The flag, which will become the National Flag of Cuba, was raised in Matanzas in May 19th, 1850, the very day that                  General Narciso López seized the City of Cárdenas, Matanzas province. For 19 years this flag symbolized anticolonial              Cuban activities..

    Once the Independence War outbroke in October 10th, 1868, the flag was adopted as national emblem by the Asamblea   Constituyente de la República de Cuba (Constituent Asembly of the Republic of Cuba) met in Guáimaro, in April 11th, 1869.

Since then, each and every act of the Cuban independent movement was presided by it.. José Martí expressed that the blood shed by independence cleaned the doubtful origin of the flag which will become glorious in the battlefields

The equilateral triangle which outstands is the perfect geometrical shape, because of its equal three sides and three angles, which means equality among men.

The three colours (white blue and red) are related to French revoutionary triptyc of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, and besides they the ideals of justice expressed in white pureness, and altuism and highness of those ideals in blue, with the red, reflection of the blood shed in search of freedom. They also incarnate the new republican and democratic ideals that are synthetized in the citizen of the republic,free and equal, with full rights and duties, opposedly to king´s vassals, according to absolute monarchies´ conception.

Finally, the five-pointed star, with one pointing North to indicate steadiness, expresses the balance between moral and social qualities which must tipify the state, and shines by its own light, it is to say, the independent state.

So, the star symbolizes liberty, the triangle equality and the strips union, perfection and fraternity.

Symbolism on it conferred revolutionary transcendence and allowed to identify Cuban nation perpetual ideals. Narciso López, who was freemason, knew revolutionary, republican and humanist symbolism. Because of this he included them in the Cuban flag. His conception differs this one from the North American, by reflecting not only the ideas of freedom, but also those of equality and fraternity which inspired the French Revolution.

So, it is easy to understand why the Cuba flag became the symbol of generations of patriots and social fighters, the symbol of all Cubans. Its revolutionary content synthetizes the whole ideal of a noble and brave people, the human, generous and steady feeling of a nation thought and forged by itself.

(Source : Historia de Cuba, 1492-1898; formación y liberación de la nación / Eduardo Torres Cuevas and Oscar Loyola Vega. Havana City , Editorial Pueblo y Educación, 2002. 404 p., ilust.).