Grito de Lares flag

The Grito de Lares flag (Spanish: Bandera del Grito de Lares), most commonly known as the Lares flag (Spanish: Bandera de Lares), represents the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt of 1868, the first of two short-lived rebellions against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico. It consists of a large white Greek cross in the center that extends to all four sides of the flag, dividing it into four equal rectangles, two blue above, the left of which bears a large, sharp, upright, centered, five-pointed white star, and two red below. The white star stands for liberty and freedom, the red rectangles for the blood poured by the heroes of the revolt, and the white cross for the yearning of homeland redemption. Established in Lares 27 years before revolutionaries adopted the current flag of Puerto Rico in New York City, the flag of the revolt is recognized as the first flag of the island.

Today, the flag is the official flag of the municipality of Lares, location of the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt in 1868. The flag, particularly its light blue version, is also most commonly used alongside the current flag of Puerto Rico to show support for Puerto Rican independence from the United States, rejecting other alternatives on the issue of Puerto Rico's political status, namely statehood or integration into the U.S. as a state, and the current intermediary status of commonwealth as an unincorporated and organized U.S. territory.

Origins
In September 1868, the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico launched the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt against Spanish rule in the island, carrying as their standard a flag conceived by pro-independence leader Ramón Emeterio Betances and embroidered by Mariana "Brazos de Oro" Bracetti with flag-making materials provided by Eduvigis Beauchamp Sterling. Betances combined the quartered flag of the First Dominican Republic, inspired by the Haitian and French flags, and based on the regimental flags of the Kingdom of France, and the lone star on the flag of Cuba, inspired and based on the American flag, to create the Lares flag. The fusion of the Dominican and Cuban flags to make the Puerto Rican Lares flag was aimed at promoting the union of 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, during the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares) revolt, Francisco Ramírez Medina, having been sworn in as Puerto Rico's first president by the revolutionaries, proclaimed the Lares flag as the national emblem of the "Republic of Puerto Rico," and placed it on the high altar of the San José Parish in Lares, Puerto Rico, making it the first Puerto Rican flag.

Original flags


There were several flags made for the revolt, but only two have survived to this day. The oldest known Lares flag is quartered by a centered white cross, with two bottom deep red rectangles and two top light blue rectangles, the left of which bears a tiled, centered, five-pointed white star. According to anthropologist Ricardo Alegría, the flag was taken from the altar of the San José Parish of Lares by Spanish Captain José de Perignat, who kept it until his family donated it to Fordham University in New York City. In 1954, the university then gifted the flag to the Museum of History, Anthropology and Art of the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, then headed by Alegría, and in 1988, it was restored by the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

Since the early 20th century, some historians have questioned the authenticity of the flag, as there is no documentary evidence to validate that it was used in the revolt or that it was placed on the altar of the San José Parish in Lares, Puerto Rico. It has been speculated that this flag is not an original Lares flag, but a copy made in the 1930s by nationalists for their commemoration of the Grito de Lares revolt. Yet at the same time, 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.



The most recently known Lares 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, centered, five-pointed white star. According to the Archivo Digital Nacional de Puerto Rico (ADNPR) (National Digital Archive of Puerto Rico), the flag, considered to be La Coronela, the most important flag that was used by the first company commanded by the colonel of the armies, was captured in 1868 by Spanish Captain Manuel Iturriaga, who led the repression of the revolutionaries of Lares, in the Piedra Gorda neighborhood of Camuy, Puerto Rico after it was discovered on the farm of a revolutionary buried in one of two wooden boxes alongside hundreds of cartridges for militia rifles. After Iturriaga's death, the flag was donated by his son to the old Museo de Artillería de España (Museum of Artillery of Spain). Since its discovery in 2022, the flag is exhibited at the Museo Del Ejército (Museum of the Army) in Toledo, Spain.

In 1872, the flag was mentioned in "Historia de la insurrección de Lares…" ("History of the insurrection of Lares…"), a chronicle on the Grito de Lares written by Spanish telegrapher and journalist José Manuel Pérez Moris, a contemporary who had migrated to Puerto Rico from Cuba in 1869. Categorizing the flag as "la verdadera bandera de Lares" ("the real flag of Lares"), the  Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe (CEAPRC) (Center of Advanced Studies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean), claims that primary sources like Pérez Moris’ account of the revolt prove that this flag is the authentic 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.

Replaced flag
The Grito de Lares flag was replaced by a new revolutionary flag, which is the current of the flag of Puerto Rico. 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.

Determined to affirm the strong bonds existing between Cuban and Puerto Rican revolutionaries, and the union of Cuban and Puerto Rican struggles for national independence and fights against Spanish colonialism, on December 22, with the knowledge and approval of their fellow Cuban rebels, Terreforte, vice-president of the committee, and around fifty-eight 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.

Independence and Antillean confederation
In 1868, Puerto Rican pro-independence leader Ramón Emeterio Betances, urged Mariana Bracetti to knit the revolutionary flag of the Grito de Lares (Cry of Lares), using as design the quartered flag of the First Dominican Republic and the lone star of the Cuban flag, with the aim of promoting Betances’ idea of uniting the three neighboring Spanish-speaking Caribbean Greater Antilles of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic into an Antillean Confederation for the protection and preservation of their sovereignty and interests.

Colors
According to Puerto Rican poet Luis Lloréns Torres, the white cross stands for the yearning of homeland redemption, the red rectangles for the blood poured by the heroes of the revolt, and the white star for liberty and freedom. It is assumed that like the blue triangle on the current of Puerto Rico, the blue rectangles represent the sky and waters of the island.

Dimensions
No official document in Puerto Rico provides the exact dimensions of the flag's shape, cross, and five-pointed star. While the exact proportions of the flag have not been established by law, the most commonly used and widely accepted layout of the flag is as follows:



Most representations of the flag follow these specifications, with the components likely to vary being the size of the cross and star. The width of the cross is occasionally displayed bigger than the most commonly used size of one-ninth ($1/9$) of the flag length for its vertical post width and one-sixth ($1/6$) of the flag width for its horizontal crossbar width, and the diameter of the star is occasionally displayed smaller than the most commonly used size of one-third ($1/3$) of the flag width.

Colors
No official document in Puerto Rico provides the colors of the flag. While the exact colors of the flag have not been established by law, below are the most commonly used color shades. The intensity of both blue and red color shades changes to keep them complementary to each other.

Current medium blue flag


Medium blue Grito de Lares flag, matching the current flag of Puerto Rico and Lares, uses the following color shades:

Dark blue flag


Dark blue Grito de Lares flag, matching the dark blue flag of Puerto Rico and the original dark blue Grito de Lares flag exhibited in Spain, one of two original versions of the flag available today, uses the following color shades:

Light blue flag
The light blue Grito de Lares flag has become increasingly popular in recent years. Today, most representations of the flag feature a light sky blue color shade, matching the light blue color shade of the original light blue Grito de Lares flag exhibited in Puerto Rico.



Light sky blue variation of light blue Grito de Lares flag matching the colors of the light blue flag of Puerto Rico and the light blue Grito de Lares flag exhibited in Puerto Rico, one of two original versions of the flag available today, uses the following color shades: