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Baja California (Mexico)

Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California

Last modified: 2019-09-28 by juan manuel gabino villascán
Keywords: mexico | baja california | california | tricolor |
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[Baja California official State Flag] 4:7
[Normal: Flag in "normal" use, without special observations. Horizontal hoisting]
  [De facto flag of Baja California: State coat of arms on white background] [State flag]
[Defacto flag]
[Variant: One of two or more versions of the same basic design]
  [Coat of arms of Baja California]
Official Baja Californa flag
according the art. 6 of the state's constitution
    De facto flag of Baja California     State coat of arms
Images by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, August 31, 2001


See: Other sites:

Presentation of Baja California

  • Official name (Spanish): Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California
  • Official name (English): Free and Sovereign State of Baja California
  • Short-form names: State of Baja California; Baja California
  • Location: The northernmost state of Mexico, North of the Baja California peninsula. It lays United States of America (N); the Mexican states of Sonora (NE), and Baja California Sur (S); the Sea of Cortés also known as Gulf California (E), and the Pacific Ocean (W).
  • Area: 71,450 km2
  • Municipalities: 5. Tijuana, Mexicali, Ensenada, Tecate and Playas de Rosarito.
  • Population: 3,348,898 (2015)
  • Capital: Mexicali (Pop.: 936,826)
  • Statehood: January 16, 1952
  • Flag adopted: 16 August 1953
  • Arms adopted: 27 September 1956
  • Arms confirmed: 9 October 2010, by Law published in the Periódico Oficial No. 43, Tomo CXVII, Sección I, on 8 October 2010
  • Arms designer: Armando Deibouis M.

Sources: INEGI; Historia: Escudo de Baja California; Ley que regula el uso y fomento del Escudo y Canto del Estado Libre y Soberano del Baja California


Official flag of Baja California

I found an article about the emblems in the text of the constitution of the Mexican state of Baja California. Here is a translation of it (the original text is in Spanish, so I could have made some mistakes in the translation):

(...)

Chapter 3: About the official symbols.

Art 6: The national flag, the national anthem and the national coat of arms are the obligatory symbols in the whole state. The state can have its own coat of arms. It won't have any other official flags, anthems or coat of arms. The usage of the National symbols is subject to the dispositions of the federal ordinances.

Pascal Vagnat, 03 Jul 1996


Coat of arms

[Coaf of arms of Baja California]
by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, August 31, 2001

"When Baja California reached statehood in 1953, it does not had a coat of arms for its own, thus, at the half of his administration, Governor Braulio Maldonado Sánchez called for a contest. The competition took place on February 24, 1956. Two months later, after the Dirección de Acción Cívica y Cultural, (present-day the Secretariat of Education and Social Well-being) made up a panel of judges. Such a competition was annulated for the works presented did not fulfill the requirements asked by the panel. In this way, the panel chose the four better drafts then asked the respective authors to work another draft resulting as winner Armando Deibouis M. The design was adopted as the official Baja California State coat of arms on 27 September 1956."

From: Escudo in Gobierno del Estado de Baja California
Quoted and translated by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, January 19, 2002


The official colores are:

[Official Pantone colors of the Baja California coat of arms]
Image from Ley que regula el uso y fomento del Escudo y Canto del Estado Libre y Soberano del Baja California
Posted by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 29 September 2019.


De facto flag

[De facto flag of Baja California: State coat of arms on white background] [State flag] [Defacto flag] [Variant: One of two or more versions of the same basic design]
De facto flag of Baja California
by Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, August 31, 2001


1890 seccesionist flags of Baja California

This flag of Baja California dates from 1888.
Don Healy, 05 Jul 1996

    Variant 1
    [1890 Seccesionist flag of Baja California - variant] Reconstruction based upon written sources only
    by António Martins, 08 Nov 1998

A conspiracy in 1890 to take Baja California from Mexico is not specifically referenced in the page at mx-bc.html. A variant of the filibuster flag is shown but it is inaccurately attributed to the year 1888 and appears to have been submitted by Don Healey in 1996. He does not give any source.

A news account exposing a conspiracy to seize Baja California from Mexico and declare a Republic that would then seek annexation to the United States was published in a rather long expose appearing on page 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle on 21 May 1890. The conspirators were prominent “capitalists” with interests in several corporations doing business in Baja California and in Southern California. The new government was to be headed by “Governor-General” Walter G. Smith, who was the publisher of the San Diego Sun. These men wanted to create the State of Lower California, with its capital at Los Angeles, to counter what they saw as domination of the State of California by major interests in San Francisco.

The plan grew out of a secret order established in 1888 by Captain J.E. Mulkey, the Order of the Golden Field, whose flag was gold with a red saltire surmounted by a large white star in the center.

Smith and others, including Mulkey, made their preparations gathering arms, writing a declaration of independence and a constitution and the designing of a flag, oddly described in the Chronicle article as “a red field in the center, and at the end next to the pole … a small white square field, in the center … a single blue star. From this small white field and extending lengthwise … across the red field, … an orange stripe.” (I have condensed it slightly from the overly wordy original to be easier to understand.)

The Filibusters of 1890--The Captain John F. Janes and Lower California Newspaper Reports and the Walter G. Smith Manuscript by Anna Marie Hager, published 1968 by Dawson’s Bookshop, Los Angeles, CA, illustrated the flag as having a rather large white “square” (slight rectangle, actually) and a very narrow orange stripe. This book also illustrates the Order of the Golden Field flag, with an orange field rather than the prescribed gold color.

    Walter Smith variant
    [1890 Seccesionist flag of Baja California - Walter Smith variant] Reconstruction based upon written sources only
    by Walter G. Smith
    Reported by Dave "Pro Vexillis!", 8 January 2019

I would interpret this description differently. In my opinion, the Chronicle article may have inadvertently changed the description by the misuse of a comma. I think it more naturally should have read “a red field, in the center and at the end next to the pole … a small white square field, in the center … a single blue star. From this small white field and extending lengthwise … across the red field, … an orange stripe.” Since the hoist square is described as “small”, I think it would have been no bigger than a third of the hoist. That orange (probably should be gold) stripe, also a third of the hoist. This strongly resembles some variants of the old Spanish flag with a star for independence.

    Variant by Dave "Pro Vexillis!"
    [1890 Seccesionist flag of Baja California - Dave variant] Reconstruction based upon written sources only
    by Dave "Pro Vexillis!", 8 January 2019

Dave "Pro Vexillis!", 8 January 2019


Other seccesionist flags of Baja California


Unidentified flag of Baja California

"At the same time, Arnulfo Herrera, who works together with the vexilogist and heraldist Enrique Florescano in the National Council for the Culture and the Arts, took steps to investigate what concerns to an unidentified flag of Lower California, which is presumed to correspond to a secessionist attempt - typical - encouraged by the Americans (gringos in Mexican terminology)."

By Jaume Ollé in Flag Report 13.


Anything below this line was not added by the editor of this page.