This chapter questions the hegemonic paradigm that conceives Latin American historical centralities as monumental ensembles immutable in time, as well as urban public policies that are applied in a general, uniform and homogeneous way throughout the world. The external methodological influences on the conservation of urban heritage are reviewed, as well as the evolution of the foundational urban centralities, in phases of population gain and loss, led by the State and/or the market. 

The chapter concludes with reflections about three major issues of the moment, strongly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic: 1. the debate on de-colonialist, occurred in the context of out-breaks and social crises and expressed in acts of iconoclasm and vandalism to commemorative monuments and statues, and the renaming of streets and public spaces in various American cities; 2. human mobility on multiple scales (national, international and intra-urban); and 3. the new digital platforms in the life of cities.