The flag of Puerto Rico (), officially the Flag of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (), represents Puerto Rico and its people. It consists of five equal horizontal stripes, alternating from red to white, with a blue equilateral triangle based on the hoist side bearing a large, sharp, upright, five-pointed white star in the center. The white star stands for the archipelago and island, the three sides of the triangle for the three branches of the government, the blue for the sky and coastal waters, the red for the blood shed by warriors, and the white for liberty, victory, and peace. The flag is popularly known as the Monoestrellada, meaning having a lone star, or being single-starred. It is in the Stars and Stripes flag family.
In September 1868, the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico launched the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt against Spanish rule in the main island, intending to establish a free and independent "Republic of Puerto Rico" under the Bandera del Grito de Lares (Grito de Lares Flag), commonly known as the bandera de Lares (Lares flag). Marking the establishment of a national consciousness for the first time in Puerto Rico, it is recognized as the first flag of the archipelago and island."Puerto Rico - Cinco Siglos de Historia"; por: Francisco Sacrano; editor: McGraw Hill Interamericana, SA, 1993; pág. 533
In December 1895, 27 years after the failed revolt in the municipality of Lares, members of the committee, in partnership with fellow Cuban rebels exiled in New York City, replaced the Lares flag with the current design as the new revolutionary flag to represent an independent Puerto Rico. Based on the flag of Cuba, the standard of the Cuban War of Independence against Spain, its adoption symbolized the strong bonds existing between Cuban and Puerto Rican revolutionaries and the united independence struggles of Cuba and Puerto Rico as the last two remaining territories of the Spanish Empire in the Americas since 1825.
The Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico identified the colors of the flag as red, white, and blue but failed to specify any shade, leading to an ongoing debate about the tonality of the color blue. Contemporaneous secondary oral sources claimed that the light blue used on the Lares flag was retained. However, the only Lares flag authenticated by a written primary source from 1872 features a dark blue. Moreover, primary sources from 1895 and 1897 have also established that the original color adopted and used by members of the committee was a dark blue. Despite the debate, the independence movement of Puerto Rico adopted light blue as the color of the flag, after it was first introduced in 1967.
In March 1897, the flag was flown during the Intentona de Yauco (Attempted Coup of Yauco) revolt, the second and last assault against Spanish rule before the start of the invasion, occupation, and annexation of Puerto Rico by the U.S. during the Spanish-American War in July 1898.Sabia Usted? , Sabana Grande, Retrieved Feb. 25, 2009The Flag , Flags of the World, Retrieved Feb. 25, 2009 The public display of the flag was outlawed throughout the first half of the 20th century.
In July 1952, it was adopted as the official flag of Puerto Rico with the establishment of the current political status of commonwealth, after several failed attempts were made by the insular elected government in the prior decades. The colors were identified by law as red, white, and blue, but the shades were not specified.Flags of the World; Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico , Flags of the World, Retrieved Feb. 25, 2009 However, the newly formed administration of Governor Luis Muñoz Marín used a dark blue matching that of the American flag as the de facto shade.
In August 1995, a regulation confirmed the colors but did not specified any shade. With its promulgation, medium blue began to be used by the people as the de facto shade, replacing dark blue. In August 2022, an amendment bill was unsuccessfully introduced in the Puerto Rican Senate which would have established the medium blue on the current flag, a so-called azul royal (royal blue), as the official shade.
It is common to see the equilateral triangle of the flag with different shades of blue, as no specific one has been made official by law. Occasionally, the shade displayed is used to show preference on the issue of the political status, with light blue, presumably used by pro-independence rebels in 1868, representing independence and sovereigntism, dark blue, widely used by the government since 1952, representing statehood, and medium blue, most commonly used by the people since the 1995, representing the current intermediary status of unincorporated territory.
When rated on design qualities, the flag of Puerto Rico ranked seventh out of 72 entries in a poll regarding flags of subdivisions of the U.S. and Canada conducted by the North American Vexillological Association in 2001.
History First Spanish designs Discovery
The introduction of a flag in Puerto Rico can be traced back to November 19, 1493, when Christopher Columbus landed on the western shores of the main island, and with the flag appointed to him by the Spanish Crown, claimed the island in the name of Spain, calling it San Juan Bautista (Saint John Baptist) in honor of prophet John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus Christ. Columbus wrote in his logbook that on 12 October 1492 his fleet carried the royal standard of the Crown of Castile, representing the Spanish Monarchy, and La Capitana ("the captain"), the expeditionary ensign of the explorer, which featured, on a white background, a green cross in the center and a green 'F' and 'Y' crowned with golden, open royal crowns for Ferdinand II of Aragon and Ysabella I of Castille, the Catholic Monarchs of a unified Spain.
Colonization
Conquistadores under the command of Juan Ponce de León, the first European explorer and governor of Puerto Rico, proceeded to conquer and settle the island in 1508, displacing, enslaving, and killing the native Taíno people. They carried the royal standard of the Crown of Castile, the emblem representing the Spanish Monarchy, and the Cross of Burgundy, the military standard representing the Spanish Empire, the latter of which continues to be flown on the Spanish-built fortifications in Puerto Rico, most notably on Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristóbal.Spanish Burgundy Flag , University of Georgia, Retrieved Feb. 25, 2009
First Puerto Rican design Revolutionary and Antillean origins
In 1868, Puerto Rican pro-independence leader Ramón Emeterio Betances urged Eduviges Beauchamp Sterling to sew and embroider the revolutionary flag of the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares), the standard of the first of two short-lived revolts against Spanish rule in the main island, using as design the quartered flag of the First Dominican Republic, which was inspired by the Haitian and French flags, and based on the regimental flags of the Kingdom of France, and the lone star of the Cuban flag of the Grito de Yara (Cry of Yara) revolt at the sugar plantation and mill of La Demajagua in Cuba.
The fusion of the Dominican and Cuban flags to make the Lares flag was aimed at promoting the union of the neighboring Spanish-speaking Greater Antilles—the single-nation islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic in the two-nation island of Hispaniola—into an Antillean Confederation for the protection and preservation of their sovereignty and interests."Puerto Rico - Cinco Siglos de Historia"; by: Francisco Sacrano; publisher: McGraw Hill Interamericana, SA, 1993; pag. 533
In 1868, after the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt, Francisco Ramírez Medina, having been sworn in as the first president of Puerto Rico by the revolutionaries, intended to proclaim the Lares flag as the national flag of the free and independent "Republic of Puerto Rico." Marking the establishment of a national consciousness for the first time in Puerto Rico, it is recognized as the first flag of the archipelago and island.
Authentic flag
Only one flag of the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt and independent "Republic of Puerto Rico" has been authenticated as original by written primary sources. The flag is quartered by a centered white cross, with two deep red squares on the fly side and two dark blue squares on the hoist side, the top of which bears a tiled, sharp, centered, five-pointed white star.
In 1868, the flag was captured by the Spanish leader in charged of the repression against the revolutionaries, Colonel Manuel Iturriaga, after it was discovered buried in one of two wooden boxes alongside hundreds of cartridges for rifles on the coffee farm of a rebel named José Antonio Hernández in the Piedra Gorda barrio (then known as Palomar) of Camuy, a town immediately to north of Lares.
In 1872, Spanish telegrapher and journalist José Manuel Pérez Moris, a contemporary who had migrated to Puerto Rico from Cuba in 1869, described the flag in his chronicle about the revolt, Historia de la Insurrección de Lares (History of the Insurrection of Lares), as follows: which, translated in English, reads as:
In 1908, after the death of Iturriaga in Spain, the flag was donated by his son to the Museo de Artillería (Museum of the Artillery) in Madrid, alongside a copy of Historia de la Insurrección de Lares (History of the Insurrection of Lares) autographed by Pérez Moris, who had dedicated the book to Iturriaga. The flag was later transferred to the Museo del Ejército (Museum of the Army) in Madrid.
In 1931, Spanish-Puerto Rican historian Enrique Tomás Blanco Géigel described the flag in an article for the magazine Alma Latina titled La Bandera de Puerto Rico (The Flag of Puerto Rico). A picture of the second graduating class of the law school at the University of Puerto Rico holding a replica of the flag is featured in the publication. Blanco’s description of the flag is as follows:
which, translated in English, reads as:
In 1970, Puerto Rican scholar and head of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture at the University of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Alegría, requested and received pictures of the flag from Spanish historian Juan Manuel Zapatero at the (Museum of the Army) in Madrid. However, Alegría did not produce any official documentation of the flag.
Since 2010, the flag has been exhibited in Toledo, Spain, which is where the Museum of the Army relocated. In 2020, Luis Sorando Muzás, expert in vexillology and advisor to the Museum of the Army, published the flag as part of a catalog on the flags and banners in the museum.
In 2023, Puerto Rican investigative historian and founder of the Archivo Digital Nacional de Puerto Rico (ADNPR) (National Digital Archive of Puerto Rico), Joseph Harrison Flores, described the flag as "la verdadera bandera de Lares" ("the real flag of Lares"). In his book La Indentidad de Brazo de Oro ("The Identity of the Golden Arm"), Harrison Flores identified the flag as the original one created by the revolutionary forces of the “Republic of Puerto Rico” that was to be born from the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt in 1868, as its authenticity is proven by written primary sources.
Inauthentic flag
A second flag claimed to have been used during the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt is in the possession of the University of Puerto Rico. While widely accepted as the original flag of the revolt and independent "Republic of Puerto Rico," the flag has not only never been authenticated by written primary sources, but it has also been discredited as a forgery. The flag is quartered by a centered white cross, with two bottom red rectangles and two top light blue rectangles, the left of which bears a tiled, centered, five-pointed white star.