Last modified: 2014-05-22 by zoltán horváth
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by Jaume Ollé'
Adopted: 6 Octuber 1821.
by Jaume Ollé'
Adopted: 9 May 1834. Abolished: 1855.
by Jaume Ollé'
Adopted: 1855. Abolished: 26 July 1861.
by Jaume Ollé'
by Jaume Ollé'
Adopted: 26 November 1861. Abolished: 1886.
by Jaume Ollé'
Adopted: 1886. Abolished: 3 November 1903.
![[First Flag of Panama]](../images/p/pa-first.gif)
by Jaume Ollé , 4 September 1996
The flag was proposed by Felipe Bunau Varilla before
independence.
Jaume Ollé, 4 September 1996
This is not the "First Flag" but a proposal by
Philippe Bunau Varilla that was rejected by the Panama government
because it was too much like the U.S. flag and never became
official.
Alvaro Aguilar , 21 December 1999
From [udk97] : "The first
flag, proposed in 1903, consisted of SEVEN horizontal stripes of
red and yellow, with a blue canton containing two golden suns,
joined by a narrow line to depict the oceans to be united by the
Panama Canal" . The image above has THIRTEEN horizontal
stripes !?
Ivan Sache, 26 December 1999
The first flag proposed was a version of the flag of the
United States,of America, designed and proposed by the
insidious frenchman Phillipe Buneau/Varilla, where the
stripes were yellow and red.and on the blue rectangle, instead of
fifty stars, had o an enormous yellow sun.It was immediately, and
mercifully rejected unanimously.
Charles F. Brannan-Jaen, 20 July 2009
![[1903 Flag of Panama]](../images/p/pa-1903.gif)
3 November - 20 December 1903
by Željko Heimer, 6 January 1996
This flag was drawn by Manuel Amador, son of the first
President of the Republic, and made by his mother Maria Ossa de
Amador. Basically it is the same as the current national
flag but the colours are in a different order. The flag was used
from 3 November 1903 to 20 December 1903. After this date the
order was changed for unknown reasons, and the new flag (the
current flag) was adopted oficially by law 64 of 4 June 1904. In
1906 a competition for a new national flag was initiated, but the
flag not was changed.
Jaume Ollé , 4 September 1996
Panama had three official flags during the year 1903.
The first is the flag of the Province of Panama within the
Colombian Republic - the last pre-independence flag. The second
flag (above) is similar to the present flag, but not the same.
This almost similar flag places the all-blue quarter in the top
hoist, and the blue star in the lower hoist (and also flips the
red elements in an analogous fashion). According to our research,
this flag was the flag of Panama for a very short period of time:
3 November 1903 to 20 December 1903. After 20 December,
Panama had its third flag of the year - the present day flag. This flag was
first used at the end of 1903, but not officially adopted until
1904.
Steve Kramer, 27 April 2003
I must inform you that Manuel Encarnacion Guerrero (not Manuel
Amador Guerrero) designed the flag. Manuel Encarnacion was Dr.
Amador Guerrero’s son from a previous marriage and a stepson
to Doña Maria Ossa de Amador, who although generally credited
with sewing the first flag, assisted by her sister in law.
However, Mme Gerrero did not know how to operate a sewing
machine, but her seamstress sister in law did.and had the
requisite machine. Therefore, some historians insist Mme.Guerrero
took credit unjustly.
To be objective and fair,about which lady did the actual
handiwork, I have to say, having examined the original flag on
display at our Museum, that it’s a desperately (although
it’s a kind of desperate beauty) amateurish effort at
sewing. Maybe the pressure, stress, the uncertainty of discovery
in participating in a treacherous conspiracy punishable by firing
squad, but no expert seamstress sewed that flag.
Charles F. Brannan-Jaen, 20 July 2009
Rolando de la Guardia Wald reports in "La
Prensa", 9 January 2007:
" In a corner of the library of the National Institute,
protected by a fragile crystal box, is shown the flag raised by
the students of the National Institute in the Canal Zone on 9
January 1964. According to Rimsky Sucre, former President on the
Association of the National Institute "Generation 64",
the flag was originally kept in a cardbox at the National
Institute of Culture. The flag was later relocated where it is
shown today, in unappropriate conditions, without control of
humidty, so that fungi have already significantly spoiled the
flag. The 9 January 1964 can be considered as "illegal"
because it has a fringe and the national shield as well as the
name of the National Institute embroidered in the middle. It was
torn during the confrontation between the students who wanted to
hoist the flag and the so-called "Zonians", the
American students who then studied at Balboa High School.
This flag represents a strong symbol for the
"institutores" and the Panamanians, therefore the need
to restore it and to show it as a symbol of the Panamanian
national identity. In 2004-2005, Sucre, who was involved in the 9
January movement, exchanged letters with the art restorer Antón
Rajer in order to restore "this symbol of the Panamanian
sovereignty". Rajar accepted to be watched during his works
by students from the National Institute. He sprayed special
products in order to get rid of the fungi, dried up the flag and
sewed it, piece by piece, on a canvass made of a specific fabric.
The flag immediatly placed under vacuum in an urn with a frame
made of bronze.
There are two versions of the origin of this flag. Several
students claim that the flag was used in demonstration before the
9 January event. Guillermo Guevara Paz, then a fourth-year
student, wrote in " La Estrella de Panamá" on 1'
January 1964 that Francisco Díaz had been allowed to raise the
flag of the National Institute by Rector Dídimo Ríos: "We
used - as it was said - the flag that had already been used in
the 12 December 1948 movement [against the Filos-Hines treaty],
in May 1958 (Operation Sovereignty) and also on 3 November 1959.
It was said that the flag was stained with the bllod of "the
martyres of the Federation of the Students of Panamá".
Carlos Arrieta de la Hoz, former Professor and Rector of the
National Institute, recalls that the 9 January flag was the first
ever used by the National Institute; it was a grant by the
Director of the National Lottery, Guillermo Quijano (1960-1964)
and could therefore not have been used in former
demonstrations."
Historical background on the 9 January 1964 events and their
consequences can be read on: <www.czbrats.com>
and <www.czbrats.com/Flag_pole.htm>.
Ivan Sache, 6 February 2007
