ENGLISH
Before the arrival of shopping malls and modern cinemas, in Venezuela, movie theaters used to be much smaller and scattered all over the place.
In Valencia, there were quite a few. Now, only ruins remain, or their facilities are even used for other purposes, completely unrelated to what they originally were.
I had the chance to go inside the old San Blas Cinema, whose facade I often see because of its striking colors and interesting architecture.
Every time I passed by, it was closed, except for the last time.
This place, well after the 1950s or so, started operating as a car wash.
In fact, when I went in, they were working, but they let me walk around the space and see the old screen where they used to project the movies.
ESPAÑOL
Antes de la llegada de los centros comerciales y los cines modernos, en Venezuela los cines eran mucho más pequeños y estaban diseminados por todas partes.
En Valencia había varios. Ahora solo quedan ruinas o, incluso, sus instalaciones se usan para otros fines, totalmente ajenos a su función original.
Tuve la oportunidad de entrar al antiguo Cine San Blas, cuya fachada suelo ver por sus llamativos colores e interesante arquitectura.
Cada vez que pasaba, estaba cerrado, salvo la última vez.
Este lugar, mucho después de la década de los cincuenta, aproximadamente, comenzó a funcionar como un autolavado.
De hecho, cuando entré, estaban trabajando, pero me dejaron recorrer el espacio y ver la antigua pantalla donde proyectaban las películas.
This is how it is throughout Venezuela, those old movie theaters remain as vestiges of what might have been in their time.