The Secret History Behind Puerto Rico's Flag

Puerto Rico's flag began as a mirror of another flag.

On December 22, 1895, in New York City, the Puerto Rican section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party adopted the flag at a meeting at Chimney Corner Hall. Antonio Vélez Alvarado, one of the men credited with its design, said the idea came to him from looking at the Cuban flag with its colors reversed: red stripes and a blue triangle instead of blue stripes and a red triangle, with the white star kept.

For years the flag was also a political risk. In 1948 a law known as the Ley de la Mordaza, the Gag Law, signed on June 10 of that year, made it a crime to display the Puerto Rican flag, punishable by up to ten years in prison. It was repealed in 1957.

The flag was made official on July 25, 1952, as the flag of the Commonwealth, with one change: the triangle went from the original light blue to a darker blue, the shade of the U.S. flag. That is the date printed on every Puerto Rico design in our catalog: July 25, 1952.

Today it flies loudest in the United States: every June, the National Puerto Rican Day Parade fills Fifth Avenue in New York with it.

A flag born in exile, banned at home, and flown louder than ever.

See the Puerto Rico Tropical Rhythm Tee → · Browse the USA collection → — or explore the story behind any other country's flag on our free Flag Story Cards page.