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Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas Province (Ecuador)

Provincia de Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas

Last modified: 2021-08-26 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: ecuador | santo domingo | los tsachilas |
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image by Shadowfox (source) , provided by António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 April 2016


See also:

Cantons:


Overview

According to "La Hora", 3 October 2007, the National Congress has approved the creation of the new Province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas (68 "yes" out of 71 voters), by secession from the Province of Pichinca. The capital of the new province shall be Santo Domingo de los Colorados.
According to "La Hora", 16 October 2007, the President of the Republic may table a partial veto to the Law because of the unresolved status of La Concordia, a mining districtn which might also be allocated to the neighbouring  Province of Esmeraldas.
According to "El Universo", 3 October 2007, the President of the Republic said that the creation of the new provinces of Santa Elena and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas will complete the "provincialization" process in Ecuador, which shall have therefore 24 provinces.
Ivan Sache
, 28 October 2007

Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas province was created 02.October 2007 by spliting from Pichincha province. It has just one canton - same named Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, formerly Santo Domingo de los Colorados.
Spanish Wikipedia give basic information as area of 3,857 km2 and 268,075 inhabitants. Capital is the city Santo Domingo de los Colorados, which didn't change the name.
Searching through Internet didn't give me any results about the symbols of the province.
Source: <www.statoids.com>.
Valentin Poposki, 24 April 2008

The provincial symbols have indeed not been adopte yet. "La Hora", 20 August 2008, reports that the Provincial Council has appointed a Special Commission that has launched a public contest and commissioned a jury. The jury has received 34 proposals of provincial flag and arms.
Ivan Sache, 24 August 2008

The flag and arms of the Province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas are shown in "La Hora", 21 October 2008. The flag is quartered green-red by a white saltire including two thin black lines near its edges. A yellow sun with 16 rays, alternate straight and wavy, and charged with a colibri, is placed in the middle of the flag.
The coat of arms is divided per wavy fess 1a. Gules a sun or with 16 rays, alternate straight and wavy, 1b. vert a colibri proper, 2. azure a fess argent "fimbriated" sable. The shield is surmonted by a palm tree vert.
According to "La Hora", the new symbols are already a matter of controversy. The graphic designer Lauro Geovanny Tenemaza Samaniego, who was among the turned-down competitors, filed a complain with the Fiscália, claiming that the colibri is a copy of the famous lines of Nazca, and therefore part of the registered Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Peru. such an use is punished by Articles 324, 328 et passim of the Law on Intellectual Property.  
The adoption of the symbols of the Province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas was also reported in "El Comercio", undated, including a colour photograph of the coat of arms:
The winners of the competition are the brothers Andrea Pía and Juan Cristóbal Amores Argandoña, designers of the flag and of the coat of arms, respectively.
The provincial flag retains the colours of the flag of the canton of Santo. Domingo de los Tsáchilas, red and green. The white and black cross recalls the colours of the "manpe tsanpá", a dress with horizontal black and white stripes. (See the photograph published in "El Mercurio", October 2005), the traditional dress of the Tsáchilas men. The colours are arranged in aestethic and proportional colours which sums to 14 [?], matching the number of parishes in the canton and therefore in the province.
The author further explained that the black and white stripe represent the four roads crossing Santo Domingo and going to the Provinces of Pichincha, Guayas, Manabí and Esmeraldas.
The central emblem of the flag is the sun. Its four main rays represent the main compass directions and also the four decades during which the difficult struggle for provincialization was carried out. Emerging from the center of the sun, a colibri represents the ancient Tsáchilas, Quimi and Tsafiqui wisdom. The multicoloured bird also alludes to the multicultural and pluriethnic characters of the inhabitants of the province.
The coat of arms also retains the colours of the canton's flag. The artist has used three endemic species of the region, the colibri ("quimi"), the pambil palm tree ("shonpo") and the butterfly ("pumpu") [?], triumphally raising in the air. The 17 feathers of the colibri represent the 17 months required for the consultation that led to the provincialization.
I found 13 Urban parishes: Santo Domingo de los Colorados, Chiguilpe, Río Verde, Abraham Calazacón, Bombolí, Zaracay; rural parishes: San José de Alluriquin, Puerto Limón, Luz de América, San Jacinto del Búa, Valle Hermoso, El Esfuerzo, Santa María del Toachi; and [?].
Ivan Sache, 21 October 2008

The flag is in a 2:3 proportional ratio - a quartered saltire design.  A white saltire separates triangular quarters of red (top and bottom) from green (left and right); inside the white saltire (but a bit away from the edges) are black fimbriations. The motif in the center is a big 16-pointed rayed sunburst (with wavy rays in-between the straightened ones) in a shiny color (seems to look like white with golden shadows); it features a multicolored colibri
The shield used in its emblem looks similar to the United States' Federal Route sign.  This is divided horizontally with a wavy line (of 7 up points), and vertically at the top (from the top apex point on the shield to meet the up crest of the 4th - central - point), thus yielding 2 quarters on the chief + an undivided base. The top-left is red with a gold 16-point sun motif (similar to the one on the flag, but in solid gold, and bearing a butterfly [?] thereon), while the top-right is green with a colibri (quimi); the base at the bottom is blue with a broad white horizontal band across it, with 2 narrower black stripes inside (but away fron its edges a bit). The crest on top of the shield is a simple palm tree - green foliage with a brown trunk.
Here are images of them from "La Hora".
Robert Wheelock, 24 October 2008

There is a Tsáchilas website, including a lot of interesting information, especially: "The name Tsáchila is made of two roots, which are, 'tsá', 'genuine', and, 'chila', 'a group of people'. Therefore, Tsáchila means 'a genuine group of people'". They are also known as 'Colorados'.
Ivan Sache, 24 October 2008

Translated from <www.gptsachila.gov.ec>:
"Flag: The sun symbolizes the cultural heritage of our ancestors and the legacy of 40 years of struggle. Its rays represent the water resources, the base of our agronomical prosperity.
The polychromous colibri represents multiculture, pluriethnicity. Its ascending flight symbolizes the achievement of our glorious destiny; its spread wings evoke love and generosity of our land. The 17 feathers allude to the 17 months required for the processus of provincialization.
The saltire is made of stripes representing our demographic and economic development, in the shape of four roads, with the colour of the "manpe tsanpá".
Red represents fire, the blood of our ancestors and achiote [lipstick tree, Bixa orellana L.] dye. Green represents the exuberant vegetation of our region, the renovation of the natural environment, hope and immortality.
Yellow is the colour of gold, used to mean wealth, eternity and sublimation. Black represents gravity, austere rigor, and comes from huito [Genipa americana L.], a shrub originally used to stain the stripes of the "manpe tsanpá".
White is the sum of the colours, representing light, purity, incorruptibility and perfection."
"Coat of Arms: The sun symbolizes the cultural heritage of our ancestors and  the legacy of 40 years of struggle. Its rays represent the water resources, the base of our agronomical prosperity.
The polychromous colibri represents multiculture, pluriethnicity. Its ascending flight symbolizes the achievement of our glorious destiny; its spread wings evoke love and generosity of our land. The 17 feathers allude to the 17 months required for the processus of provincialization.
The pambil represents the progress of our people, their strength and the union between spiritual and material domains. The butterfly represents environmental health [?]
The "manpe tsanpá" is the Tsáchila women's dress, with stripes proportionally increasing, representing our constant demographic and economic development.
The waves evoke our water resources. Red represents fire, the blood of our ancestors and graisse de rocouyer. Green represents the exuberant vegetation of our region, the renovation of the natural environment, hope and immortality.
Jens Pattke and Ivan Sache, 22 November 2008

This flag is remarkable on its own, but also when compared with all other Ecuatorian provincial flags (and indeed with most Ecuatorian subnational flags), which are mostly way more simple. It is however a good flag design, in my opinion (especially considering how much worse it could be!) — anyone for a detailed description?
António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 April 2016


Coat of Arms


image resized from wikipedia

About the coat of arms, to make it flag related (and this section worth keeping), I’d point out that the flag and the coat of arms, while looking different (unlike, say, Iceland) and not including each other, do share common elements. One wonders which was created as a derivate of the other, or whether maybe they were created toghether. (F.w.i.w., i.m.h.o. this coat of arms is horrible heraldry, unlike the flag, that is pretty good vexillography, all considered.)
António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 April 2016