Ecuador Eco Volunteer

Archive for the ‘Ecuadorian History’ Category

There is a lot of contradictory information on the internet about the Ecuadorian flag – especially as to what the colours and coat of arms symbolise. Perhaps part of the confusion comes from the fact that the first manifestation of the flag was designed in 1860 for a country called Grand Colombia which makes up modern day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador.

Today the Ecuadorian Flag has the exact same distribution of colours to the colombian flag (which lacks the coat of arms) and the Venezuelan Flag which you can differentiate by an arch of stars in the blue section and its own coat of arms in the top right.

The colour yellow which is twice the size as the other two bands symbolises the abundance and fertility of the land.

The colour blue represents the sea and sky and Grand Colombias independence from the Spanish Conquistadores. Depending on who you ask the red is said to represent Courage or the blood spilt during the battle for Indepence though these two meanings do not seem mutually exclusive at all.

Ecuadorian Flags Coat of Arms

The coat of arms which is Ecuadors alone pictures Ecuadors highest mountain Chimborazo from which the mighty river Guayas flows where a steamboat floats. Historically speaking the River Guayas has been one of the major ports in South America since colonial times and the steamboat pictured was the first of its kind constructed in South America.

This represents PROGRESS.

Sadly I do find it a little ironic to see that poor old Condor flying over the coat of arms – the mythical creature and Ecuadors national bird is said to symbolise the protector of the country but after centuries of overzealous farmers shooting them down to protect their livestocks it has disappeared from much of the Ecuadorian Andes.

In fact the Condor is now extinct in Chimborazo National Park but if it were still alive in that region today it would see the highest mountain in the country stripped of much of its glaciers; a River Guayas so polluted that more plastic bags grace the place between its banks than fish; and steamboats, thousands and thousands of steamboats.