Estelada
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The “estelada” flag (Catalan flag with a star), is the one of fight. Such is what the article 3 of the provisional Constitution of the Catalan Republic says (The Constitution of the independent Catalonia), written and approved in 1928 in Cuba by the “Assemblea Constituent” (Constituent Assembly) of Catalan separatism, “The official flag of the Catalan Republic is the historical with the four red bars on a yellow field, with the addition, on top of it, of a blue triangle and a white star with five ends in the middle of it.”
The fact of having a star in the fighting flag comes from the early days. The lone star means the national freedom, the independence. Looking to the flags of the independent states, and to the stateless nations, in many of them one finds stars. Of this all independent states, the oldest is Cuba, Spanish colony until 1898. The fight of Cuba for its independence was already being followed with attention by the Catalanists of the XIX century. Then, it is not strange that the symbols of the Cuban rebels had influence amongs the separatists that blossomed inside the Catalanist groups. Once the War of Indepence was finished in Cuba, it was created, in Santiago, in the year 1906, the “Centre Catalanist of Santiago de Cuba” (Catalanist Centre of Santiago the Cuba), where one could already see the primitive Catalan “estelada” flag: in the middle of a “senyera” there was a white star with five ends.
The first star with a clear nationalist intention known in Catalonia is of a date before 1904, and it has to do with the “Unió Catalanista” (Catalanist Union). It is a stamp commemorating the ownership process of “Pi de les Tres Branques” (The Three Branches Pine) by the Catalanist Union.
Later, in 1906, a star appears in the headers of the magazine “Fora Grillons!” (Breaking Chains!), made in Santiago de Cuba by Catalan exiles (publication that already claimed clearly the independence of Catalonia).
During the twenties, once the First World War is over, there are winds of freedom, helped by the United States of America president Woodrow Wilson.
The Society of Nations gives infinites hopes... There are lots of nations that see their historical oportunity to free themselves, and so did the Czech Republic, Finland, Estonia, Lethonia, Lithuania and Armenia during the year 1918; other nations like Ukraine, Bielorus and Georgia, are declared independent but occupied by the Soviets straight away.
In all these nations that have the hope of freedom, pressure groups start to mobilize in international spheres. In the Catalan case, the Comitè Pro-Catalunya (Pro-Catalonia Comitee) was one of the most actives. It was in this circumstances that a need was seen to have a symbol able to represent the Catalan aspirations and, of course, a star appeared on it.
It was since then that one started to hear about the “estelada” flag. Its design is, probably, of Vicenç Albert Ballester, where the blue triangle means the blue sky of humanity, and in its centre there is the white star that means the freedom.
The first photograph where the flag appears it is a publication dated in 1918. It is the bulletin “L’intransigent” (The Intransigent), where it is reproduced a photo of a group of young Americans and Catalan separatists holding both flags.
Also in 1918, there is in circulation a comic strip- a stamp without postal value- dedicated to the future Society of Nations, where there was also a “estelada”.
There are several kinds of “estelada”. One in the last number of “La Tralla” (radical separatist magazine from the years 20/30), before the coup d’etat by Primo de Rivera, and other in a document published by the Comitè Pro-Catalunya written in Catalan and Arabic, to greet and encourage one of the Moroccan leaders revolted against Spain.
In Cuba, appears for first time the headers of the magazine “La Nova Catalunya” (1920), (The New Catalonia).
The “estelada” flag goes on appearing in other Catalan separatist publications.
The “estelada” was in possession of Macià during the failed invasion of Prats de Molló in 1926. It appears between the Catalan volunteers in prison, and when they were taken to Paris to be put on trial. There also photos of the volunteers with the “estelada” in many other different places...
In 1928, with the presidence of Francesc Macià in the Constituent Assembly of the Catalan separatism, the “estelada” is again with them, and the Catalan separatists make it theirs.
During this period a new habit starts and it is present until those days, and everytime a Catalan patriot dies, we cover with a black cloth the part in the “estelada” where there are the four bars of the Catalan flag, in sign of grievance, and the star is visible in sign that the fight goes on.
Later, during the period from 1931 to 1936, the “estelada” still appears numerous times. Some of these flags only have two colours- due to the shortage of money-, but everyone still talks of the traditional “estelada” with the blue triangle and the white star.
The francoist dictatorship comes... As a answer to the Spanish fascist occupation it is formed the Front Nacional de Catalunya (National Front of Catalonia), FNC, which used the Catalan flag and the “estelada”.
During the sixties, in the universitary section of the FNC there is an internal split, that takes for name Partit Socialista d’Alliberament Nacional dels Països Catalans, (Socialist Party for the National Liberation of the Catalan Countries) (PSAN). Because this party wants to make clear its own socialist and marxist ideas, decides to change the colour of the star for a red one. So, in 1969, starts to appear in the PSAN meetings the new “estelada”.
In the mid seventies the PSAN has got its own splits, and it leads to the creation of a new movement: the Moviment d’Unifició Marxista, (Movement of Marxist Unification), which starts to use the red star inside a white triangle, and the PSAN uses the red star inside a yellow triangle.
The unification of the flags with the red star in only one was very slow, until the Movement of Marxist Unification and the Bloc d’Esquerra d’Alliberament Nacional, (Bloc of the Left for the National Liberation) (BEAN), disappear, since then, the flag with the red star and the yellow triangle is the symbol of the socialist and communist separatists.
Nowdays the most common it is that both kinds of “estelada” flag (the classic and the red) be used at the same time.