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The Monumental Flag

The Inauguration

On February 24th of this year, day in which Mexico celebrates its Flag Day, in a touching civil ceremony celebrated in the adjacent terrains of the Carpenter’s Lagoon and inside Metropolix Park, Plaza 1829 Tampico Heroico was inaugurated as well as a gigantic flagpole in which a monumental flag was raised.  This square was built to remember the heroic event that prevented that last attempt of the Spanish to reconquer Mexico.  This inauguration was hosted by the governor of the state Lic. Eugenio Hernández Flores who was accompanied by the municipal presidents of Tampico Lic. Fernando Azcárraga López, of Cd. Madero Lic. José Guadalupe González Galván and of Altamira C. Juvenal Hernández Llanos, as well as naval and military authorities, federal representatives and important personalities.

What Is A Monumental Flag

For a flan to be considered monumental, it has to be raised more than 50 meters high.  According to the presidential agreement celebrated on July the 1st of 1999, these flags are responsibility of the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA).  This institution authorizes its making, custody and honors.

Its flagpole is 50 meters high and it is the first of its kina in the Metropolitan Zone.  It was donated by Mr. Leonel Garza Cantú.  It has lightning conductor system and location lights, as well as a very complex structure, which compensates gravitational charges, wind force, temperature and meteorological phenomena.  The flag measures 14.5 meters high and 25 meters of width and weighs 30 kilograms (just like the one located in the Mexico City’s Zócalo), needing 25 people in order to raise it.

The first flan was placed in the Military Academy of Mexico City on July the 15th of 1996.  The biggest one is found in Iguala, Guerrero.  Its flagpole is 113.10 meters high and its fabric has a surface that measures 1800 m2.  Several flags can be found in the country with poles that measure up to 100 meters (3 of them in Mexico City), and their flags measure 50 meters high and 28.6 meters wide and weigh 180 kilograms with a total surface of 1500 m2.  These flags cost approximately $125,000 pesos while those that measure 50 meters cost $55,000 pesos.

The length of these flags measures half the size of its pole.  They must be extremely resistant.  Their tailoring takes place in SEDENA’s dressing workshops where hundreds of men and women transform the green, white and red fabric into a national insignia of monumental dimensions.  The work is highly detailed and requires extreme attention because it involves the process of receiving the fabric, dyeing it and cutting it.  Then, the process of color assembly takes place, which is a crucial process since the shield is hand painted and has to measure three fourths of the strip’s width.  The shield is painted by specialists starting with a paper pattern.  After realizing the first coat it needs to dry and the back part is painted in order for the shield to be seen on both sides.  The eagle must always face the green color.

Due to the height of their poles, the monumental flags suffer tearing by the strong winds and climate changes.  This is why they have a live of 6 months depending on the place they stand.  Those flags that are deteriorated get incinerated except those considered to have a glorious history.  The fabric used is a special nylon, very similar to the one used on parachutes.

 

 

The Flag And Its Shield

  • On April 14th, 1823, the Constituent Congress emitted a decree which dictates that the shield must be a Mexican eagle standing with its left claw over a prickly pear growing from a rock and grabbing with its right claw a snake as if it was about to be dismembered with its beak. One laurel and one oak stem must border the image according to the design used by the first defenders of the independence.
  • Venustiano Carranza ordered on September the 20th, 1916 that the previous decree was still in force, but proclaimed this model to be printed and publicized in order for it not to be deformed by different interpretations. This did not happened due to the instability the country was suffering at that moment which prevented the unification of the design until one year later when the flag flew for the first time on September the 15th of 1917 in the National Palace.
  • The first Mexican Flag was created in the year 1934 under the initiative of Rafael E. Melgar and this festivity was officially recognized in 1940 by the decree of the President Lázaro Cárdenas.
  • The first law about the characteristics and use of the shield, flag and National Anthem was established under the government of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz.  It was approved on December the 23rd of 1967 and defended the elements of the national symbols as well as the regulation of the form and opportunity of their use, pointing at the necessary mechanisms to protect them from an improper use.
  • This order was current until 1984 when on February 24th a law by President Miguel de la Madrid entered in force, which proclaimed respect to the shield, flag and National Anthem.
  • Some of the characteristics proclaimed in that law include the painting in the back of the flag.  The eagle will be presented standing on its right claw, holding the snake with its left claw and beak.
  • En cuanto a la bandera, ésta consiste en un rectángulo dividido en tres franjas verticales de medidas idénticas, con los colores en el siguiente orden a partir del asta: verde, blanco y rojo. En la franja blanca y al centro, tiene el Escudo Nacional, con un diámetro de tres cuartas partes del ancho de dicha franja. La proporción entre anchura y longitud de la bandera es de cuatro a siete. Podrá llevar un lazo o corbata de los mismos colores al pie de la moharra.
  • The flan consists of a rectangle divided in three vertical strips of identical measurements, with the colors in the following order: green, white and red.  The shield must be located in the center of the white strip with a diameter measuring three fourths of the strip’s width.  The flag’s width and longitude must be proportional.  It can carry a bow or tie of the same colors.
  


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