Pledge of Allegiance

Before the oath to the Colombian flag, a greeting is given prior to this symbol
that represents the entire nation of Colombia, which is a greeting that is in a
language very much from the time of independence, and defines the desire for
freedom that all the people of Colombia have and the fight they are willing to
have to obtain it, and they offer the peace they establish among themselves and
the euphoria they have towards the tricolor flag.
 NATIONAL ANTHEM

The lyrics of the anthem are composed of a chorus and eleven stanzas, it was
written by President Rafael Núñez originally as an ode to celebrate the
independence of Cartagena. The music was composed by the Italian Oreste
Síndici at the request of the actor José Domingo Torres, during the presidency
of Rafael Núñez and presented to the public for the first time on November 11,
1887. The song acquired great popularity and was quickly adopted, although in
a spontaneous, like the national anthem of Colombia.
It was made official through Law 33 of October 18, 1920. The musician José
Rozo Contreras reviewed the scores and prepared the transcriptions for the
symphonic band, which was adopted as the official version by decree 1963 of
July 4 , 1946 . The anthem has been the subject of reform projects, widely
represented in other arts and has been performed in various versions.

CHORUS SAW
Oh unfading glory! Bolivar crosses the Ande
Oh immortal joy! that waters two oceans
In furrows of pain swords like sparks
good is already germinating. They shine in Junín.
Indomitable centaurs
they descend to the plains
and it begins to present itself
of the epic the end.

Yo VII
The horrible night ended The victorious trunk
The sublime freedom that thunders in Ayacucho
 Pour down the auroras
Of its invincible light.
The entire humanity,
That moans between chains,
understand the words
Of the one who died on the cross
II
"Independence" shouts
The American world:
He bathes in the blood of heroes
The land of Columbus.
But this great principle:
"the king is not sovereign"
It resonates, And those who suffer
They bless your passion.
III
Of the Orinoco the channel
It is filled with spoils,
A river of blood and tears
You can see him running there.
In Bárbula they don't know
The souls nor the eyes
Whether admiration or horror
Feel or suffer.
IV
On the shores of the Caribbean
Hungry a town
fight Horrors preferring
To perfidious health.
Oh yes from Cartagena
Self-denial is great,
And debris of death
They despise his virtue.
V Of man the rights
From Boyacá in the fields
the genius of glory
with each ear a hero
undefeated crowned.
Soldiers without armor
they won the victory;
his manly breath
It served as a shield for them.
in every triumph it grows
its formidable sound.
In its expansive thrust
freedom is released,
from the American sky
forming a pavilion.
VIII
The Virgin her hair
starts in agony
and of his widowed love
He hangs them from the cypress.
Regrets his hope
covering cold slab;
but glorious pride
surrounds his alpacious complexion.
IX
This is how the country is formed
thermopylae sprouting;
Cyclops constellation
his night illuminated;
the trembling flower
deadly the wind finding
under the laurels
security sought.
x
But it is not complete glory
win in battle,
that to the arm that fights
The truth encourages him.
independence alone
the great clamor does not silence:
if the sun shines on everyone
justice is freedom.
XI
Nariño preaching,
the soul of the fight
prophetic taught.
Ricaurte in San Mateo
in flying atoms
"Duty before life",
with flames he wrote.
 Colombia's shield

About the elements of the national coat of arms:

It will be the national shield quartered for the distribution of the signs that
distinguish and characterize New Granada, namely:
In the first barracks the Chimborazo will appear throwing flames of fire on the
Altizana side; in the second, the condor in an attitude of taking flight and with its
claw raised; in the third, the Tequendama waterfall; in the fourth the isthmus of
Panama and two ships on its sides, to denote the two seas. The overcoat will
be an open grenade.
The bell is a bow and a quiver with cross-shaped arrows, and one of these
vertical. The garland composed of pomegranates and branches suitably
intertwined will border its contour; and lately the motto “United Provinces of
New Granada” will be placed on its circumference over the colors of the national
flag.

About the enamels of the national coat of arms:

The first quarter is in blue with a golden hill with two peaks, the highest
surmounted in silver and the lower one in gules, representing the Chimborazo
of Quito, whom nature crowned with snow and fire;
The second in purple, with a condor vulture, embarrassed, with a saber, head
and throat of gules, beak and legs of gold, with the right claw raised;
The third of sinople, in a serrated and waved silver band, representing the
Tequendama waterfall in the province of Cundinamarca;
The silver quarter, in a denticulated band of sinople, accompanied by two saber
ships, representing the isthmus of Panama;
The blue overcoat with an open golden pomegranate gules whipped and
garnished with sinople leaves, alluding to the name and sign by which this part
of the globe has been known;
The bell, a bow and a quiver with feathered gold arrows, these of blue and
gules, and one of them vertical saber, armed with gold bar behind the shield;
this surrounded by a garland of open golden pomegranates gules, whipped and
garnished with sinople leaves and flowered with purple;
Everything wrapped in three bands of gold, sinople and gules, which are the
colors of the national flag and pavilion; the motto “United Provinces of New
Granada” in gold letters on the sinple band.

History

The first coat of arms of Colombia, as a joint entity, was that originally conferred
on the city of Santa Fe de Bogotá and its province by Charles V , in the
Certificate issued in Valladolid on December 3, 1548 , and which became 1717
on the coat of arms of the Viceroyalty of New Granada . Said shield was made
up of an eagle crowned with gold in a field of gold, whose legs held two
grenades of gules , with a border of azure that had nine gold pomegranates as
a border , which, according to some sources, represented the nine provinces
that at that time time they made up the viceroyalty. Since 1932, this emblem
has been the coat of arms of Bogotá .
The coat of arms of the viceroyalty was abandoned during the time of the cry for
independence , since it sought to establish New Granada as an independent
state, and its symbols had to move as far away as possible from those adopted
during the colony, which represented ties to royalty. Spanish. Between 1810
and 1812, those provinces that did not want to remain under Spanish colonial
protection united to form the first republic in the national history of Colombia ,
which was officially called the United Provinces of New Granada and whose
capital was Tunja .
After agreeing on the way to govern the country, the representatives of each of
the regions that made up the federation met during the year of 1814 in
Congress, to reach some agreements on various matters of national interest,
among them to establish the emblems that were to be used to identify the
young republic against the others. In such Congress the delegates of the United
Provinces gave rise to the first national coat of arms of Colombia . This
contained numerous elements typical of the nascent republic: the Chimborazo
volcano , the Andean condor , the Tequendama waterfall , the isthmus of
Panama , several open grenades , a bow , a quiver and a vertical arrow ; all
surrounded by a circle with the legend “United Provinces of New Granada” .
The law that regulated it was given on July 14, 1815 and sanctioned on
November 14 of the same year, which also provided a detailed description of
the colors that the coat of arms should carry:

Colombia's flag

Colors and symbolism :

The first description of the colors that the Colombian national flag has, as well
as the interpretation of their meaning, is attributed to the Patriot Francisco
 Antonio Zea , who declared during his speech at the Angostura Congress of
1819 (congress in which he was born Gran Colombia ) the following:
Our national flag, symbol of public freedoms, of redeemed America, must have
three stripes of different colors: the first is yellow, to signify to the people that we
want and love the federation; the second blue, the color of the seas, to
demonstrate to the despots of Spain that the immensity of the ocean separates
us from their ominous yoke, and the third red, in order to make the tyrants
understand that before accepting slavery they They have imposed upon us for
three centuries, we want to drown them in our own blood, swearing war to the
death in the name of humanity; In the center of the shield we will put the image
of our Andean condor, in imitation of the Romans who placed the famous
eagles that conquered the world on their flags.
1
According to the modern interpretation of colors, these mean:

 Yellow : represents the richness of the Colombian soil, as well as the

sun, source of light, and sovereignty, harmony and justice.
 Blue : represents the sky that covers the Homeland, the rivers and the
two oceans that bathe the Colombian territory.
 Red : represents the blood shed by patriots on the battlefields to
achieve freedom, which means love, power, strength and progress.

There are many theories and legends that try to explain the reasons why
Miranda chose the colors yellow, blue and red for his flag in 1801 . One of them
is supported in a letter, which describes a conversation that the General had
with the German scholar Johann Wolfgang von Goethe about his book Theory
of Colors , at a party offered in the city of Weimar in 1785 :
First he explained to me how the iris converts light into the three primary
colors, then he showed me why yellow is the warmest, noblest and closest color to
light, why blue is that mixture of excitement and serenity, a distance that shadows
evoke, and why red is the exaltation of yellow and blue, the synthesis, the fading
of light into shadow.

It's not that the world is made of yellows, blues and reds. This is how all
human beings see it as an infinite combination of those three colors. […]

A country starts from a name and a flag and becomes them, like a man who
fulfills a destiny.

Rafael Nunez
Colombian politician, president of the Republic (1880-1882; 1884-1886)
He was born on September 28, 1825 in Cartagena de Indias .
Son of Cristian Daniel Izquierdo Muñoz, Military Chief in Panama.
At just 15 years old, during the Supreme Civil War (1840), he joined the
revolutionary side and participated in the siege of his hometown, which was
defended, among others, by his father, a supporter of the Legitimist cause.

In 1844, he graduated as a lawyer from the University of Magdalena and Istmo,

today in Cartagena. Since February 1945 he served as a defense attorney for
many poor people. He was appointed interim judge of the second circuit of
Veraguas, canton of Alanje, with residence in David (Panama). He held minor
positions until becoming governor of Bolívar (1854). Representative for the
Liberal Party, he was president of Panama and Bolívar during the validity of
the federalist constitution of 1863. Minister of Finance in several governments
and consul in Europe.

He was defeated in the 1876 elections by Aquileo Parra . President for the
periods 1880-1882 and 1884-1886. In his second term, there was a split in the
Liberal Party and he founded the conservative National Party , which provoked
the insurrection of the liberals (1885), who were defeated.
He proposed the abolition of the federalist Constitution of Rionegro (1863)
and the approval of a new, centralist Constitution (1886). In his third presidential
term (1886-1892), the person who actually exercised executive power was
Carlos Holguín . In 1892 he was elected for the fourth time, but delegated
power to vice president Miguel Antonio Caro .
On February 25, 1851, he married Dolores Gallego in Panama, with whom he
had two children. After separating on March 10, 1871, he contracted a civil
marriage with Soledad Román on July 14, 1877 in Paris, which he ratified
through a Catholic marriage on February 23, 1889.
Rafael Núñez died on September 18, 1894 in his hometown.

Jose Rozo Contreras

He began his musical training at an early age in Pamplonita , Norte de

Santander with the priest Francisco de Paula Rivera . Between 1904 and 1911
he was the organist at the church and a member of the choir. In 1913 he
voluntarily entered military service, where he served as a flutist, clarinetist and
saxophonist for the Santander Regiment Band Number 5 directed by Celestino
González Villamizar . Later he founded his first symphonic band, the "Banda
Sinfónica de Córdoba de Durania". This same year he met the soprano Carmen
García Cornejo who premiered the maestro's early vocal composition; the song
Victoria in a lyrical concert in Bucaramanga . She encouraged the young
musician to study composition and conducting in the United States or Europe.
In August 1916, appointed by the Government of Santander , specifically by the
Directorate of Public Instruction under Mr. Rozo Cala, he became a music and
singing teacher in various primary schools in Bucaramanga, a job he also
performed at the School of Arts and Crafts. of Bucaramanga and at the Men's
Normal School. During his stay in this city he was a piano and violin teacher.
His disciples were: Miryam and Paulina Gómez Cornejo, Lucila Parra, María
Helena Puyana and Roberto García Peña, Director of the newspaper “El
Tiempo” at that time. With the primary schools of Bucaramanga, it debuted on
October 12, 1916, in one of the city's parks. Maestro Alejandro Villalobos gave
him the direction of the Departmental Band to accompany the songs that
maestro Rozo Contreras had previously orchestrated.
In July 1924 he traveled to Rome where he studied violin with Oscar Zuccarini ,
first violin of the Rome Symphony Orchestra, at the same time, harmony and
counterpoint with Cesare Dobice , composition and conducting for band with
Alessandro Vessella and sacred music with the priest Raffaele Casimiri . In
1929 he traveled to Vienna to study at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium,
currently the University of Music and Dramatic Arts of Vienna, where he
completed studies in conducting and composition with Eugén Zador and Rodolf
Nilius . On December 14, 1930, his work, the Tierra Colombiana suite
(Overture, Intermezzo and Valse), was premiered by the Vienna Symphony
Orchestra under the direction of the Austrian Anton Konrath , receiving praise
from the Viennese public. He returned to Colombia on August 6, 1931. 1
Upon his arrival he was appointed director of the Norte de Santander
Symphonic Band until 1933 when he was named director of the National Band
of Bogotá in which he remained as such for 40 years. He composed the music
of the poem by Teodoro Gutiérrez Calderón , which was later adopted as the
anthem of the department of Norte de Santander, he made the transcriptions for
the symphony orchestra of the anthems of Colombia and Ecuador, and the
choral arrangements of the National Anthem of Colombia. Based on Eduardo
Carranza's poem that begins with the verse "Manizales kiss your name", he
composed the music for the current Hymn to Manizales, the current symbol of
the municipality of Manizales. He composed numerous works for voice and
piano, a capella choir, symphonic band and orchestra. He is also well known for
his numerous arrangements of Colombian music and academic Colombian
music. He died in the Colombian capital at the age of 82.

Oreste Sindici
(Ceccano, 1828 - Bogotá, 1904) Colombian tenor and composer of Italian
origin, especially remembered as the author of the Colombian national anthem.
Orphaned by his father, his mother remarried and little Oreste was left under the
care of a priest uncle. After studying at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
(Rome), he joined Egisto Petrilli's company as a tenor and performed various
operas and zarzuelas.

Oreste Sindici

Later, Síndici embarked on a tour of America with the company, during which
he performed on stages in New York, Havana, Cartagena de Indias and
Bogotá. The Maldonado Theater in Bogotá offered facilities to the company,
which would remain in the city between 1863 and 1864. After that, the company
was dissolved, and some of its members returned to Europe. Oreste Síndici
preferred to stay in Bogotá.

Settled in the city, he married Justina Jannaut in 1866, with whom he would
have four children. Retired as a tenor, he nevertheless continued dedicated to
music. He was chapelmaster, music professor at the Conciliar Seminary
between 1868 and 1876 and, from 1882, at the National Academy of Music. He
alternated these occupations with composition: in 1880 he published nine
collections of singing pieces and set to music various poems by Colombian
authors, including Rafael Pombo .
In 1887, at the request of the theater director José Domingo Torres, Oreste
Síndici undertook the composition of the music for the national anthem, whose
lyrics were a patriotic poetry in honor of Cartagena written by President Rafael
Núñez . On November 11, 1887, in a variety theater at the public school of the
Cathedral of Bogotá, and on the occasion of the celebration of the
Independence of Cartagena, the anthem was premiered. Its success was such
that President Núñez invited Síndici to present it officially. On December 6, it
was performed before the country's highest authorities at the San Carlos Palace
(currently the Museum of Colonial Art). In 1920, Congress made Síndici's
composition official as the National Anthem.

In his last years he had to mourn the death of his wife (in 1894) and his son
Oreste, who died in combat in the Thousand Days War. Retired on his farm,
from 1894 to 1897 he dedicated himself to agricultural businesses; She later
returned to Bogotá with her daughters. He died on January 12, 1904 in the
Colombian capital.