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Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico
Flag adopted: 1952 (Designed: 22 December 1895)
Coat of Arms adopted: 1976 (First adopted: 9 March 1905)
From :
The National Flag is the highest expression of Nationality and pride for the Motherland. Back in 1511, Spain issues an official flag for Puerto Rico, based in the Coat of Arms authorized by the spanish monarchs.
On December 22, 1895, a group of 59 Puerto Ricans gather at "Chimney Corner Hall" in New York City and organizes a political group, attached to the Cuban Revolutionary Party to organize the Pro-Independence movement in Puerto Rico, still under Spanish ruling. According to the meeting acts, the flag "...is same as the cuban, but the color stripes are inverted..."
There are different theories regarding the origins of our flag, one of them names Manuel Besosa as the designer , in a letter written by his daughter she says, "...my father asked me to sew together some pieces of cloth, white, red and blue that he brought himself , this tiny flag had 5 alterned stripes, red and white, and a triangle with a five point star within it...".
This is the symbolism according to the 1895 meeting:
Red Stripes - The blood from the brave warriors.
White Stripes - Victory and peace after obtaining indepence.
Blue Triangle - Our sky and coastal waters.
White Lone Star - Our beautiful Island.
It wasn't but until 1952 that our Legislature approved the final symbolism of our flag:
Red Stripes - stands for the "blood" that nourishes the three branches of our government; Legislative, Executive and Judiciary.
White Stripes - represents individual liberty and the rights that keeps in perfect balance our form of government.
Blue Triangle - stands for the "Republican Government", represented by the three branches.
White Lone Star - represents "The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico".
Dov Gutterman , 28 December 1998
There has been an issue during recent years regarding the blue tone of the triangle in the Puerto Rican flag. The 1895 original design used a sky blue, however when the flag was adopted officially by the Commonwealth in 1952 it featured a dark blue very similar to that of the US flag (which is the one depicted above). I dont know the exact reasons for that change but I suspect that the new commonwealth governement of the time did not want to use what had been a revolutionary independence flag. Nonetheless, with the celebration of the flag's 100 aniversary in 1995 the current pro- statehood administration decided to go back to the original sky blue tone. Still, there are many different tones of blue used around the island, even among those in public buildings. Most government buildings have switched to the sky blue but many still use the dark tone. Also, independence supporters like to use a very light blue tone while commonwealth and statehood supporters prefer darker tones. It has become possible to identify the status preference of people based on the flag that they use.
Victor Quinones, 24 March 2000
After this digression, the original PR flag was simply the Cuban flag with the colors reversed. The blue was not dark but sky blue, as in the Cuban flag. The PR flag was forbidden in the island from 1898 until 1952, but was flown in defiance by the black-shirted Cadet Corps of the Puerto Rico Nationalist Party. After 1952, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico adopted the original flag based on the reverse-colored Cuban one, but changed the hue of blue to dark blue, matching the USA flag.
Esteban Jimenez, 3 November 2000
I suppose the shade of red was also darkened, as the US flag uses "Old Glory Red" and the cuban flag uses a medium shade.
Antonio Martins, 7 November 2000
Since 1995 the oficial flag of Puerto Rico changed. Now the oficial one is the sky blue variant. The Dark blue variant was ofical Since 1952 to 1994 and the governor of Puerto Rico in 1995 signed a law that the oficial flag of Puerto Rico is the sky blue variant.
Nelson L. Román, 19 December 2004
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