For his personal arms (pictured on page 20), Bishop Alexander Salazar has selected a design that reflects his life and his heritage.

The design is composed of two major portions. In the lower two-thirds, on a silver (white) field, are displayed a pair of blue angel's wings with a red rose between. This charge from the arms of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is a classic representation to honor the titular of the See City, the Blessed Virgin Mary in her title of Our Lady of the Angels. Los Angeles has been Bishop Salazar's home since he was 4 years old and it is in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that he has exercised his entire priestly ministry.

The upper one-third of the design, known as a chief, is composed of five bands, a larger red between two silver (white) which are between two blue. This is the arrangement of the colors of the national flag of Costa Rica, where Bishop Salazar was born. On these national colors is displayed a gold diadem with each of the seven visible points being surmounted by a star. The crown actually has 12 points, but like looking at the side of a clock, only seven of the numbers can actually be seen. This is to honor Our Lady in her title of the Immaculate Conception, who, as described in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 12: 1), has upon her head "a crown of twelve stars." The actual crown of Mary is displayed to show particular honor to Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, the principal patroness of Costa Rica.

In a 2002 message to the people of the Archdiocese on the dedication of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Pope John Paul II revised, slightly, the words of the Virgin Mary at the Wedding Feast at Cana as recorded in St. John's Gospel (2: 5), the words that Bishop Salazar has taken for his motto: "Do what Jesus tells you." By the use of this phrase, Bishop Salazar expresses his profound conviction that in the church's holy ministry --- as a deacon, as a priest, and now as a bishop --- he is always and in every way, to do what Jesus, as the Savior of the World, has instructed and commanded.

The achievement is completed with the external ornaments which are a gold processional cross, placed in back of and extending above and below the shield, and the pontifical hat, called a "gallero," with its six tassels, in three rows, on either side of the shield, all in green.