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Chitaga (Norte de Santander, Colombia)

Chitagá

image by Eugene Ipavec, 13 August 2008

Overview
Coat of Arms

See also:

Overview

Chitagá is a municipality in Norte de Santander Department. It was founded on 12 December 1804.
The flag of Chitagá is white and charged with a orange rhombus. Inside the rhombus there is a tree and fields. Alongside and below the bottom sides of the rhombus, there is a sloagen written in maroon color: "CHITAGÁ TIERRA FÉRTIL Y AMABLE PARA TODOS"
Information in Spanish:
"La insigne bandera fue diseñada por la profesora Ana Julia González de Villamizar.
Sobre un fondo de raso blanco que significa la paz, centrado aparece un rombo de color anaranjado (por considerarlo neutro) y dentro de éste un árbol grande de arrayán, recordando la parte histórico-geográfica de que Chitagá fue fundada en el “valle de los arrayanales” ; debajo de él, las eras de un cultivo de papa, principal fuente de economía del pueblo chitaguense.
Hacia la parte superior, lateral derecho, una nube que proyecta lluvia hacia el arrayán y que significa la abundancia de agua en nuestro suelo .
Finalmente, bordeando la mitad inferior del rombo, un letrero en letras marrones que dice : “ CHITAGÁ TIERRA FÉRTIL Y AMABLE PARA TODOS"
Source: municipal web site.
Dov Gutterman and Felipe Carillo, 8 August 2008

Translated from municipal web site:
"The flag was designed by Pr. Ana Julia González de Villamizar. On a plain white background meaning peace is placed, centered, an orange - this colour being considered as neutral - rhomb charged with a big "arrayán" tree, recalling that Chitagá was founded in a place called "The Valley of the Arrayanales". The lower point of the rhomb is charged with potatoes, the main source of income of the village. In the upper right part of the rhomb, a cloud pours rain on the tree, symbolizing the abundance of water in our soil. The lower part of the rhomb is bordered with the brown writing "CHITAGÁ TIERRA FÉRTIL Y AMABLE PARA TODOS", Chitagá, land fertile and pleasant to all."
The municipal symbols were adopted by Municipal Decree No. 017 in August 1991.
Several plants from the Family Myrtaceae are called "arrayán" in Spanish, the most famous of them being the Common Myrtle (Myrtus communis L.; see the "Patio of los Arrayanes", the Court of the Myrtles, in the Alhambra of Granada, Spain). The "arrayán" found in Colombia is rather Psidium arayan (Kunth) Burret, a.k.a Myrtus arayan Kunth.
The name "The Valley of the Arrayanales" was coined by Carlos Vera, the founder of the village; on 12 December 1804, he required the allocation of "284 square 'varas' in the valley called 'Llano del Arrayán' to set up a parish temple, a presbytery, a cemetary, a jail and a village square".
On 24 February 1808, the Judge Manuel José María Vásquez surveyed the land allocated to Vera and registered 469 inhabitants. The parish of Chitagá was set up by the religious authorities on 9 June 1808 in Santa Fe and dedicated to St. John of Nepomuk. The Vice-Roy of New Grenada, Antonio Amar y Borbón, administratively confirmed the parish on 29 June 1808.
Chitagá was visited six times by the Liberator Simón Bolívar and is the birth village of General Ramón González Valencia (1851-1928), the 29th President of the Republic of Colombia (1909-1910), promoter of the Constitutional reform passed in 1910, which opened a period of peace and industrial modernization.
Ivan Sache, 15 August 2008

Coat of Arms

image from municipal web site