This analytical piece reconsiders the fate of Los Ángeles, not as a decaying periphery but as a site of resilience, memory, and unyielding identity. Challenging dominant narratives that frame certain urban spaces as obsolete or failed, the author constructs a portrait of the city as a living archive, whose streets and structures bear witness to decades of struggle, creativity, and everyday survival. The article blends ethnographic vignettes, historical fragments, and literary references to narrate the counter-histories embedded in the urban fabric—from the legacy of social movements to the persistence of informal economies and subcultures. Central to the text is the idea that some cities do not die, even when neglected or marginalised; instead, they mutate, remember, and resist erasure, embodying a form of temporal insurgency. The city is understood not as infrastructure alone, but as a palimpsest of desires, losses, and unfinished dreams, constantly reimagined by those who dwell within its folds. In this framing, urbanism becomes a narrative act, and memory a form of spatial resistance.
Sánchez, D. (2015) ‘Los Ángeles nunca mueren’, URBS. Revista de Estudios Urbanos y Ciencias Sociales, 5(2), pp. 117–126.
