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Buenos Aires city (Argentina)

Last modified: 2021-12-23 by rob raeside
Keywords: buenos aires | ciudad autónoma de buenos aires | garay (juan de) | cross: calatrava | eaglet | eagle (black) | coat of arms |
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Flag of Buenos Aires city image by Jaume Ollé, 13 Aug 2000
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Description of the flag

The Council of the City of Buenos has just approved a new flag for this city, the capital of Argentina. In fact, the flag was originally designed by the Spanish founder, Don Juan de Garay. It quite an attractive flag, a white square, with a full fledge crowned black eagle, holding the red cross of Calatrava in the right leg.
Sergio Laurenti, 17 Nov 1995

28 of September of 1995 the deliberating Council of the city and Buenos Aires sanctioned the ordinance 49.669 that was establishing the flag of the city. The Ordinance was promulgated 24 October 1995 (Decree number 1.291). The article 1 of the Ordinance establishes as official flag of the city the one formed by white cloth carrying in the center the shield created by Juan de Garay 20 October 1580, integrated by a crowned black eagle, with four little eagles and a colored cross in her straight claw, known as Cross of Calatrava for be the pattern used by the military Order of Calatrava, in Spain. The proportions of the flag was established in the article 2, that was fixing the ratio 9:14 (1,4 meters of long by 0,90 meters of high), being located the in a way centered shield. As is not established the size of the shield, is used that of 1/3 of the flag. The flag must be shined accompanied always of the national flag, according to establishes the article 3. It must be present in all the official dispatches of the officials of local government. The Decree was signed by the municipal intendant Jorge Dominguez, being published in the Municipal Bulletin number 20.157 of 6 of November of 1995.
Jaume Ollé, 14 Dec 1999,
quoting from his article on Flag Report 4 [frp],
based on information provided by Alberto R. Perazzo,
president of the Argentine Asociation of Vexillology


About Buenos Aires

Please note that Buenos Aires was (re-)founded by Garay in 1580; there may be a confusion as the city was first founded in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza but it did not survive more than five years.
Andres Lesko, 09 Dec 1999


Flag of 1978

1978 flag of Buenos Aires city image by Jaume Ollé, 13 Aug 2000

According to Gustavo Tracchia, the 1978 coat of arms was used on a flag: yellow shield with golden eagle on white background. Since this modification of the arms was a personal decision of the mayor, never approved by law, this flag, and the coat of arms on it, was used only during the visit of the King and Queen of Spain in 1978.
Jaume Ollé, 12 Aug 2000, translated by António Martins


Flag of 1980

1980 flag of Buenos Aires city image by Jaume Ollé, 13 Aug 2000

In 1980 Buenos Aires celebrated the 400th anniversary of its foundation by Juan de Garay. The city had not a flag and the local intendente, Brigadier Andres Cacciatore, made up for the celebrations a white flag with a black eagle in the middle, holding in its dexter claw a Calatrava Cross. The King and Queen of Spain attend to the celebrations and this flag was used in the stage and in other places. It was kept in use for some months, in the dispatches of local city workers and in official facilities. But it never met legal approval and was gradually abandoned. After Cacciatore left government, the old arms come back in use and the flag was not used any more.
Jaume Ollé, 12 Aug 2000, translated by António Martins

The fate of this 1980 flag is remarkably similar to the 1978; what’s about it. And which were the differences between this flag and the 1995 version? (Apart from the color of the shield.)
António Martins, 16 Apr 2002


Flag controversy

The new flag has encountered some resistance, as it depicts an imperial symbol and it seems to resemble some kind of domination from Spain.
Sergio Laurenti, 17 Nov 1995

On 13 June 2010, the Argentine news agency "Telam" reported that members of the Municipal Council advocates for a change of the municipal flag.

[Local representative] Adrián Camps believes that the current flag "needs being changed because of the presence of symbols of the monarchy and of religious intolerance on it". According to Camps, these symbols ("imperial eagles and blood-stained crosses"), the citizens of the town do not deserve such symbols, which recall colonization and the genocide of the native peoples. Camps proposes to suppress the 1995 flag law and to adopt as the flag of Buenos Aires the Argentine national flag. [Another representative,] María Elena Naddeo proposes to launch "a contest of ideas and design to get a new flag associated with the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the country." The contest could be open to students of all educational institutes of the town, to cultural centers and to social organizations.
Ivan Sache, 17 Jun 2010