Last modified: 2006-11-11 by dov gutterman
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![[Flag of Guayas]](../images/e/ec-g.gif)
image by Carlos Thompson, 15 June 2003
Note: Guayaquil and Guayas Province use the same flag.
See also:
Image of the flag at <www.guayas.gov.ec>.
Guayaquil and Guayas Province use the same flag and different
coat of arms. Canton established 09 October 1820.
Falko Schmidt and Jens Pattke, 8 September 2003
Guayaquil (a.k.a Santiago de Guayaquil) is the biggest town
(nearly 3,000,000 inhabitants), the economic capital city and the
main port of Ecuador. Like the river Guayas and the province of
Guayas, it is named after the local chief Guayas, said to have
ruled the area some 500 years before the spanish conquest. The
colonial town was founded in 1538 by Francisco de Orellana, who
later discovered the Amazon, and was famous for its shipyards,
then the most important in South America. The symbols of
Guayaquil are shown on the municipal website.
The flag of Guayaquil is horizontally divided
blue-white-blue-white-blue with three white stars on the central
blue stripe. The design is traditionally credited to Dr. Don
José Joaquín de Olmedo, who took part to the struggle for the
independence of the town from the Spanish rule in October 1820.
The three stars represent the three settlements of Guayaquil,
Portoviejo and Machala, where the insurrection took place. The
shield of Guayaquil was prescribed by Dr. José Joaquín de
Olmedo, president of the government of Guayaquil, in November
1820; Olmedo prescribed the official papers to be decorated with
a five-pointed star (recalling the flag), two laurel branches
tied below the star by a red ribbon and the motto "Por
Guayaquil Independiente". The shield was officialized in
1916.
The independence struggle of October 1820, which led to the end
of the Spanish rule and the adoption of the flag of Guayaquil, is
related in the article "A 186 años de la Independencia de
Guayaquil", published in "Diario
La Opinión", Machala (Ecuador), 9 October 2006:
On 8 February 1816, the English sailor Guillermo
Brown, to the service of the independentista cause
under Argentine sponsorship, moored in the Gulf and
Guayaquil and attempted to rouse the locals against the Spanish
rule. In 1819, a Chilean fleet commanded by Lord Cochrane,
assisted by another English sailor, Juan Illingworth, on board of
the famous corvette "Rosa de los Andes", blocked for a
while the port of Guayaquil, lifting the Spanish maritime
domination. The independence war increased in 1820 and a few
towns were liberated, forcing tht Spaniards to withdraw to the
Vice-Kingdom of Lima (Peru), which had been the headquarters of
the colonial army since 1809. The struggle for independence
became a continental issue and involved several foreigners, for
instance Brits, Irish, North americans, French and even
Spaniards.
Encouraged by the early attempts described above, the population
of Guyaquil decided to definitively get rid of the Spanish rule
in October 1820. Captain León de Febres Cordero y Oberto, a
Venezuelian officer who had been expelled from the army because
of his libertarian views, came to Guayaquil and joined the cause
of the independence with two other Venezuelian officers, Captains
Luis de Urdaneta y Faría and Miguel de Letamendi, former members
of the Spanish battalion "Numancia".
Febres Cordero led the military action that culminated with the
proclamation of the independence of Guayaquil on 9 October 1820.
On the evening of 1 October 1820, a group of patriots met in a
small, isolated lounge of the house of Don José de Villamil and
Doña. Ana Garaicoa, who gave a party for Isabelita Morlás, the
beautiful daughter of Don Pedro Morlás, the Treasurer of the
Spanish government. The conspirators took the oath of getting rid
of the Spanish rule on a small table they called "The Forge
of Vulcano". On the evening of the 8 October, the
conspirators reviewed their plan and on the dawn of 9 0ctober,
they sworn again to achieve it, with the motto "Guayaquil
por la Patria". Captain Damián Nájera arrested Manuel
Tórrez Valdivia, the commander of the Spanish artillery corps
and the corps ammunition was transferred to the rebels. This
allowed Febres Cordero and his 50 men to take the control of the
artillery corps. In the same time, Captain Urdaneta, Lorenzo de
Garaicoa and others seized the fortress of Daule, commanded by
the valiant Spanish Captain Joaquin de Magallar. Besieged in his
own redoubt, Magallar attempted to repel the rebels and was shot
by Urdenata. Still in the same time, other patriots took the
control of the seven Spanish gunboats moored in the river Guayas
and captured 350 sailors. On the morning of the 10 October, the
Spanish garrison surrenderred to the rebels and Governor Don
Pascual de Vivero was arrested. The other civil officers resigned
without resistance. The frist independent government of Guayaquil
was presided by the poet Dr. Don José Joaquín de
Olmedo. A few days later, the schooner Alcance, commanded by
Captain José de Villamil, left Guayaquil to join the
insurrection commanded by General José de San Marín and Lord
Cochrane in the south of the continent. The schooner flew the
flag with three horizontal blue stripes and two white one and
three stars in the middle. The design of this flag is credited to
Dr. Don José Joaquín de Olmedo.
Ivan Sache, 9 October 2006
g-gua.jpg)
actual coat of arms
image from municipal
website
g1.jpg)
colonial coat of arms
image from Guayaquil
municipal website
Captain Diego de Urbina designed the coat of arms in order to
recall the arms of his birth town and to perpetuate his fame,
after having rebuilt the town of Guayaquil in 1541. The colours
of the provincial coat of arms differ
from Urbina's coat of arms. The three blue waves in the bottom of
the shield might have inspired the flag of Guayaquil.
Ivan Sache, 9 October 2006