Before smartphones, video games and the fast pace of modern life, childhood in El Salvador looked very different. According to a recent feature in El Diario de Hoy, schoolyards, sidewalks and recess periods once served as lively stages where children gathered to sing, dance in circles and simply enjoy each other’s company.
These traditional games, known in Spanish as “rondas infantiles,” are a staple of childhood across much of Latin America. Typically, kids hold hands and form a circle, singing simple verses while acting out the words through movement—skipping, clapping or spinning together. The games required no screens, batteries or elaborate toys, just a group of children willing to sing and move as one.
The article highlights how, before the 1980s, this kind of communal play was a defining part of growing up in El Salvador. Far from being solitary or mediated by technology, childhood fun was built around direct interaction, shared rhythm and face-to-face connection with friends and neighbors.
The piece taps into a sense of nostalgia for readers who remember those simpler years, when joy came from a shared tune and a circle of friends rather than a digital device. It serves as a reminder of how much the texture of daily childhood experience has shifted in just a few decades.
To revisit these cherished childhood memories in full, read the original article from El Diario de Hoy.
Source: Las nostálgicas rondas infantiles que alegraron a la niñez salvadoreña antes de los años 80 (El Diario de Hoy).
Image: USAG-Humphreys, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).