The Basics

Though this is an obvious symbol to choose, I had no idea what the flag represents or anything about the history, so I thought it was important. The flag has changed many times in Spain's history. The current flag was selected by Charles III, the King of Spain from 1759-1788 and was chosen from 12 different designs. The flags colors have remained the same throughout its history other than during the Second Republic period (1931-1939). The controversy surrounding the Spanish flag is unique. Many people in Spain choose to fly this flag:

which was the official flag prior to 1785. I read some interesting articles about a recent controversy surrounding the Spanish flag, where officials in Spain were thinking of making it mandatory to fly the official flag of Spain outside all public buildings. One man said, "That the Supreme Court has to intervene so that the Spanish flag can fly in Spain is a clear symptom of how neurotic and divided we Spanish are". There are many other different flags in use in Spain which is so interesting to me and really symbolizes the brokenness and disunity of a country. I wonder if one flag for all people will ever be a reality in Spain. Though it is really just a piece of cloth, I believe that if there ever was a unanimous agreement about which flag to fly, it would have a much deeper representation of a long lost unity in the people.