History of the Flag of Azuero
Machine translation from the original, not yet reviewed by the author.
Original in Spanish
Origin
The proposal for a Flag of Azuero was conceived as a symbol to represent the feeling of being from Azuero on April 8, 1998, by Roberto Pérez-Franco, a young university student born in Chitré and living in La Heroica Villa de Los Santos. Curiously, the Province of Azuero was founded on April 8, 1850; this coincidence of dates was not intentional and was discovered some time later.
The flag has received congratulations from an international expert specializing in flags and from several prominent intellectuals of the Azuero community.
The flag of Azuero is unofficial in character. It cannot be considered official because there is no regional authority with jurisdiction over both provinces.
First Presentation
It was presented publicly on October 14, 1998, in the form of a decal, at a discussion forum held by the Azuero Regional Center of the University of Panama to commemorate the 150 years since the founding of the parish district of Chitré, and also on the radio programs La Mesa Revuelta and El Jurado del Pueblo. It should be made clear that this decal, owing to a production defect, did not show the exact proportions of the flag.
After this first presentation, the flag received the public and effusive support of great intellectual figures of the Azuero region, such as Don Carlos Innis and Don Milcíades Pinzón Rodríguez, at the time the directors of two university centers in the region.
First Cloth Flag
Ten days later, on October 24, 1998, the author made, with the selfless help and great skill of Doña Darys Consuegra, the first cloth flag of Azuero, two meters long. This specimen is shown below.The young woman in the photo below is not Doña Darys, but a teacher from Los Santos.
Blessing
The first cloth flag was blessed on November 15, 1998, by the Reverend Miguel Ángel Conde, Parish Priest of La Heroica Villa de Los Santos, after the six o’clock evening Mass; the witnesses of this act were the brothers Rubén Darío ‘Chiqui’ Espitia Morales (may he rest in peace) and Pablo Daniel Espitia Morales. The photograph shown was taken at the church exit that afternoon.By mistake, the photograph was taken with the flag upside down. This error has been corrected digitally.
Signs of Official Support
The Mayor of Chitré in those days, José Nieves Burgos, expressed in a letter his pleasure with and support for the proposal for a Flag of Azuero.
Publication in Flag Report
In Issue 23 of the vexillological bulletin ‘Flag Report’, a publication specialized in the flags of the world, edited in Spain, the flag of Azuero appears listed among the flags of Panama. This bulletin was published on July 1, 2003. Below appears the schematic of the flag of Azuero, as documented in this international bulletin.
