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Santa Cruz province (Argentina)

Last modified: 2005-10-15 by francisco gregoric
Keywords: santa cruz | waves: 3 | mountain | stars: southern cross | sun: setting | sun (blue) | sun: 19 rays | sebastián arenillas (santiago) |
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[Santa Cruz flag]
by Sebastián Arenillas, 24 May 2002
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About the flag

Today is first hoisted the new provincial flag of Argentine province of Santa Cruz. The flag is celeste with white waves on dark blue in lower part (similar to the Kiribati flag) with a yellow sun. Whitin the sun is the Cerro El Chaltén and the southern cross, as is the arms. Flag win a contest 26-8-00. Winner was Santiago Sebastián Arenillas.
Jaume Ollé, 12 Oct 2000

The design of this flag attempts to reflect the main characteristics of our land, of our geography, because it is mostly by the landscape that surrounds that we are defined as santacruceños, what makes us feel as an important part of Argentina yet not always remembered.

The light blue represents the same sky under which Manuel Belgrano created our national flag, the sun is both a symbol of divinity for the native Indians as a patriotic sun. It’s a raising sun, symbol of the youth of this province. A half circle contains the night, the Southern Cross and the Cerro Chaltén, emblems of the Aónikenk, ancient race that lived on this southern land.

The sea that bathes our provincial shores from north to south, which feeds life to the east of our territory is represented on the lower part in white and blue waves.

The union of these elements tries to point out the nexus between the past and the present, the history that we are still writing. The dimensions of our geography, the never ending limits of our sky, our sea, our land. Because everything seems to be far but nature itself, the immensity that surrounds us and remains there at the reach of our hands and inside the heart and eyes of everyone who witnesses this latitudes.

The Flag of the Provincia de Santa Cruz was first raised on October 12th of 2000 at El Chaltén, town of 200 habitants located at the feet of the Cerro from which took its name.

Sebastián Arenillas (designer of the flag), 24 May 2002

Another flag with three shades of blue on it.
John Ayer, 13 Oct 2000

The flag of Santa Cruz province is shown in the movie Historias minimas, by Carlos Serón (2002). The movie is a Patagonian road-movie, which depicts, in a very sensible and humoristic manner, two days in the life of a few inhabitants of Fitzroy who go to San Julian, 300 km southwards, via the Patagonian road. One of the characters stops at a kind of check point (rather an information booth because the policeman does not seem to be prepared to check anything) at the entrance of a small city. The booth has the provincial flag hoisted over the roof.
Ivan Sache, 31 May 2003

The central mountain in both the flag and the coat of arms of Santa Cruz is the Mount Fitz Roy or Mount Chaltén (Chaltén is the indigenous name and it is the name usually heard nowadays). There is even a really very popular folk song in the Patagonia dedicated to the Chaltén.

The Coat of Arms (or emblem) of the Province was designed in 1959. So, it pre-existed the flag (the flag was designed in 2000). Both images of the mount are almost the same. However in the coat of arms the mount appears in a more "nature-like" or "realistic" way... In the flag it is a kind of "stylized image" of the Mount Chaltén.

The Southern Cross constellation also appears both in the coat of arms and the flag.
Francisco Gregoric, 10 Jul 2005


Provincial emblem

[Santa Cruz emblem] (click to enlarge)
by Jaume Ollé, 05 Sep 2000

In some sources, the emblem of Santa Cruz have a red ribbon or banner. But on the other hand, I’ve seen also a lot of images with the blue ribbon…
Francisco Santos, 17 May 2003