Rubén Martínez Bulnes was born in San Salvador on 7 July 1929 and died in the same city on 17 July 2023. He set out to study engineering like his father, but taught himself sculpture by working scrap metal alongside welders, and became El Salvador's most prolific sculptor, with more than 180 works to his name — the Monumento a la Constitución and the Monumento a la Paz among them. In 1962 the Dominican friar Alejandro Peinador asked him to design a new parish church for San Salvador's historic centre, to replace an outgrown wooden one; Salvadoran church authorities balked at his plans, and approval came instead from the Vatican. He completed the church, El Rosario, in 1971. He was named Notable Sculptor of El Salvador by the Legislative Assembly in 2012 and Hijo Meritísimo of San Salvador in 2018.
