of El Salvador several times - in 1858, from 1859 to 1860 and again from 1861. He was known for his concern for international relations and is attributed for introducing coffee production to El Salvador, accelerating the spread through Central America. Coffee became the basis of El Salvador's economy. Between 1860 and 1863, Barrios launched a reorganization of the public finances, promoted the coffee production and silk-elaboration related activities, he to created a professional armed force, and favored non-religious public education. In his first years of government he looked for a pacific convivance with Guatemala, which made him visit that country in 1860. However conflicts were not absent, especially with the church. One of the first incidents was the expulsion of three capuccine religious. In 1860 conflicts escalated when the clerk represented by bishop Tomás Pineda y Zaldaña, denied to accept the Constitution on the Republic, claiming that none of the priests were committed to obey the government, because the only authority above all earth is God, the bishop and the Pope.
Dagoberto Portillo
Soccer
Dagoberto Portillo Gamero is a Salvadoran football goalkeeper who currently plays for C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo. Portillo is also an active player internationally, playing for the El Salvador national team.
Alfredo Espino
Author
Alfredo Espino was a poet from El Salvador. Born in Ahuachapán, his only book is Jícaras Tristes, a collection of 96 poems. It is one of the most published books of poetry in El Salvador. Espino died in San Salvador. The author is widely read and commented in El Salvador but not usually studied or analyzed in his poetical expression. Espino assumes the national historical problem of the clash of social strata by looking through the colors, flavors and perfumes in the land and the culture of the country at the time he wrote his poems. His book of poems has a poetic and delicate tone with lyrical vision; presented/displayed with a simple style that is easy to understand and feel, therefore, without formal complications. He wrote sonnets, romance and free verses. His work is very youthful and for that reason it may seem to lack creative vision according to some critics. The critics are wrong in such an opinion, of course, at least from the Salvadoran point of view. Espino's poetry is more descriptive and visual in it content than any other poetry of Salvadoran poets, maybe with the only exception of Salarrué. An interesting note about Espino's poetry is that he did not live to see his poetry published and we don't know if he ever thought of publishing his beautiful country poetry. In his genre he is the best El Salvador ever produced.
Pedro José Escalón
Politician
Pedro José Escalón was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador. In 1865 he married Elena Rodríguez and they had three children: Dolores, Federico and Pedro. He served as President of El Salvador from 1 March 1903 to 1 March 1907; he was a military ruler. He died in Santa Ana. His ascension to the presidency was the first peaceful succession in many years, ushering in an era of political stability that ended with the events of 1931-32.
Víctor Velásquez
Soccer Defender
Víctor Manuel Velásquez Molina is a retired Salvadoran football player.
Alfredo Pacheco
Soccer
Alfredo Pacheco is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for Isidro Metápan and internationally for the El Salvador national team.
Manlio Argueta
Author
Manlio Argueta is a Salvadoran writer, critic, and novelist born in 1935. Although he considers himself first and foremost a poet, he is known in the English speaking world for his book One Day of Life.
José Henríquez
Soccer
José Mardoqueo Henríquez Dubón is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays as a defender for Águila in the Salvadoran First Division. He is also part of the El Salvador national team.
Kevin Santamaria
Soccer Midfielder
Kevin Oswaldo Santamaría Guzmán is a Salvadoran football midfielder who currently plays for UES in his native country.
Cristina López
Woman
Cristina Esmeralda López is an Salvadoran race walker. When she won the gold medal at the Pan American Games, she made history by winning the first ever gold medal for El Salvador at the games. Lopez also had the worries of having her 3-year-old daughter Monica Michelle back in El Salvador undergoing medical treatment for cancer. Lopez crossed the finish line in 1:38:59, a full minute and 4 seconds ahead of the second place.
Francisco Gavidia
Deceased Person
Francisco Gavidia was a Salvadoran writer, educator and journalist. His poetry evolved from romanticism to a reflective direction and conceptual character. He was greatly influenced by French poetry of the time and he introduced Rubén Darío to these currents. The trajectory of his poetry is similar to the one of his theater, as he demonstrates in his dramas Jupiter, Ursino, Count of San Salvador or the God of the things, Lucia Lasso or the Pirates and the Ivory Tower, and the dramatic poem Princess Catalá.
Ricardo Saprissa
Soccer
Ricardo Juan Antonio Saprissa Aymá was a lifelong athlete, coach, and promoter of sports. He spent many years in Costa Rica, playing and coaching football. In 1935 he was co-founder of Deportivo Saprissa, a highly successful football team based in San Juan de Tibás.
Isidro Gutiérrez
Soccer Midfielder
José Isidro Gutiérrez Vásquez, is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays as a midfielder for C.D. Motagua in the Honduran Liga Nacional.
Cayetano Carpio
Politician
Salvador Cayetano Carpio, aka Commander Marcial, was the leader of the Communist Party of El Salvador in the 1960s, until he quit the party to found the Salvadoran revolutionary political-military organization, the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí, also known by its initials, FPL in 1970. Carpio did this because he felt the time was right for armed revolution to end the military dictatorship in El Salvador, but the Salvadoran Communist Party was against armed struggle, instead engaging mainly in legal electoral and trade union organizing. During the 1970s, Carpio's new organization, the FPL, became the largest group on the Salvadoran left, and therefore became the predominant force among the five organizations that joined together in 1980 under the umbrella of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. Carpio played a leading role in both the FPL and the FMLN. He was sometimes referred to as the "Ho Chi Minh of Latin America". The official story of his death was that he committed suicide after being blamed by other leaders in the FPL for the murder of FPL second-in-command Ana Maria on April 6, 1983 in Managua, Nicaragua.
Fernando Llort
Man
Fernando Llort Choussy is an internationally recognized Salvadoran artist, called "El Salvador's National Artist" by the Foundation for Self Sufficiency in Central America. He is known for teaching the citizens of the small town of La Palma, Chalatenango, how to make a living through art. His style is colorful and often childlike; it can be compared to that of Joan Miró and in some instances to that of Pablo Picasso.
José Campos
Football player
José Eduardo Campos Barahona is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays as a midfielder for Luis Ángel Firpo in the Salvadoran Premier League.
Marvin González
Soccer Defender
Marvin René González Leiva is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays as a defender for Santa Tecla in the Salvadoran First Division.
Edwin Sánchez
Soccer Midfielder
Edwin Ernesto Sánchez Vigil is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for FAS in the Primera División of El Salvador, and for the El Salvador national team.
Rafael Zaldívar
Politician
Rafael Zaldívar was President of El Salvador from 1 May 1876 until 21 June 1885. He studied medicine in Europe and began his career as a physician. In 1860 he was appointed to the Chair of Philosophy and Hygiene at the University of Guatemala. After leaving this post, Zaldívar entered politics and was elected to the House of Representatives, then to the Senate, and finally elected president in 1876. It was under his administration that liberal reforms abolished the existence of collectively owned ejidos and tierras comunales throughout the country. President Zaldivar was not in favour of the proposed rebirth of the Unified Central Republic agreed to by his predecessors and decided to withdraw from the Union. He was later overthrown in a military coup and succeeded by General Francisco Menéndez. He died in Paris in 1903 while serving as his country's minister to France. Rafael Zaldívar also remains a key figure in what later became known as the "Coffee Revolution." It was Rafael Zaldívar who introduced reforms that paved the way for cultivation on large scale. Under the Zaldívar administration, virgin land was turned into farmlands. This was done by allowing for the sale of Indian lands. Resistance resulted from the Indians, but it quelled by the Zaldívar government, mostly by creating a then deploying a rural police force.
Andrés Ignacio Menéndez
Politician
Brigadier General Andrés Ignacio Menéndez was born in Santa Ana, El Salvador. He served as President of El Salvador from 29 August 1934 to 1 March 1935 and again from 9 May to 20 October 1944. He was overthrown in October 1944 by a military coup led by Col. Osmín Aguirre y Salinas and exiled to Guatemala.
Papa A.P.
Musical Artist
Papa A.P. is a groove and R&B singer and producer of reggaeton. His biggest hits are his cover version of "Gasolina" and "Entre tu y yo", released in 2005. He has eight brothers and sisters.
Sergio Méndez
Football player
Sergio de Jesús Méndez Bolanos was a football player from El Salvador who represented his country at the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.
Salvador Castaneda Castro
Politician
General Salvador Castaneda Castro was President of El Salvador 1 March 1945 - 14 December 1948. He previously served as Interior Minister under President Maximiliano Hernández Martínez. During his presidency, he restored constitutional rule, but continued the repressive policies of the previous military rulers.
Diego Mejía
Soccer
Diego Armando Mejía Pérez is a retired Salvadoran footballer.
Luis Guevara Mora
Soccer
Luis Ricardo Guevara Mora is a Salvadoran former football goalkeeper. Nicknamed el Negro, he became a member of the Salvadoran national team and represented his country at the 1982 FIFA World Cup. Guevara remains one of El Salvador's best goalkeepers. He was known for his outstanding reflexes, leaping ability and acrobatic style of play, as well as his controversial antics off the field, which also earned him another nickname, 'el Loco'. He is the all-time cap leader for the El Salvadoran national team.
Fernando Figueroa
Politician
General Fernando Figueroa was President of El Salvador from March 1, 1907 to March 1, 1911. He was the last in a series of military rulers who had ruled the country since the 1880s. He had six children and eventually two of his grandchildren would become important figures in the political landscape. Fabio Castillo Figueroa became one of the leaders in the early days of the leftist guerrilla movement and Alfredo Avila Figueroa went on to become the youngest mayor of the city of San Salvador and later on, governor of the province of San Salvador.
Luis Anaya
Soccer Defender
Luis Alonso Anaya Merino is a Salvadoran professional football player, who currently plays for Águila in the Salvadoran Premier Division.
Shawn Martin
Soccer Defender
Shawn Hasani Martin Henríquez is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for C.D. Águila.
José Roberto Cea
Novelist
José Roberto Cea is a pre-eminent contemporary Salvadoran novelist and poet. Cea was born in the city of Izalco, department of Sonsonate, El Salvador, on April 10, 1939. He studied journalism and literature at the Universidad de El Salvador, though he did not conclude his course of studies. He has served as the director of the editorial board of the UES, director or co-director of the journals "La Universidad" and "La Pájara Pinta," and has held several other positions related to the UES. Cea's literature has earned him several national and international literary prizes, among them the Premio Internacional de Poesía del Círculo de Poetas y Escritores Iberoamericanos de Nueva York, 1965, the Premio 15 de septiembre, del Certamen Centroamericano Ciencias, Letras y Bellas Artes, 1965 y 1966, the Premio de poesía en el certamen latinoamericano Pablo Neruda, Perú, 1974, the Premio Internacional Rubén Darío, 1981 and the Primer premio en los juegos florales agostinos de San Salvador, 1998.
Arturo Ambrogi
Author
Arturo Ambrogi was a writer and journalist, considered one of the pioneers of Salvadoran literature, along with Francisco Gavidia and Alberto Masferrer. Ambrogi's narrative was influenced by romance and Spanish American modernism and his stories are chronicles of all aspects of traditional peasant life in El Salvador. The son of an Italian immigrant, at 16 years old, he met the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío. Working as a journalist, he traveled in his youth in Europe, South America and the Far East. On his travels he met Uruguayan writer José Ingenieros. He received an elite training in literature to the point that he was arguably the best informed of his era in El Salvador. He never married or had children, although his brother Constantino Ambrogi Acosta settled in Nicaragua where their offspring have continued the literary tradition. He died in 1936 and was buried in the cemetery of the town of Jinotepe. Notable works include "Cuentos y Fantasías", "Máscaras, Manchas y Sensaciones", "El Libro del Trópico", "Sensaciones del Japón y de la China" and "El Jetón".
Mario Monge
Soccer
Mario Antonio Monge was a football player from El Salvador.
Francesca Miranda
Fashion Designer
Francesca Miranda is a Salvadoran fashion designer. She sells her designs in Dubai, Russia, USA, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Colombia, Panama and El Salvador. She has dressed several celebrities such as Rebecca Mader, Sofia Milos, Andrea Minski, Elisabeth Rohm, Perrey Reeves, Shenae Grimes, Ashlan Gorse, Nadia Dawn, Shaun Toub's wife Lorena Toub, and Broderick Johnson's wife Jennifer.
Jorge Morán
Soccer Midfielder
Jorge Luis Morán Rodas is a Salvadoran footballer who currently plays for Isidro Metapán in the Salvadoran Premier Division.
Juan Manuel Rodríguez
Politician
Juan Manuel Rodríguez was a Salvadoran revolutionary against Spain and later president of the State of El Salvador within the Federal Republic of Central America. He was born in San Salvador to Pedro Delgado and Josefa Rodríguez. His father was Panamanian and his mother Salvadoran. They were not married.
Robert Renderos
Cinematographer
Robert Renderos is an actor, film producer, cinematographer and screenwriter.