Cuba’s flag (1902) bears five stripes—three blue, two white—and a red hoist triangle charged with a white five‑pointed star. Conceived by Narciso López in 1849 for the independence cause, blue marks the island’s historic departments, white purity and justice, red courage and sacrifice, and the lone star sovereignty. A 1:2 ratio and protocol regulate construction, display, and dignified retirement.
The Cuban flag—La Estrella Solitaria—arose from mid‑nineteenth‑century liberation movements. Designed in New York in 1849 by the Venezuelan‑born general Narciso López with the poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón, it married republican iconography to the geography and aspirations of the island: five horizontal stripes alternating blue (three) and white (two); a red equilateral triangle at the hoist; and a single white star at the triangle’s centre.
The blue stripes referenced the island’s colonial administrative divisions; white signified purity of purpose and justice; the red triangle evoked sacrifice and, in Masonic parlance, liberty, equality, and fraternity; while the solitary white star expressed the goal of an independent state. López first raised the flag at Cárdenas in 1850. Though the expedition failed and Spain retained control for decades, the banner circulated through the Ten Years’ War (1868–1878) and later revolutionary campaigns as the emblem of Cuban nationhood.
On 20 May 1902, coinciding with the proclamation of the Republic of Cuba after U.S. occupation ended, the López design was adopted officially as the national flag. Constitutional and statutory texts fixed a 1:2 proportion and set out construction sheets for the triangle and star to standardise manufacture. The state prescribed display on public buildings, at diplomatic missions, and within the armed forces, with penalties for desecration and misuse.
The flag’s symbolism has remained constant across the twentieth century, including after 1959. While the government restructured politics and state emblems in other spheres, the national flag was preserved in its 1902 form as a unifying symbol across social and political currents. Variants exist for naval and presidential use, but the basic composition dominates civic and ceremonial contexts.
Protocol
requires the flag to be clean, intact, and properly hoisted, never touching the ground; worn flags are retired respectfully, commonly by burning. On national commemorations—10 October (beginning of the independence wars), 1 January (Triumph of the Revolution), and 20 May (Republic Day)—public display of the flag is widespread, while abroad it signals Cuban sovereignty at embassies and multilateral fora.
Cuba’s banner thus links the island’s revolutionary past to its sovereign present: austere geometry, powerful colour contrasts, and a single guiding star that remains legible and distinctive across plazas, ships, stadiums, and diplomatic halls.