The flags of Catalonia

Lately, Spanish TV news are directing all the spotlights on Catalonia, its independentists and their red and yellow flags. Let’s focus on the latter.

The day of the declaration of independance of Catalonia by Carles Puigdemont

© TV channel La Sexta

The Senyera, the Catalan flag

The creation of the Senyera, the catalan flag, dates back to so long ago (around the 11th or 12th century or even sooner) that it’s unfortunately impossible to reconstruct its origins’ story.

The Senyera, four red stripes on a yellow background

The legend (it’s only a legend, the dates don’t match) tells that a brave king traced four stripes with his bloodied hand on a golden shield. The advantage of this legend is that you won’t have any difficulty remembering that what we have to deal with here is four red stripes on a yellow background and not the contrary !

The estelada blava, the independentist Catalan flag

The idea of the star drawing on the estelada blava (the ‘blue starry’ in Catalan) comes form the flag of Cuba, a country that won its independence in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American war.

The estelada blava, the claimant flag

The star on Cuba’s flag is the symbol of its independence from Spain and has thus been taken up by the Catalan independentists aiming at that goal.

The estelada roja, the independentist Catalan flag of the communists

Between the years 1960 and 1990, it was this flag that was favored by the independentists.

The estelada roja, bicolor yellow and red

It was then in fact fashionable to want the independence so as to establish a communist state or at the least a socialist one. After the year 1989, it became less fashionable, one wonders why …

The flag of the Valencian Community

Ah, come on, let me put one more flag up for the pleasure. Do you see the ressemblance with the three flags above ?

The flag of the Valencian Community

© Carlesmari / Wikimédia Commons / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Yes, the red stripes on a yellow background, right ? The explanation is the following : the region of Catalonia at the north-east of Spain is not the only place where Catalan is spoken. Look at this map of Catalan dialects.

Map of Catalan dialects

© Ebrenc / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.5

At the present time, the independentists are “only” really claiming the region called ‘Central Catalan’ on the map, but we have for example observed that some French people from the Pyrénées-Orientales felt concerned enough by the Hispano-Catalan referundum that they helped organizing it by printing and keeping safe the ballot papers on French territory …

Besides the major part of the Pyrénées-Orientales in France, the other regions of Catalan language and culture are thus three other little pieces of Spanish land, the town of Alguero in Sardinia (Italy) and Andorra. To be noted : each of these places proudly displays the red stripes on yellow background of the Senyera on a more or less important part of its flag or coat of arms …