Cuban Historian Maikel Arista-Salado Reveals: "Cuba's First Independence Flag is Not What You Think"

The flag most Cubans associate with their national identity—the one designed by Narciso López and first flown in Cárdenas in 1850—is not actually the island's original symbol of independence. According to Cuban historian Maikel Arista-Salado, that distinction belongs to a collection of banners tied to José Antonio Aponte's 1812 conspiracy, which predates López's emblem by several decades.

Among the documents seized from Aponte by Spanish colonial authorities were a standard featuring the Virgin of the Assumption and Ethiopian flags, known as those of Abyssinia.

Arista-Salado explains the symbolic choice: "The first Cuban independence flags were those of Abyssinia, or Black Ethiopia, because Aponte, a man of mixed or African descent, saw Ethiopia as a model due to it being the only Christian nation at the time."

Aponte, a free black carpenter and member of the Loyal Black Battalion of Havana, led a movement between 1811 and 1812 that merged opposition to Spanish rule with the abolition of slavery and aimed for a political order favorable to both free and enslaved blacks. He was executed by hanging on April 9, 1812.

The Significance of Aponte's Movement

This discovery holds substantial historiographical importance. The complete records of the proceedings have only become available to researchers in recent years. Arista-Salado emphasizes, "These records have only been known for about 10 years. Vexillology has not yet incorporated this information," highlighting how "we always thought the independence movement was led by white Creoles, but Aponte, a black man, was the one who first raised a flag."

Before the flags of Narciso López and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, there was also a proposal by Joaquín Infante, a lawyer from Bayamo, who in 1810 suggested a tricolor flag of green, purple, and white for an independent Cuba. Although this design was included in a separatist constitutional project published in Caracas in 1812, it never flew as a Cuban state symbol.

Overlooked Histories

Arista-Salado notes that the oldest flag flown in Cuba was actually that of Burgundy—the Saint Andrew's Cross, a symbol of the Spanish Monarchy—predating all independence projects.

"The oldest flag we have is the Burgundy one, which features the cross and, of course, was a Cuban flag before Narciso López's," he points out.

The historian argues that this ignorance is no accident. The Cuban nationalist narrative has systematically excluded figures that don't fit its mold. "The Cuban nationalist discourse doesn't accommodate someone from Barcelona, a Catalan, who gave his life for Cuba's independence," he says, referring to Ramón Pintó y Llinás, a Barcelonan executed in 1855 for his role in an independence conspiracy, whose story remains outside the official canon. The same applies to López—a Venezuelan—and Joaquín de Agüero y Agüero.

"You have to be a Cuban born in Bayamo to fit in," Arista-Salado summarizes, concluding that this requirement explains why figures like Pintó and Llinás, Narciso López, and others are not studied in Cuba, as they either "weren't born in the right place or had inclinations not fully aligned with independence."

The discussion underscores that Cuban independence was diverse and multi-ethnic from its inception, and that the official history has favored a narrow narrative, overshadowing uncomfortable protagonists. The flag of Narciso López, which eventually became the national symbol when adopted by the Assembly of Guáimaro in 1869, was merely the final chapter in a much longer and varied history.