Flag of São Paulo (state)

Flag of São Paulo
Use Civil and state flag
Proportion 2:3
Adopted 27 November 1946
Design 13 stripes varying between black and white, with a red canton on the upper left corner. Inside the canton, four yellow stars in each corner and a white circle in the middle with a blue map of Brazil.

The flag of the state of São Paulo, along with the coat of arms and the anthem, make the symbols of the state of São Paulo, in Brazil.

Idealized by the philologist and writer Júlio Ribeiro in 1888, it had as a goal be the flag of the republican regime, that was effectively proclaimed at November 15 of the following year. To graphically materialize his idea, Júlio Ribeiro invited his brother in law Amador Amaral, graphic and plastic artist that developed the layout of the flag.[1]

The flag has thirteen stripes varying between black and white that represent the days and nights that the bandeirantes explored the Brazilian inlands. The pavilion has a red rectangle on the upper left corner, representing the blood dropped by the bandeirantes, having inside a white circle and the map of Brazil in blue, being the color of strength. There are as well four yellow stars on the inside corners of the rectangle.

The flag was a de factosymbol of São Paulo after the Constitutionalist Revolution, but was only officialized at November 27, 1946, under the Decree-Law 16.349 of the Federal constitution, that gave back to the states and municipalities the rights to cultivate proper symbols.

History

In the last years of the Empire of Brazil, many propagandists of the Republic created different projects of a national flag to be adopted with the advent of the new regime. For most of them, it was necessary to destroy all the symbols that resembled the Monarchy and the monarchic institutions.[2] On that context, the republican writer and journalist Júlio Ribeiro, founder and editor of the newspaper "O Rebate", published on his first edition of July 16, 1888, a series of critics to the imperial standard. There, he also exposes his own idea for the republican flag. According to him, his project:

“ ... symbolizes in a perfect way the genesis of the Brazilian people, the three races of which it is composed - white, black and red. The four stars surrounding a globe, in which we see the geographical profile of the country, represent the Southern Cross, the constellation indicative of our astral latitude (...) So, stand firm, glorious guess the Black-Target Pendant of the Cross! „
~ Júlio Ribeiro[3]
São Paulo voluntary at the Revolução Constitucionalista de 1932

The flag described by Júlio Ribeiro was hoisted in the government's palace in São Paulo on November 15, 1889, being used on the first days of the new regime.[2]

On November 19, 1889, under the decree nº 4 of the Provisional Government, Brazil adopts officially a new flag, but by authorship of Raimundo Teixeira Mendes, similar to the current flag. The flag idealized by Júlio Ribeiro, started to be considered the "flag of São Paulo" on the following years, without deserving, however, popular esteem. It was used to decorate facades or as a decorative object but without the honor of a civil cult because until then, the people of São Paulo dedicated that tribute exclusively to the national pavilion.[2]

The flag turned a de facto symbol of the state of São Paulo after the 1932 Revolution. Therefore, Getúlio Vargas, during the Vargas Era in Brazil, suspended the use of state symbols, including the flag of São Paulo, that would only officially be used after November 27, 1946, under the Decree-Law 16.349 of the Federal constitution, that gave back the rights to cultivate proper symbols.[4]

However, the new pavilion has elicited criticism. Afonso Taunay wrote in 1931, therefore before the flag had received the popular consecration, that it was an "... ugly dreadfully symbol, from the times of the republican propaganda, the flag that says itself of the invention of Júlio Ribeiro, the improperly called "Paulista flag," lugubrious, unesthetic, insignificant. Thank God it was never officialized, but unfortunately, it is very much adopted. So it disappears from all the use of this black-and-white mortuary cloth, raised on a state flag. It is unimportant today more than ever because it attributes to the population of São Paulo a dosage of entirely false African blood, since in the lands of São Paulo the percentage of Euro-Americans was immensely higher than the dosage of Afro, African and African-American elements."[2][5]

Caracteristics

Dimensions and construction

Anexo nº2 da lei 144/1948, com as especificações da bandeira.

The exact description of the flag, is given by the 2nd article of the law n. 145 of 1948 still in force. This article provides the following:[6]

Article number 2. The making of the Flag of the State of São Paulo will obey the following norms, as shown graphically in annex 2:
I - To calculate the dimensions, the desired width shall be taken as the base, divided into thirteen equal parts, each part constituting a module;
II - The length shall be 19.5 (nineteen and a half) modules, the other elements having the following proportions:
a) Field burelado: 1 (one) module width of each piece;
b) Canton: 7.5 (seven and a half) modules of length by 5 (five) wide;
c) Circle: 4 (four) diameter modules;
d) Geographic silhouette: Inscribed in an imaginary circumference of 3.5 (three and a half) modules of diameter and concentric to the Circle.
e) Stars: Inscribed on an imaginary circumference of 1.5 (one and a half) diameter module, whose center is located 1 (one) module away from the edges of the canton.

III - The indication of gold and silver metals, in any fabric in which the flag is made, shall be made by yellow and white, respectively.

Colors

The colors used on the flag (black, white, blue, yellow and red) don't have defined shadings in laws. However, the manual of visual identity of the government of the state of São Paulo specifies the following colors:[7]

Colors CMYK RGB Hexadecimal Pantone
0/0/0/100 33/33/37 212125 Black C
0/100/100/0 196/0/8 C40008 485 C
0/0/100/0 255/236/0 FFEC00 Yellow C
100/80/0/0 41/66/146 294292 286 C
0/0/0/0 255/255/255 FFFFFF

Because of the flag, the colors that characterize the state of São Paulo are black, red and white.[7]

Meaning

The flag of São Paulo on the top of edifício Altino Arantes, in São Paulo

The flag has thirteen stripes varying between black and white, starting and ending with black, such that the start and end of the flag are unambiguously delimited. The black and white stripes represent the days and nights that the bandeirantes fought for the good of the state.[8]

The pavilion has a red rectangle on the upper left corner, representing the blood dropped by the bandeirantes, having inside a white circle and the map of Brazil in blue, being the color of strength, that the bandeirantes believed to have brought to the state of São Paulo, with all the days and nights, and blood spilled - giving the clear idea that was a big bandeirante contribution for the state.[8]

There are as well four yellow stars on the inside corners of the rectangle. On the reverse flag, the only difference is that the rectangle is aligned on the top-right but the Brazilian map stays the same as the obverse flag.[8]

According to the creator of the flag, Júlio Ribeiro, in text of O Rebate of July 16, 1888, the red, black and white colors symbolize, respectively, the three construction races of the Brazilian people: amerindians, blacks and whites. It makes a reference to the thesis of Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, wrote in Como se deve escrever a história do Brasil (1840) and premiated by the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro. The thesis of the three races of von Martius influences the creation of other Brazilian flags, such as the state of Maranhão. Again according to Ribeiro in O Rebate, the four stars in the red rectangle represent the Southern Cross.[9]

See also

    References

    1. ↑ RIBEIRO, 1933, p. 68.
    2. 1 2 3 4 Ribiero, Clóvis (1933). São Paulo Editora, ed. Brazões e Bandeiras do Brasil (in Portuguese). São Paulo. pp. 65–68, 151–153.
    3. ↑ RIBEIRO, Júlio. O Rebate, 16 de julho de 1888.
    4. ↑ "A bandeira e o brasão paulista na Revolução de 1932". Associação Brasileira de Filatelia Temática. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
    5. ↑ TAUNAY, Afonso. Heraldica Municipal Brasileira. In: Jornal do Commercio, Rio de Janeiro. 1931/1932.
    6. ↑ "Lei n° 145, de 03/09/1948". Assembleia Legislativa do Estado de São Paulo. 1948. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
    7. 1 2 SÃO PAULO. Manual de Identidade Visual, Governo de São Paulo Acessado em: 19 jan. 2011.
    8. 1 2 3 "Bandeira de São Paulo". Governo do Estado de São Paulo. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
    9. ↑ O Rebate, 16 de julho de 1888. Wikisource link to pt. Wikisource.

    Bibliography

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