In July 1952, it was adopted as the official flag of Puerto Rico with the establishment of the current political status of commonwealth, after several failed attempts were made by the insular elected government in the prior decades.

[2][10][19] However, the newly formed administration of Governor Luis Muñoz Marín used a dark blue matching that of the American flag as the de facto shade.

[21] The introduction of a flag in Puerto Rico can be traced back to November 19, 1493 when Christopher Columbus landed on the island's shore, and with the flag appointed to him by the Spanish Crown, claimed the island, originally known by its native Taíno people as Borikén, in the name of Spain, calling it San Juan Bautista (Saint John Baptist) in honor of prophet John the Baptist, who baptized Jesus Christ.

[22][23] Conquistadores under the command of Juan Ponce de León, the first European explorer and governor of Puerto Rico, proceeded to conquer and settle the island in 1508, displacing, enslaving, and killing the native Taíno people.

The flags of Spain once more flew over Puerto Rico with the restoration of the Spanish kingdom in 1874, until 1898, the year that the island became a possession of the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1898) in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War.

Puerto Rico and Cuba became possessions of the United States as a result of the Spanish-American War of 1898, thus ending more than 400 years of Spanish rule on both islands.

[34] Determined to affirm the absolute union of the Cuban and Puerto Rican struggle for national independence into a single, common cause, on December 22, with the knowledge and approval of their fellow Cuban revolutionaries, Terreforte, vice-president of the committee, and forty-nine fellow members gathered at the no longer existent Chimney Corner Hall in Manhattan, unanimously adopted the Cuban flag with colors inverted as the new revolutionary flag to represent a sovereign “Republic of Puerto Rico”, replacing the Lares flag, which had been used by revolutionaries as the flag of a prospective independent Puerto Rico since their attempt at self-determination in 1868, but was eventually rejected, as it represented a failed revolt, a sentiment strongly supported by Lola Rodríguez de Tío, Puerto Rican poet, pro-independence leader, and committee member, who spent her later life exiled in liberated Cuba.

The origin of the design remains contested between exiled Puerto Rican revolutionaries Francisco Gonzalo Marín Shaw and Antonio Vélez Alvarado.

[12] Terreforte attributes the design to Marín Shaw, a member of the Cuban Liberation Army from Puerto Rico who died fighting for independence in Cuba in 1897.

Yo hice la proposición a los patriotas puertorriqueños que asistieron al mitin de Chimney Hall y fue aprobada unánimemente."

which, translated in English, reads as: “The adoption of the Cuban flag with the colors inverted was suggested by the distinguished patriot Francisco Gonzalo Marín in a letter he wrote me from Jamaica.

A few days later, according to Dávila, Vélez Alvarado presented his new design to Cuban pro-independence leader José Martí at dinner party attended by revolutionaries, including Marín Shaw.

[12] Unlike Carvajal, Cuban professor Avelino Víctor Couceiro Rodríguez supports Dávila’s findings, citing as evidence the same secondary written accounts used by Dávila, including the assertions made by historian Cayetano Coll Toste and lawyer José Coll Cuchí, respected contemporaries who identified Vélez Alvarado as the original designer of the flag.

In 1923, lawyer José Coll Cuchí, son of Coll Toste, described the origins of the flag in El Nacionalismo en Puerto Rico (Nationalism in Puerto Rico) as follows: "Y cuando allá por 1890 se agitaban cubanos y puertorriqueños en New York, formando Partidos Revolucionarios, el Sr. Antonio Vélez Alvarado, Vice-presidente del 'Club Borinquen', trazó la bandera de Puerto Rico, y ésta se hizo a semejanza de la de Cuba, invirtiendo los colores…Más tarde, en 1895…a organizar la primera expedición a Puerto Rico, se adoptó en solemne asamblea la bandera del triángulo azul, y que fue presentada a la Asamblea por José de Matta Terreforte…" which, translated in English, reads as: "And when back in 1890 Cubans and Puerto Ricans were agitated in New York, forming Revolutionary Parties, Mr. Antonio Vélez Alvarado, Vice-president of the 'Club Borinquen', drew the flag of Puerto Rico, and it was made like that of Cuba, inverting the colors…Later, in 1895…to organize the first expedition to Puerto Rico, the flag of the blue triangle was adopted in a solemn assembly, and it was presented to the Assembly by José de Matta Terreforte..." As alluded by historians Dávila and Couceiro Rodríguez, followers of Vélez Alvarado believe that he was the victim of a discrediting campaign aimed at undermining his reputation as the original designer of the flag.

Vélez Alvarado had been commonly recognized as the Padre de la Bandera Puertorriqueña (Father of the Puerto Rican Flag) since the 1890s, but his status as the creator of the flag began to be questioned in the 1930s, after he became one of the founding members of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico and main supporters of the violent and terrorizing pro-independence struggle advocated by militant leader Albizu Campos.

[43][44] A year later, in 1897, Antonio Mattei Lluberas visited the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee in New York City to plan a revolt in the municipality of Yauco.

On March 24, 1897, a group of men led by Fidel Vélez and openly carrying the flag for the first time in Puerto Rico, unsuccessfully attacked the barracks of Spanish Civil Guard in Yauco.

Similar to the anti-communist law passed in the U.S. in 1940, the Smith Act, which forbade any attempts to “advocate, abet, advise, or teach” the violent overthrow or destruction of the U.S. government, Puerto Rico’s gag law of 1948, made it a crime to own or display a Puerto Rican flag, to sing a patriotic tune, to speak or write of independence, or meet with anyone, or hold any assembly in favor of independence.

[48] Carrying a sentence of up to ten years imprisonment, a fine of up to US $10,000 (equivalent to $127,000 in 2023), or both, the law aimed to discourage and suppress organized opposition against the elected American-allied government of Puerto Rico, specifically resistance from armed nationalist militant members of the radical pro-independence Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, which in 1950, incited not only by the aforementioned gag order, but also by the approval of the creation of the commonwealth by U.S. Congress and President Truman with the passing of the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950, executed a coordinated series of insurrectionist attacks, which included the attempted assassinations of elected governor Muñoz Marín at La Fortaleza in Old San Juan and President Truman at Blair House in Washington, D.C.[49][50] In 1957, the gag law was ruled unconstitutional and was repealed on the basis that it violated freedom of speech within Article II of the Constitution of Puerto Rico and the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Article 3, C. The star is symbol of the Commonwealth and rests on a blue triangle that in its three angles evokes the integrity of the republican form of government represented by three powers: the legislative, the executive and the judicial.

The original symbolism of the flag, said to have been described by the pro-independence Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee in 1895, is different from the one believed to have been in place since 1952 but only officially stipulated in the regulation of 1995.

During the ceremony Regimental Chaplain Daniel Wilson stated the following:[57][58] "Grant us Thy Peace and Power in this conflict against aggression and tyranny.

Astronaut Acabá requested that the crew be awakened on March 19, 2009 (Day 5 in space), with this song, as performed by José González and Banda Criolla.

[63] On November 5, 2000, Alberto De Jesús Mercado, known as Tito Kayak, and five other activists, protesting against the use of the island of Vieques as a bombing range by United States Navy, stepped onto the top deck of the Statue of Liberty in New York City and placed a large Puerto Rican flag on the statue's forehead, reenacting an earlier protest carried out on October 25, 1977 by Puerto Rican nationalists, who were demanding the release of four fellow nationalists serving time for their armed attack of the United States House of Representatives in 1954.

Both documents describe the basic design of the flag, but do not provide exact dimensions on the size of its rectangular shape, horizontal stripes, and upright five-pointed star.

It appears that most flags displayed in Puerto Rico during the first half of the 20th century featured a dark blue, including one used in the manifestations that resulted in the Ponce Massacre of 1937.

This is: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, United States, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.

• In sporting events that take place in Puerto Rico, it will be the responsibility of the organizers of the activity and/or the administrators of the premises, to ensure at all times that due decorum and respect for the flags are given.

• The prohibitions will not be applicable to the press, nor to books, brochures, certificates, diplomas, appointments to public office, notebooks, jewelry or stationery for correspondence, in which the flag is printed, painted or stamped, detached from advertisements of all kinds.

The origin of the flag traces back to the early morning of July 4, 2016, when a group of female members of Artistas Solidarixs y en Resistencia (Artists in Solidarity and Resistance) repainted a popular and well-known mural of the original red, white, and light blue (presumed by historians) flag, on the door of 55 Calle San José in Old San Juan, with stark black and white to symbolize that the flag is in mourning over the passing of the law Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), which had just been signed into law by President Barack Obama.