Why Do the Cuban and Puerto Rican Flags Look Alike? The 1895 Story
The flags of Cuba and Puerto Rico look alike because Puerto Rico’s flag was copied from Cuba’s on purpose. On December 22, 1895, Puerto Rican exiles in New York City, organized inside José Martí’s Cuban Revolutionary Party, adopted the Cuban design with the colors reversed: a blue triangle instead of a red one, and red stripes instead of blue.
The swap was a political statement. Both islands were still Spanish colonies, both independence movements were run from the same Manhattan offices, and the matching flags announced a shared fight. That history explains the resemblance, and also why each flag has since been banned, prosecuted or protested in ways most people outside the Caribbean never hear about.
Updated October 14, 2026
Cuba vs. Puerto Rico Flag at a Glance
| Cuba | Puerto Rico | |
|---|---|---|
| Created | 1849, New York City | December 22, 1895, New York City |
| Designer | Narciso López and poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón | Disputed: Francisco Gonzalo “Pachín” Marín, Antonio Vélez Alvarado or Manuel Besosa |
| First flown on the island | Cárdenas, May 19, 1850 | Yauco uprising, March 24, 1897 |
| Official national flag since | May 20, 1902 | July 1952 (Commonwealth flag) |
| Triangle | Red | Blue |
| Stripes | 3 blue, 2 white | 3 red, 2 white |
| Usual proportions | 1:2 | 2:3 |
| Shade of blue | Dark blue (azul turquí), fixed since 1906 | Never fixed by law: light, navy and medium blue are all in use |
How to Tell Them Apart in Two Seconds
Look at the triangle. Red triangle with blue stripes is Cuba. Blue triangle with red stripes is Puerto Rico. Everything else (five horizontal stripes, a triangle at the hoist, one white five-pointed star) is shared.
A second clue is the shape. The Cuban flag is usually twice as long as it is tall, so it looks stretched. The Puerto Rican flag is normally flown at 2:3, closer to the proportions of the US flag it often flies beside.
The Cuban Flag Came First: A Flag Born in Exile
Cuba’s flag is older than the Cuban state. It was designed in New York in 1849 by Narciso López and the poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón; Teurbe Tolón’s wife, Emilia, is credited with sewing the first one.
López is a complicated founding father. Born in Caracas in 1797, he spent decades as an officer in the Spanish army, fighting against Venezuela’s independence, before turning against Spanish rule in Cuba in the 1840s. A slaveholder, he drew money and support from pro-slavery politicians in the American South, and many historians read his goal as an independent Cuba that could later join the United States, the way Texas had.
His men carried the new flag when they briefly seized the port of Cárdenas on May 19, 1850, the first time it flew on Cuban soil. A second expedition in 1851 collapsed, and López was executed by garrote in Havana on September 1, 1851.
The banner outlived him. In April 1869, during the first war of independence, the rebel assembly at Guáimaro chose López’s “Lone Star” over Carlos Manuel de Céspedes’s own flag as the national standard. It became the official flag of the Republic of Cuba on May 20, 1902, when the US military occupation that followed the Spanish-American War ended.
What the Cuban Flag Means
The most widely cited reading, summarized by Encyclopaedia Britannica’s entry on the flag of Cuba:
- Three blue stripes: the three departments, or military districts, of colonial Cuba.
- Two white stripes: the purity of the patriot cause.
- Red triangle: strength and constancy, with a likely Masonic influence. Many 19th-century Cuban conspirators were Freemasons, and the triangle is a Masonic symbol of equality.
- White star: independence.
The popular idea that the red triangle stands for the blood of the independence wars is a later reading: the flag was designed almost 20 years before the first of those wars began, in 1868.
Why Puerto Rico Borrowed It: One Party, Two Islands
By the 1890s, Cuba was gearing up for a final war against Spain, and Puerto Rico was the only other Spanish colony left in the Americas. José Martí founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York to win independence for Cuba and to help Puerto Rico do the same.
Puerto Rican exiles joined in. On December 22, 1895, they met at Chimney Corner Hall in Manhattan and formed the Puerto Rico Section of the party. At that meeting they adopted a flag identical to Cuba’s with the red and blue swapped, according to the meeting records reviewed by Flags of the World.
The mirror image was the message: two flags, one cause. Puerto Rican poet Lola Rodríguez de Tió had already put the idea into verse in her poem “A Cuba”: “Cuba y Puerto Rico son / de un pájaro las dos alas” (“Cuba and Puerto Rico are two wings of the same bird”), as quoted by the American Social History Project at CUNY. The line is still quoted on both islands today.
Who Designed the Puerto Rican Flag? Nobody Knows for Sure
There is no single, proven author. Three names come up:
- Francisco Gonzalo “Pachín” Marín, a poet and friend of Martí. A letter from Juan de Mata Terreforte, vice president of the Puerto Rican committee, says Marín proposed the inverted design in a letter from Jamaica. Marín later fought as an officer in the Cuban Liberation Army and died in Cuba in November 1897.
- Antonio Vélez Alvarado, who said he came up with the design in 1892. Martí praised his prototype in the party newspaper, Patria.
- Manuel Besosa, credited by his daughter, María Manuela “Mima” Besosa, who said she sewed the first flag.
The seamstress is disputed too: Mima Besosa or Micaela Dalmau, depending on the account. Most historians treat the flag as a collective creation of the New York exile community.
What the Puerto Rican Flag Means
The committee left no official explanation in 1895. The version some historians attribute to the founders: red stripes for the blood of the island’s warriors, white stripes for victory and peace, the blue triangle for the sky and coastal waters, and the star for the island itself.
When the flag was made official in 1952, the government gave it a new, civic meaning. Per Britannica’s entry on the flag of Puerto Rico, the star stands for the Commonwealth, the white stripes for human rights and individual freedom, and the red stripes and the triangle’s three corners for the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
Same Origin, Very Different Fates
In 1898, the Spanish-American War sent both islands under US control. Cuba became independent in 1902 and its flag became the national flag. Puerto Rico remained a US territory, and its flag spent more than half a century as a symbol of rebellion.
| Year | Cuba | Puerto Rico |
|---|---|---|
| 1849–1850 | Flag designed in New York; first raised at Cárdenas | — |
| 1868 | War of independence begins | Grito de Lares uprising, under a different flag (a white cross with blue and red quarters) |
| 1869 | Adopted as the rebel national flag at Guáimaro | — |
| 1895 | Final war of independence begins | Exiles in New York adopt the inverted Cuban design |
| 1897 | — | First flown on the island, in the failed Yauco uprising |
| 1898 | Spain loses both islands to the United States | |
| 1902 | Becomes the flag of the independent republic | Remains a territory; flag associated with the independence movement |
| 1948 | — | Gag Law (Law 53) criminalizes nationalist activity, including displaying the flag |
| 1952 | — | Made the official Commonwealth flag |
| 1957 | — | Gag Law repealed |
| 2019 | New National Symbols Law (Law 128) tightens rules on flag use | — |
Puerto Rico: From Banned Flag to Official Flag
Under early US rule, the flag was treated as a revolutionary provocation. The Nationalist Party took it as its emblem, and in 1948 Puerto Rico’s legislature passed Law 53, known as the Ley de la Mordaza (Gag Law). It made it a crime to promote independence and, as it was applied, to own or display the Puerto Rican flag, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to the history of the Gag Law.
Four years later, the same flag became official. The law adopting it is dated July 24, 1952, and it flew as the Commonwealth flag when the new constitution took effect on July 25, 1952. The Gag Law itself was not repealed until 1957.
Cuba: A Flag Shared by Government and Opposition
The Cuban flag survived the 1959 revolution untouched. The communist government uses it, and so does the opposition. That tension has a legal side: Cuba’s Law 128 on National Symbols, approved on July 13, 2019, spells out how citizens may use the flag. It allows flying it at home, at work and on vehicles, but bans printing or writing on it, using it as a cover or tablecloth, or displaying it torn or faded, and restricts it on clothing and commercial products (text of Law 128 in Spain’s legal dictionary, in Spanish).
The best-known case under that framework is Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, a Havana artist who wore and performed with the flag in his work. Arrested during the July 11, 2021, protests, he was sentenced in 2022 to five years for public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols. He was released on condition that he leave Cuba and arrived in Miami on July 18, 2026, where supporters wrapped him in a Cuban flag printed with the protest slogan “Patria y Vida.”
The Fight Over Puerto Rico’s Shade of Blue
Ask Puerto Ricans what color the triangle is, and the answer can reveal their politics. The 1952 law named the colors but never fixed the shades, so three blues are in everyday use:
| Shade | Where you see it | Common association |
|---|---|---|
| Light (sky) blue | Independence rallies, historical replicas | Independence; believed closer to the 1895 original |
| Dark (navy) blue | Government use since 1952 | Statehood; matches the US flag |
| Medium (royal) blue | Most flags sold and flown since the 1990s | The current Commonwealth status |
A 2022 bill to make the medium blue official failed in the Puerto Rican Senate, so the debate is still open. Cuba settled its shade long ago: a 1906 decree fixed the dark azul turquí used today.
The Black-and-White Puerto Rican Flag
If you have seen a Puerto Rican flag in black and white, it is a protest version, not a mistake. In 2016, artists repainted a well-known flag on a door on San José Street in Old San Juan in black and white after Congress passed PROMESA, the law that put Puerto Rico’s finances under a federal oversight board, as Global Voices reported at the time. The “mourning” flag has since become a common symbol of resistance on the island and in the diaspora.
Cuba has nothing exactly equivalent, but the “Patria y Vida” flag plays a similar role: the national flag, unchanged, carrying the slogan of the 2021 protests.
Common Myths About the Two Flags
- “Puerto Rico’s flag is just a recolored Cuban flag made by the US.” No. Puerto Rican independence activists chose it in 1895, three years before the US took the island.
- “The red triangle on the Cuban flag represents blood shed in the wars.” That reading came later. The flag predates Cuba’s independence wars by almost two decades.
- “Narciso López was a Venezuelan independence hero.” He was born in Venezuela but fought for Spain against Venezuelan independence.
- “The Puerto Rican flag was always official.” It was official only from 1952, after years of being associated with the banned nationalist movement.
For more surprises like these, see our fact-checked list of fun facts about Cuba.
FAQ
Why do Cuba and Puerto Rico have similar flags?
Because Puerto Rican exiles in New York copied the Cuban flag in 1895 and reversed its colors. Both independence movements worked together inside José Martí’s Cuban Revolutionary Party, and the matching flags signaled a shared struggle against Spain.
Which flag is older, Cuba’s or Puerto Rico’s?
Cuba’s. It was designed in 1849 and first flown in Cuba in 1850. Puerto Rico’s version was adopted in 1895.
How do I tell the Cuban and Puerto Rican flags apart?
Check the triangle. Cuba’s is red with blue stripes; Puerto Rico’s is blue with red stripes.
Who designed the Puerto Rican flag?
It is disputed. Pachín Marín, Antonio Vélez Alvarado and Manuel Besosa have all been credited, and most historians see it as a collective decision of the Puerto Rican exiles in New York.
Who designed the Cuban flag?
Narciso López and the poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón, in New York in 1849. Teurbe Tolón’s wife, Emilia, is credited with sewing the first flag.
Was the Puerto Rican flag ever illegal?
Effectively, yes. Under Law 53 of 1948, the Gag Law, displaying the flag as part of nationalist activity could lead to prosecution. The flag became official in 1952, and the Gag Law was repealed in 1957.
What does the star on the Cuban flag mean?
Independence. That is why the flag is often called the “Lone Star” flag.
Why are there different blues on Puerto Rican flags?
Because the law never set an official shade. Light blue is linked to independence, navy to statehood and medium blue to the current Commonwealth status.
What does the black-and-white Puerto Rican flag mean?
It is a protest flag. It became popular in 2016 as a sign of “mourning” after the federal oversight board created by PROMESA took control of Puerto Rico’s finances.
Is it legal to wear the Cuban flag on clothing in Cuba?
With limits. Cuba’s 2019 National Symbols Law allows the flag on the front or side of clothing but bans it on items such as underwear, swimwear, towels and footwear.
This article was originally published in October 2022 and was fully revised and fact-checked on October 14, 2026. Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Flags of the World, the CUNY American Social History Project, Cuba’s Law 128 of 2019, Global Voices and NPR.
And what about Philiphines? Also Spain colony, named after Spain’s king Philip. Similar basic form of flag.
You’re absolutely right, and I appreciate your addition. The flag of the Philippines does indeed share a common history and some similarities with those of Cuba and Puerto Rico due to their shared past as Spanish colonies.
The Philippine flag is different in its symbolism, though. While the Cuban and Puerto Rican flags feature stripes and a single star within a triangle, the Philippine flag uses a white equilateral triangle, a golden sun, and three stars. The sun represents freedom, the triangle symbolizes equality and the fraternal principles of the French Revolution, and the stars stand for the three main geographical regions of the country: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The use of red, white, and blue can also be seen as a common theme in all these flags, further pointing to their shared historical ties.
Interestingly, the Philippine flag also has a unique feature. It can be displayed with the red stripe up in times of war and blue stripe up in times of peace.
Thank you for bringing up this point, as it enriches our understanding of how the histories of these nations are interwoven and reflected in their flags.