Flag of Cuba

The flag of Cuba has five horizontal stripes, three blue and two white, and a red triangle next to the flagpole with a white star. Because of that star it is known as ‘the lone star’. It is older than the country itself: it was created half a century before Cuba became independent.

How it came about

In the mid-19th century Cuba was a colony of Spain. In 1849 a group of Cuban exiles was preparing an expedition in New York to free the island. Its leader was Narciso López, a soldier born in Caracas. López explained his idea for a flag to the poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón, who drew it, and Teurbe Tolón’s wife, Emilia, sewed the first one.

The clearest inspiration was the flag of the United States, with its stripes and its star. It was no coincidence: López wanted to separate Cuba from Spain and then join it to the United States as one more state. On 19 May 1850 his expedition landed at Cárdenas and the flag was raised there for the first time. The adventure failed and López was executed in Havana in 1851, but his flag survived.

How it has changed

The design is the same as in 1849. What changed was the tone of the blue and, for a while, it had a rival.

1. 

   1849-1906

   Narciso López’s flag has stripes of a lighter blue than the current one.

2. 

   1868-1869

   Carlos Manuel de Céspedes starts the war of independence with another flag, the one of La Demajagua. In 1869 the Assembly of Guáimaro chooses López’s as the flag of free Cuba.

3. 

   1906

   Cuba has been independent since 1902. A decree fixes the measurements of the flag and darkens the blue, which stays like that to this day.

What it means

The most accepted explanation of each element is this:

• Three blue stripes

  the three departments Cuba was divided into in 1849: west, centre and east.

• Two white stripes

  the purity of the ideas of the independence supporters.

• Red triangle

  the blood shed for freedom. Its three-equal-sides shape is a Masonic symbol of liberty, equality and fraternity; many independence leaders were Masons.

• White star

  a new and free state. For López, it was the star that Cuba would add to the flag of the United States.

Fun facts

1. A flag seen in the sky

   According to a much-repeated legend, López saw the design at dawn: red clouds formed a triangle, the planet Venus shone and two white clouds divided the blue sky. No document confirms it.

2. The losing flag presides over Parliament

   In 1869 the deputies of Guáimaro did not want to forget Céspedes’s flag. They agreed to hang it in the hall where they met, and since then the two flags preside together over the sessions of the Cuban Parliament.

3. Sister of the Puerto Rican one

   In 1895 the independence supporters of Puerto Rico, who were organised alongside the Cubans in New York, adopted the same design with the colours of the triangle and the stripes swapped.

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