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Puerto Rico - Variants of the flag

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico

Last modified: 2021-08-25 by rob raeside
Keywords: puerto rico | united states | america | cuba | star | stripes | hoist triangle | usa |
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De jure since 1995
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 November 2010


De jure 1952-1995
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 November 2010


Pro-independence; official measurements. Non-existent?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 November 2010


De facto since 1995
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 November 2010


De facto 1952-1995
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 November 2010


Pro-independence, popular measurements.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 November 2010


Theoretical first version: Cuban flag reversed.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 November 2010



See also:


Variants of the Flag

Concering the blue tone of the triangle in the Puerto Rican flag, here are the three commonly used variations in the island:
Dark Blue: Former official tone (until 1995), still substantially used by government and commerce and prefferred by pro- U.S. groups.
"Sky" Blue: Current official tone, used in most government buildings, substantial commercial use. Politically used mostly by pro commonwealth and statehood groups.
Light Blue: Preffered and widely used by pro- independence groups.
Victor Quinones, 6 October 2000

Do these two last versions has indeed a darker shade of red, as in the US flag, or do they use medium red, like in the flag of Cuba?
António Martins, 27 December 2000

I am comparing the flag of Cuba with the flag of Puerto Rico, the flag of Cuba has a blue field that is clearly an equilateral triangle.Here, the flag of Puerto Rica has a blue field that appears to be isosceles with the two base angles greater than 60 degrees and extending into the banner by a dimension equal to 4 stripes. Is this true or is this a printing/drawing illusion?
If made according to legislation both flags should actually have the same equilateral triangle at their hoist ... Despite this, the Puerto Rican legislation is apparently ignored in practice, with the apex of the triangle (as you point out and we illustrate) only extending the centre point of the flag?
Woodson Rainey
, 15 July 2009

As far as I know, it's not entirely true. The triangle is indeed isosceles, but with base angles smaller than 60 degrees. Well, we had sort of a middle ground, not quite as far as in legislation, not quite as limited as in usage. I've now drawn a new set of images from scratch that does distinguish between the two: Three flags with isosceles triangles and sky, dark and light blue, and three with equilateral triangles, with the same blue colours.
I haven't seen anything resembling a construction sheet, so far, so I've used a star size that approximates the star in the photograph of an actual flag on welcome to Puerto Rico site (which photograph, unfortunately, isn't all that big). The star is slightly smaller than the star in the drawing on http://www.gobierno.pr/GPRPortal/Inicio/PuertoRico/Simbolos/Banderas/Bandera+de+Puerto+Rico.htm, but I'm not too sure about that image, as it doesn't use an equilateral triangle. I've used the same red on all images; we do have some questions about possible difference, but as apparently no-one has the answers, I left it as it was for now.
Though our page mentions several times that the original flag was sky blue, like the Cuban flag, theoretically, the first flag would have been ocean blue instead, as that was the colour of the Cuban flag at the
time, according to our Cuban pages. I've done a Cuban flag with the colours reversed as well, and the ocean blue together with the equilateral triangle and a length long enough to keep the hoist triangle at the hoist only, makes it the best of the bunch, as far as I'm concerned. I expect the ideal design would be with the length being such that an equilateral triangle reaches the exact centre, but it probably has to be longer to give that impression while moving in the wind.
The reference to 'www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/8070/flag.htm' [dead link] can now be found at Reocities: http://www.reocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/8070/flag.htm.  I do wonder about the "...is same as the Cuban, but the color stripes are inverted..." bit, though, as this would seem to say that stripes should be white and red instead. I wonder what the "meetings acts" actually say. Does anyone know where to find the text of these minutes? The government page does quote it differently, but do we trust that?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 16 November 2010