Last modified: 2015-04-04 by ivan sache
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The best summary of the history of the Canarian flag is Bandera de Canarias, an article of the Gran Enciclopedia Canaria (1994, vol. II, pp. 528-530) written by Juan Hernández Bravo de Laguna [hdz94]. This article is the main source of information for José Manuel Erbez' website, Símbolos de Canarias website, from which the information presented on this page was derived.
Santiago Dotor & Ivan Sache, 17 December 1999
For a long time the Canary Islands, considered as a unit, had no own symbol. According to José Manuel Erbez (website), the journalist José Betancor Cabrera published 1904 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria a booklet of poems, entitled Allá (There) using the pseudonym "Ángel Guerra" (Angel of War). Within one poem he describes a white and celestialblue flag, which probably never existed. Without any further details this flag probably cannot be reconstructed.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 March 2008
![[Porposal]](../images/e/es-ic_es.gif)
Flag described by Nicolás Estévanez y Murphy, reconstruction - Image by Jaume Ollé, 13 December 1996
According to José Manuel Erbez (website), a poem written in 1893 by the federal and republican politician Nicolás Estévanez y Murphy, in which he declares his point of view about the political role of the islands, eventually published in 1907, describes a red flag containing a snowcapped blue mount Teide.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 March 2008
![[Porposal]](../images/e/es-ic_at.gif)
Atheneum flag - Image by Jaume Ollé, 13 December 1996
According to José Manuel Erbez (website), the flag of the Ateneo (Atheneum), the first council for the islands, located in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, was hoisted in front of the building of the council. The flag is blue with seven white five-pointed stars in geographical order. The flag was abolished very soon, to avoid further difficulties due to the permanent political crisis in the islands.
The flag had however a revival as the party flag of the Canarian National Party (PNC) and later as the flag of the Canarian Society, established 1924 in Cuba. The PNC a few years ago joined the National Federation of the Canaries (FNC) and kept this flag.
The Atheneum flag is said to have been inspired by American prototypes, especially Venezuela, where many Canarian emigrants lived and where a sort of Canarian identity was kept.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 March 2008
![[Porposal]](../images/e/es-ic!mm.gif)
Flag proposed by Manuel Martín González - Image by José Manuel Erbez, 31 March 2008
According to José Manuel Erbez (website), the painter Manuel Martín González published 1931 a similar flag on the front page of Tierra Canaria. The flag is blue with seven white five-pointed stars, six of them ordered as a circle around the seventh star representing Tenerife island.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 March 2008