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Quintana Roo, Mexico

Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo

Last modified: 2005-03-05 by juan manuel gabino villascán
Keywords: mexico | quintana roo | coat of arms | unofficial flag |
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Note: Quintana Roo has no official flag, but one in white charged with the coat of arms is broadly used:

Quintana Roo unofficial white flag 4:7[Non-official proportions]
[Defacto flag]
[One or more variants under the same basic design]
by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, May 06, 2001.
See: Coat of arms on white background: unofficial flags


See also: Other sites:


Presentation of Quintana Roo

  • Official name: Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo / Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo
  • Short-form names: Estado de Quintana Roo / State of Quintana Roo; Quintana Roo.
  • Location: The less-populated Mexican State lies on the Yucatán Peninsula, SW of Mexico. Quintana Roo comprises the beautiful islands of Cozumel and Mujeres in the Caribbean Sea, world-famous tourist resorts like Cancún, Chetumal, Punta Allen, and interesting archeological places such as Tulum, Cobá, Xcaret, El Rey, Muyil, San Gervasio, Xel-Ha. It neighbors the Mexican States of Yucatán (NE), and Campeche (SE). Both, the Gulf of Mexico (N) and the Caribbean See bath the Quintana Roo coats. To the South the State limits Belize.
  • Area: 39,376 km2
  • Municipalities: 8
  • Population: 874,963 inhabitants
  • Capital: Chetumal, municipality of Othón P. Blanco (Pop.: 116,000)
  • Statehood: October 8, 1974
  • Arms adopted: Unknown date

INEGI and SEP
Reported by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, October 06, 2001.


Coat of arms

Quintana Roo coat of arms
by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, May 06, 2001.

A very nice coat of arms, strikingly different from the rest (although it is not the typical medieval coat of arms, also): a square shield (lower tips rounded, in short of being a square) party per pale and the I per fess: gules, a [something] or; azure, a mullet argent; or three triangles sable pointing upwards over a [something] of the same. Crest: a setting (or rising?) sun, disc gules, seven rays or.
António Martins, 01 Sep 1999


I can add a few more data on that subject.

This shield is of modern origin, I have not been able to establish its age, but is seems to be made about 1950-1960. I keep looking.

Upper left:
Red is the Mayan color for the East, and Quintana Roo is the easternmost Mexican state. That [something] or is a sea conch, seen by the side and stylized in an indigenous fashion, which is a symbol of the geographical position of QR as the only Mexican state facing the Caribbean Sea and its economic dependence on tourism.

Upper right:
The argent star over blue is Venus, the morning star, again because Quintana Roo is the easternmost Mexican state.

Lower:
The three [somethings] in sable are three green trees growing over a green piece of forest, for tropical woods are the main historical wealth of the state (timber, tints, rubber, chewing gum, same as neighbouring Campeche state and Belize). The background or has a double meaning, for the forest riches and for yellow is the Mayan color for the South.

Upper crest:
The sun is rising, for QR is the first piece of Mexican territory receiving the morning light. The sun used to have seven rays, for there were seven municipalities in 1974 when QR, youngest Mexican state, was created from a scarcely populated federal territory. Now the QR government uses an eight-ray sun for there was created a new municipality, Solidaridad (capital: Playa del Carmen), a piece of mainland coastline that belonged to the Cozumel island municipality but was complicated to govern because of the 20 km of sea that separated Playa del Carmen from its municipal authorities. We can expect that the rising sun will have many more rays in the coming years, for QR is growing fastly. You may have not heard about QR, but surely you have about Cancún, its biggest city.

Gerardo Kloss, August 3, 2000.


The Quinata Roo coat of arms is not "medieval" or traditional because its territoy through history was Yucatec until 1902 when the territory was split from Yucatan to form the Federal Territory of Quintana Roo.
The Sovereign Free State was created on April 4, 1974, being Governor Lawyer David G. Gutiérrez Ruiz who took posession a day before. Until then, Quinta Roo has distinctive arms.
Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, August 4, 2000.

In the Quintana Roo coat of arms are represented the State's main geographical features: warm climate (stylized sun on red), cloudless sky (star on blue field), and thick vegetation. The crest is a rising sun for Quintana Roo is the far-eastern Mexican State, then where the Mexican day begins.
Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, January 20, 2002.