The National Coat of Arms is inspired on the one designed by poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón, under the ideas by Narciso López               for the National Flag. The present day Coat of Arms differs something from the one originally made in 1849 as a sketch to La            Verdad newspaper, directed by Teurbe in New York and used by López to seal official documents and bonds issued by him, as         provisional Chief of State of Cuba, between 1850 and 1851.

   Its present-day design was officialy approved by the Assembly of Guáimaro, when the Republic of Cuba was created. According to  Law No. 42 it is a Symbol of the Nation.

   The aforementioned National Coat of Arms represents the Island of Cuba. It is formed by two archs of similar circles which cut backing their concavity one to the other, like a heart-shaped ogive, and is divided in three bodies, spaces or fields. Cuba, as the key of the Gulf of Mexico, the union of the Cubans, the sun of liberty, the colors of the flag and a typical Cuban landscape are present in the coat of arms.

A red Phrygian cap, emblem from the French Revolution, pointing to the right in its upper part, appears in its design This cap had been used by men who got freedom in ancient times. In its central part appears a five-pointed white star, one of them ponting up, and, just like the flag, it represents the independent state.

The Coat of Arms is hold by a bunch of eleven sticks tied by a red ribbon , x-crossed, meaning union, because strength is in it . The upper horizonal field represents a sea, with two capes, mountains or land points, which symbolizes the position of Cuba between the two Americas and the rising of a new nation.

A golden rod key placed in a blue sea closes the strait. At the bottom, a raising sun spreads its rays all over he sky, remembering the place of Cuba: “The Key of the New World”, the link between America and Europe and North and South America, as well as the shining rise of the new-born state.

In its lower left field appears a rural landscape, green and mountain site, with a blue and clear sky, symbolizing our environment, plain and natural, presided by a palm tree, a royal palm, the typical Cuban tree, with its central leave bud pointing up, emblem of the straight character of the Cuban people.

Its lower right field has five same width stripes, alternating dark blue and white and bending from right to left, and associated to the flag. These blue and white stripes symbolize the department division of the island under Spanish colonialism.

Not exceeding its height, the National Coat of Arms of Cuba, is ornated by a laurel branch at its left representin strength, and an oak branch at its right representing victory.

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