Syndication News Column:
Texas
The name of the State of Texas is derived from “Tejas,” a word used by the Native American Caddo Nation to mean “friend,” according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The nickname of this state is the “Lone Star State.” The name has been in use for more than 180 years, but only became “official” in 2015. The nickname is based on one of the key symbols of the state – its flag. The image above, provided by Gordon Johnson through Pixabay, superimposes portions of the Texas flag onto to map of the state.
Indications are that the one star was used to show that Texas – “Tejas” at the time – was separating itself from Coahuila y Tejas, a state that was created by combining what had been the Spanish provinces of Coahuila and Tejas into one state of the United States of Mexico in 1824.
The flag of Coahuila y Tejas supposedly included two gold stars to represent the two areas of this specific state. When Mexico changed its governmental structure in 1835 – centralizing governmental control from Mexico City and abolishing the states as independent entities within a federal system – the territory of Coahuila y Tejas was separated into two departments – Coahuila and Tejas.
The Texas Revolution, begun in 1835, led to the establishment of the Republic of Texas in the following. The flag for the new nation included one gold star – the lone star – on a solid blue background to represent that Texas was going alone from the rest of Mexico.
The Lone Star Flag – the star was now white rather than gold in color – has been in use since at least 1839; it was adopted as the flag of the Republic of Texas, an independent nation, by the Texas Congress in that year. This flag was officially proclaimed the flag of the State of Texas in 1933.
In 2001, the State of Texas updated its description of the colors of the flag. With the adoption of Chapter 3100 on September 1, 2001, the colors red and blue of the state flag were designated as “the same colors used in the United States flag…and defined as numbers 193 (red) and 281 (dark blue) of the Pantone Matching System. The red, white, and blue of the state flag represent, respectively, bravery, purity, and loyalty.”
According to The American Legion, though, one of the official colors of the American flag is slightly different: “The exact shades of blue and red are numbers 80075 and 80180 in the Standard Color Card of America published by the Color Association of the United States. In the Pantone system the colors are: Blue PMS 282 and Red PMS 193.” The United States Department of State, in a publication dated June of 2012, also indicated that one of the official colors for the American flag is different from what was stated in the legislative act of the State of Texas. This publication stated that the official colors of the American flag include “Old Glory Blue” – “Pantone: 282C” and “Old Glory Red” – “Pantone: 193C.”
Thus, unless the State of Texas has updated the description of the colors of its flag, the color of one part of the Lone Star Flag is slightly different from the American flag. A slight difference, but a difference nonetheless.
The nickname and the flag are just two of the symbols that represent the State of Texas.
A living animal also serves as a symbol of the state – the Texas Longhorn. The Texas State Legislature named this breed of cattle as a symbol of the state as its large mammal in 1995, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
(This photo was provided by Linzmeier1 through Pixabay, 2017.)
© 2020 Richard McDonough