Last modified: 2009-09-12 by antónio martins
Keywords: south peru | error | crescent: points to fly (yellow) | sun: 24 rays | sun: face | star: 5 points (white) | stars: arch | stars: 4 |
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On 17 march 1836 representatives of the four southern provinces meet in
Sicuani and created the South Peruvian State. On the 20th a new flag for
South Peru was decreed. It was composed of three stripes, a vertical red one
at the hoist and green over white horizontal stripes in the fly. Thus it
combined the general colors and designs of both the bolivian and peruvian
flags. Since South Peru consisted of Four provinces (Arequipa, Puno, Cuzco
and Ayacucho) it adopted four stars in a semicircle over a radiant Inca sun
as its cotas of arms, the same device appearing on the green stripe of its
flag.
Jaume Ollé, 27 Oct 2001, quoting from
[fue75]
J. G. Fuentes [fue75] shows the flags of
South Peru 1836-39. The flag had equal stripes, a red one vertical at the hoist
bearing 4 gold stars over a gold Inca Sun, and green over white horizontal
stripes in the fly. The sun is always depicted with facial features. (The
drawing above was copied from original source documents of the South Peruvian
government).
Dave Martucci, 19 Mar 2000
The “definitive source” is [fue75],
an article by J. G. Fuentes in The Flag Bulletin XIV-5. It gathers
enough information to debunk other three alternative
reconstructed designs of this flag, one
of them from a book authored by the same J. G. Fuentes,
[fueXX], about which we do not know the
publ. date, but can safely be inferred that it was before the
tFB article [fue75], i.e.,
prior to 1975.
António Martins, 05 Nov 2005
In the seventies, prof. Lux-Wurm made a study on it and it came out that the devices on the red field were a yellow sun surmounted by four white stars [and not a crescent]. The four stars stand for the departments of the State: Cuzco, Puno, Arequipa and Ayacucho. This flag was in use from 20/3/1836 until 2/1839. The most interesting source is J. Basadre, Chile, Perú y Bolivia independentes [bsr], where is reproducted an engraving of the time seeming to be an official design. Mistakes made by so many authors in representing a crescent instead of a sun derived by a very poor official description of the flag in the law that stated the coat of arms and the flag:
The arms of the new State are a sun with four stars placed as a rainbow. The flag has the colors red, green and white.Mario Fabretto, 10 Jul 1997
The decree establishing the flag describes the emblems as gold.
Dave Martucci, 23 Oct 2001
The South Peruvian coat-of-arms in the coin shown on the
cover of The Flag Bulletin XIV:5 (Sep-Oct 1975)
[tfb] (illustrating
[fue75]) shows the sun with
five stars.
Jaume Ollé, 27 Oct 2001
The Hispanic Encyclopaedia (Enciclopedia Hispano-Americana)
places the green at the hoist and red over white at the fly; on the green a
yellow sun with four white stars below it.
Mario Fabretto, 10 Jul 1997
This encyclopaedia reproduces for each county the color plates of
Flaggenbuch 1905 [ruh05] but
latin-american countries are treated more deeply and images from other
sources were added — 19th cent. peruvian flags are not in
[ruh05].
Jaume Ollé, 27 Oct 2001
This flag [with crescent] is quite
common on many late 19th century sources but it was found to
be wrong. The mistake made by so many authors in representing
a crescent instead of a sun derived by a very poor
official description of the flag.
Mario Fabretto, 10 Jul 1997
In the Flags of the World edition of the National
Geographic magazine of 1917
[gmc17] I have found the following
flag for South Peru (no 445): Vertically divided, near the hoist
red, the fly horizontally divided green over white. In the upper
corner near the hoist a yellow crescent pointing towards the fly,
between the points are four stars arranged in an arc. In the text
is said 1835-1837.
Harald Müller, 30 Nov 1995
On the book of Le Gras [leg58] the
flag is red at the hoist, green over white at the fly with the crescent
and the stars in gold.
The 1917 issue of National Geographic Magazine
[gmc17] shows the same pattern.
Mario Fabretto, 10 Jul 1997
In [gmc17],
the red area is 1/2 the length of the fly.
Phil Nelson, 15 Mar 2000
J. G. Fuentes [fue75] concludes that the
South Peruvian flag that appeared in the National Geographic and in
other places was an error copied from earlier errors.
No Peruvian source shows a crescent and stars emblem.
Dave Martucci, 19 Mar 2000
In the Historia de las Banderas de América, by J.G. Fuentes
[fueXX], the flag is a vertical tricolor
red, white, green, with a sky-blue shield in the center over which
the yellow sun surmounted by four white stars.
Mario Fabretto, 10 Jul 1997
In my opinion, this is just an incorrect reconstruction.
Jaume Ollé, 27 Oct 2001
Anything below this line was not added by the editor of this page.