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Illimo District (Lambayeque, Peru)

Íllimo

Last modified: 2021-08-25 by rob raeside
Keywords: illimo | lambayeque | peru |
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Íllimo district flag
image by Zoltan Horvath, 05 May 2012


See also:

Overview

The District municipality of Íllimo (9,107 inhabitants in 2007; 6,730 ha), founded on 22 November 1905 by Law No. 1936, is the capital of the Department of Lambayeque, Region of Lambayeque.
Ivan Sache, 29 May 2010


The flag

The flag of Íllimo was selected on 26 October 2000 in a public contest. The text says that the flag is horizontally divided light blue-white-yellow with a green trapeze along the hoist and the municpal emblem in the middle, while the image shows the horizontal stripes in the reverse order, yellow-blue-light blue.
Blue symbolizes the sky, source of rain and life, as well as the aspirations of the youth. White symbolizes peace and tranquillity granted by God for the welfare of our society. Yellow symbolizes the potential treasures of the Huacas and the soil, as well as the local gold shown in museums worldwide. Green symbolizes agriculture, the main source of income of the population.
The trapeze symboizes the presence of our sacred huacas, the tombs of our former rulers. [According to this explanation, the correct arrangement of the stripe should be blue-white-yellow, with the sky on top and the soil on bottom.]
Source: Municipal website, flag page.
The emblem of Íllimo, designed in 1986 by Marcial Anhuamán Castro, is made of a shield hold by the Golden Tumi statuette, with a cartouche charged with the black writing "ILLIMO" and a red scroll bearing the black writing "ARTE TRABAJO Y FE" (Art, Work and Faith"). The shield is divided into three quarters. The upper quarter shows a rural landscape divided into two parts by river La Leche. On the left part is shown a farmer; on the right part, the same landscape is dominated by an American carob tree; in the background is shown a Huaca pyramid surmonted by the rising sun. The lower left quarter shows the village church, hoisting a white gonfanon, here the banner of St. John the Baptist, the patron saint; the star placed above the church is the Star of Betlehem, recalling the local Three Kings' Festival. The lower right quarter represents the Lambayeque culture, with three artefacts found in huacas.
Source: Municipal website, emblem page.
The Íllimo Golden Tumi ("Tumi de Oro") (http://www.lambayeque.net/lambayeque/illimo/tumi-de-oro/) of was found in 1936-1937 in the Las Ventanas huaca by Dr. Julio César Tello - considered as the father of archeology in Peru - and the local shepherd Hipólito Granados Durand. The statuette (18-carat gold; 990 g; 43 cm x 15 cm) was used as a sacrificial knife in religious ceremonies. Some scholars claim that the statuette represents God Naymlap, the mythic stem of the rulers of the Lambayeque valley. The idol's face is crowned by a semi-circular diadem included eight emeralds; two more, bigger esmeralds represnets the ears. The face is covered by a mask typical of the Lambayeque culture, ending, according to some scholars, in a bird's beak. The lateral pendants also recall mythological birds. The figure stands on a golden pedestal decorated with four esmeralds (replaced by the writing "ILLIMO" in the coat of arms). The base of the idol is a half-moon shaped, sharpended piece.
Source: Municipal website
Ivan Sache
, 29 May 2010

The municipality has a new website: Symbols (now on a single page) Now the written description matches the image. However, I still have some doubt about the arrangement of the stripes, since the upper stripe symbolizes the soil and the lower stripe symbolizes the sky.
Ivan Sache, 05 May 2012

I was a bit doubtful about the website itself. While it does probably aim to show the information, I don't think it's official. So I went looking for a different one, and I found the new portal at the old site.
The text accessed fro the new portal does indeed say explicitly that the yellow field is on top, and shows this in the image as well. It then, however, explains the colours in the exact opposite order, starting with the air at the bottom. While the description and the image match, some doubt is indeed cast on the proper order of the stripes.
Checking the web archive, I find this inconsistency might be what confused us the first time as well. So, checking for actual images, I find that we now have an image of the flag in the cloth. Though it differs in not having the arms throughout but rather on the middle stripe, it does indeed show the sky at the bottom.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2012


Coat of arms

Íllimo district CoA
image by Zoltan Horvath, 05 May 2012