The invention of the symbols (La invención de los símbolos)

From my Dad’s book Elementary motherland (Patria elemental).

The invention of the symbols (La invención de los símbolos)

Since the city lacked old standing and lineage,

and in its infancy there were no coats of arms

nor triumphant  echoes or laurels

and everything was lost in the year seventy five,

the big bosses invented and built the symbols.

The flag was then born, without history,

but flaming, blown by the wind always spirited.

The flag is black and red but it is also blue,

because it is erected on a high pole,

tense, it blends with the purest sky

of the eternal summer in the valley and its horizon.

An identifying shield.  And an anthem

which notes are refreshed by the river breeze,

between the storm of commerce and dreams,

these two things are the moving nobility  

of the city without coats of arms nor original laurels.