First Spanish designs Discovery of Columbus's Ships 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 , the flag of the
Spanish Empire 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.
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. 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 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. Other historians claim that despite the absence of
primary sources to validate the flag, there is a long
oral tradition of testimonies that authenticate it.
Last Spanish designs Provincial In 1873, following the abdication of
Amadeo I of Spain, and the overthrow of
Monarchy for a
Republic, the Spanish government issued a new flag for Puerto Rico. The provincial flag resembled the quartered
Lares flag, with the difference that it featured the Spanish colors: all four squares in red, and the cross in yellow with the
coat of arms of Puerto Rico in its center. The flags of Spain once more flew over Puerto Rico with the
restoration of the Spanish kingdom in 1874, until 1898, the year that the island became a possession of the United States under the terms of the
Treaty of Paris (1898) in the aftermath of the
Spanish–American War.
Military Spanish-Puerto Ricans carried the
war flag of the 3rd Battalion of Puerto Rico in the
island, but most commonly in
Cuba during the
Cuban War of Independence against
Spain between 1895 and 1898. The flag is in the shape and colors of the
Spanish flag, with two equal red stripes on either side and a larger yellow stripe in the center, which contains the
coat of arms of Spain with the text
BATALLON PROVISIONAL DE PUERTO RICO N° 3 (PROVISIONAL BATTALION OF PUERTO RICO No. 3) around it. Puerto Rico and Cuba became possessions of the
United States as a result of the
Spanish-American War of 1898, thus ending more than 400 years of
Spanish rule on both islands.
Current Puerto Rican design Cuban and Puerto Rican solidarity In December 1895, Juan de Mata Terreforte and other exiled Puerto Rican revolutionaries, many of them veterans of the
Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt who fought alongside commander
Manuel Rojas Luzardo, re-established the
Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico under the name
Sección Puerto Rico del Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Puerto Rico Section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party) as part of the
Cuban Revolutionary Party in
New York City, where they continued to advocate for Puerto Rican independence from Spain with the support of Cuban national hero
José Martí and other Cuban exiles, who similarly began their struggle for self-determination in 1868 when the
Grito de Yara (
Cry of Yara) revolt triggered the
Ten Years' War (
Guerra de los Diez Años) for independence against
Spanish rule in
Cuba, which, along with
Puerto Rico, represented all that remained from Spain’s once extensive
American empire since
1825. Revolutionaries from Cuba and Puerto Rico not only shared their exile in camaraderie and solidarity, but they also honorably fought and died together in battlefields across Cuba during the
war of independence of the island, with approximately 2,000 Puerto Ricans falling in action, including Captain
Francisco Gonzalo Marín Shaw. Puerto Ricans also made strategic contributions in battles led by Generals
Juan Ríus Rivera and
José Semidei Rodríguez, Colonels Juan Ortíz Quiñones and Epifanio Rivera, and dozens of other Puerto Rican officers and troops who served and fought in the
Cuban Liberation Army.
Revolutionary adoption Determined to affirm the absolute union of the Cuban and Puerto Rican struggle for national
independence into a single, common cause, on December 22, with the knowledge and approval of their fellow Cuban revolutionaries, Terreforte, vice-president of the committee, and forty-nine fellow members gathered at the no longer existent
Chimney Corner Hall in
Manhattan, unanimously adopted the Cuban flag with colors inverted as the new revolutionary flag to represent a
sovereign “Republic of Puerto Rico”, replacing the
Lares flag, which had been used by revolutionaries as the flag of a prospective independent Puerto Rico since their attempt at self-determination in
1868, but was eventually rejected, as it represented a failed revolt, a sentiment strongly supported by
Lola Rodríguez de Tío, Puerto Rican poet, pro-independence leader, and committee member, who spent her later life exiled in liberated Cuba. , representing an independent Republic of Puerto Rico, features, atop the
motto Patria y Libertad (Homeland and Liberty), the flag of Puerto Rico, the
island in front of a rising sun, the three red (blood of warriors) and two white (peace after independence) stripes of the flag, and the
lion of the Spanish Kingdom being wrestled by
Taino resistance leader against
conquistador Juan Ponce de León in
Puerto Rico,
Agüeybaná II, who is standing on the lion’s fallen crown In
Acta Tercera (
Third Act) of
Memoria de los trabajos realizados por la Sección Puerto Rico del Partido Revolucionario Cubano, 1895–1998 (Memoir of the works accomplished by the Puerto Rico Section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, 1895–1898), a recollection on the activities of the
Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico arranged by the
Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary Party), the unveiling of the new revolutionary Puerto Rican flag is described in
Spanish as: which, translated in
English, reads as: members (seated L–R) Terreforte, José Henna, Roberto Todd (standing L–R) Manuel Besosa, Aurelio Méndez,
Sotero Figueroa The flag is mentioned in
Spanish for a second time in the same memoir under
Memoria de la Sección Puerto Rico del Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Memoir of the Puerto Rico Section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party), an account written by Puerto Rican senior committee member Roberto H. Todd and endorsed by fellow member José Julio Henna, president of the committee, at the end of the functions of the
Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee in 1898: which, translated in
English, reads as: The name of the designer of the newly created Puerto Rican flag does not appear in the chronicle.
Disputed Puerto Rican designer The origin of the design remains contested between exiled Puerto Rican revolutionaries
Francisco Gonzalo Marín Shaw and
Antonio Vélez Alvarado. Terreforte attributes the design to Marín Shaw, a member of the
Cuban Liberation Army from Puerto Rico who died fighting for independence in Cuba in 1897. In May 1923, responding to a letter from fellow committee member Domingo Collazo asking him to clarify the origin of the design adopted in New York City after reading several different versions about its origin in the Puerto Rican newspapers, Terreforte, who presented the design to members of the committee in 1895, credits the idea of a design based on the Cuban flag with colors inverted to
Francisco Gonzalo Marín. The original response of Terreforte in
Spanish reads as: which, translated in
English, reads as: For its part,
La Asociación Manatieña Amigos de la Bandera (Manatieña Association Friends of the Flag) credits fellow Manatieño
Vélez Alvarado for the design based on the studies of Puerto Rican archeologist and historian Ovidio Dávila, most famously presented in
El Centenario de la Adopción de la Bandera de Puerto Rico (The Centenary of the Adoption of the Flag of Puerto Rico) in 1996. According to the scholar, the origin of the flag’s design traces back to June 1892 when Vélez Alvarado suffered a momentary "optical illusion... as if by a 'rare color blindness,’ in which he perceived that the red triangle of the Cuban flag had turned blue and the blue stripes red." Inspired by this experience,
Vélez Alvarado created a new flag design for Puerto Rico. A few days later, according to Dávila, Vélez Alvarado presented his new design to Cuban pro-independence leader
José Martí at dinner party attended by revolutionaries, including
Marín Shaw. Martí, says Dávila, gave Vélez Alvarado his approval, and "soon after" he published in his newspaper,
Patria, "a chronicle in which he emotionally described" the evening. As such, the historian asserts that the flag of Puerto Rico was known to revolutionaries a couple of years before it was formally adopted in 1895. Puerto Rican professor of history Armando Martí Carvajal has refuted Davila’s findings based on the fact that none of his sources are
primary sources. Carvajal contends that Martí never actually confirmed any of the claims made by Davila, explaining that Martí did wrote on many occasions about the flag of Puerto Rico, but in these cases he was referring to the
Lares flag, not to the new flag. A year later, in 1897,
Antonio Mattei Lluberas visited the
Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee in
New York City to plan a revolt in the municipality of
Yauco. He returned to Puerto Rico with the new revolutionary flag representing a prospective independent Puerto Rican
republic. On March 24, 1897, a group of men led by Fidel Vélez and openly carrying the flag for the first time in Puerto Rico, unsuccessfully attacked the barracks of Spanish Civil Guard in Yauco. The
Intentona de Yauco (Attempted Coup of Yauco) revolt was the second and last major attempt against Spanish rule in the island, which was
invaded, occupied, and annexed by the U.S. during the
Spanish-American War in July 1898.
Outlawed display As with the
Lares flag, the use and display of this second revolutionary flag was outlawed, as the only flags permitted to be flown in colonial Puerto Rico were the
Spanish flag (1493 to 1898) and the
American flag (1898 to 1952). From December 10, 1898, the date of the annexation of Puerto Rico by the U.S., to July 25, 1952, the date of the establishment the
commonwealth of Puerto Rico (), it was considered a felony to display the Puerto Rican flag in public, with the
flag of the United States being the only flag permitted to be flown on the island. However, the Puerto Rican flag was often used by the pro-independence
Liberal Party of Puerto Rico and
Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico at their assemblies. In March 1948, the elected Puerto Rican Senate, controlled by the
Partido Popular Democrático (
PPD) and presided by
Luis Muñoz Marín, who would become the first native Puerto Rican elected to colonial governorship in 1949 and the first governor of the
commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952, approved the
Gag Law 53 of 1948 (
Ley de La Mordaza de 53 of 1948), which was signed into law in June by appointed governor
Jesús T. Piñero, who served from 1946 to 1949 as the first and only native Puerto Rican appointed to colonial governorship. , one of a series of coordinated insurrectionist attacks carried out by militant nationalists in 1950 Similar to the anti-communist law passed in the U.S. in 1940, the
Smith Act, which forbade any attempts to “advocate, abet, advise, or teach” the violent overthrow or destruction of the U.S. government, Puerto Rico’s gag law of 1948, made it a crime to own or display a Puerto Rican flag, to sing a patriotic tune, to speak or write of independence, or meet with anyone, or hold any assembly in favor of independence. Carrying a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to US $10,000 (), or both, the law aimed to discourage and suppress organized opposition against the elected American-allied government of Puerto Rico, specifically resistance from
armed nationalist militant members of the radical pro-independence
Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, which in 1950, incited not only by the aforementioned gag order, but also by the approval of the creation of the
commonwealth by
U.S. Congress and
President Truman with the passing of the
Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950, executed a coordinated series of
insurrectionist attacks, which included the attempted assassinations of elected governor
Muñoz Marín at
La Fortaleza in
Old San Juan and
President Truman at
Blair House in
Washington, D.C. Despite having been legalized with the establishment of the commonwealth in 1952, the display of the flag of Puerto Rico in the archipelago and island continued to be outlawed until 1957, when the gag law was ruled unconstitutional and was repealed on the basis that it violated
freedom of speech within
Article II of the
Constitution of Puerto Rico and the
First Amendment of the
Constitution of the United States.
Commonwealth adoption After several failed attempts by the colonial elected government of Puerto Rico in 1916, 1922, 1927 and 1932 to formalize the revolutionary flag of 1895 as the flag of Puerto Rico, in July 1952, with the establishment of the
commonwealth of Puerto Rico (), the elected governor
Luis Muñoz Marín and legislature finally adopted the flag of 1895 as the island’s standard, proclaiming it the official flag of Puerto Rico in the
Ley del 24 Julio de 1952 (Law of July 24, 1952) as follows: For nationalist leader
Pedro Albizu Campos, having the flag represent the new American-allied government was a desecration, while the
Puerto Rican Independence Party accused the government of "corrupting beloved symbols." In 1995, the flag was proclaimed again as the flag of Puerto Rico in the Regulation on the Use in Puerto Rico of the Flag of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico of August 3, 1995 (: ==Symbolism==