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Toa Alta (Puerto Rico)

by Blas Delgado and Thanh-Tâm Le , 13 Febuary 2000

Overview
Reported Flags
Coat of Arms

See also:

Overview

The image on the Lexjuris site has a five-pointed star, whereas the text clearly refers to an eight-pointed star. This city of 57,000 inhabitants was founded in 1751. The star or "lucero" refers to the tradition of the apparition in Santiago de Compostela, following the Spanish heraldical tradition.
Thanh-Tâm Le' , 13 January 1999

Full name: San Fernando de Toa Alta. According to welcome.topuertorico.org site , it is called La Cuna de Poetas. Toa Alta was founded in 1751.
Jarig Bakker, 6 Febuary 2000

According to Dr. Delgado, Toa Alta's current flag has a five-pointed star, the 8-pointed one might be a previous version. Dr. Delgado's 8-pointed star is different from mine based on Lexjuris site.
Thanh-Tâm Le , 13 Febuary 2000

Reported Flags

Flag according to text at Lexjuris site
by Thanh-Tâm Le , 13 January 1999

Flag according to image at Lexjuris site
by Thanh-Tâm Le , 13 January 1999

Coat of Arms

by Nelson Román, 2 August 2004

Toa Alta (TO-ah AHL-tah) was founded during the year of 1751, under the government of Agustín Parejas. The parish was constituted under the patronage of Our Lady of the Conception and San Fernando. The name "Toa" is claimed to be the name that the Taíno Indians gave to the present river "Río de la Plata". This word in the language of the Taínos also means "mother" and frequently was written as "Thoa".
The shield in gold, a red board with a silver sword topped with a gold crown of the same metal, to each side two small shields in red, the right-hand one with a tower in gold and the left-hand one with a gold eight point star, a three tower crown lined in black with red openings. Motto: Non Deserit Alta. The sword and the crown represent San Bernardo Rey, patron of Toa Alta, and refer to the reconquest campaigns and the high spirit of justice of this monarch, sovereign of Castile and Leon. The right small shield represents the Virgin Mary, co-patron of the town in its title of Immaculate Conception, and the tower to Santa Barbara, virgin and martyr, also co-patron of Toa Alta. The left small shield the star with eight rays, besides being a symbol already popularized, particularly in sports of the town of Toa Alta, refers to the heroic toalte?os, Jose and Francisco Diaz, who were covered with glory in Hato Rey (1797) fighting against the English invaders and giving Jose his life in defense of the King and the Mother country next to the Martín Peña bridge. In the Spanish heraldic the star is symbol of the last name Diaz... which means "Son of Diego" by the entailment of this name, that also means "Son of Santiago", with the tradition of the appearance in Santiago de Compostela, of the star that revealed the place of the tomb of the Apostle patron of Spain. The crown is a civic or municipal standard. Toa Alta has three towers which denotes its category of "town". The Motto Non Deserit Alta, which translated from Latin means "Does not abandon high things".
Source: <www.linktopr.com>.
Nelson Román, 2 August 2004