[Curiosities] Why are there zodiac signs on the National Shield of Ecuador?

[#Steeven.™]

Our shield was officially adopted by Congress on October 31, 1900.

The National Coat of Arms of Ecuador has a series of elements and each one of these has a meaning. Among these are four zodiac signs that have nothing to do with esotericism or similar issues, but rather that carry a very important historical connotation for the country.

Our shield was officially adopted by Congress on October 31, 1900, achieving the presidential implementation of General Eloy Alfaro on November 7, 1900. Days later, on December 5, the decree was published in the Official Gazette.

The artistic design of the current shield belongs to Pedro Pablo Traversari, becoming established until 1916 when it was approved by the Ministry of Public Instruction. But this, in turn, is an inspiration for the one attributed to José Joaquín de Olmedo, in 1845, with the colors light blue and white.

 

The elements of the Coat of Arms are:

• Condor: With its wings spread and raised in flight attitude, it is a symbol of energy and effort.
• Laurel: Represents the glory of the nation.
• Oval: Its contour has a double border of brown color with joints of the same color above and below.
• Chimborazo: The highest volcano, from whose perpetual snow the Guayas River is born.
• National flags: There are four, two on each side, before and after, which come together under the consular phases.
• Palma: Represents peace in the nation.
• Ribbon: Silk ribbon
• Poles: There are four and they crown each one of the pavilions, they are presented inclined with rhomboid metal tips.
• Caduceus: Crowned by two wings and surrounded by two serpents, an attribute of Mercury. It is a symbol of navigation and trade.
• Guayas River: Which gradually widens until it occupies the entire lower part of the Oval. Towards the sides there are banks of exuberant vegetation, an expression of national agriculture.
• Guayas steamship: It was the first to be built in South America, in 1841 in the Guayaquil shipyards. The ship has a caduceus for a mast. The colors of the ship and its flag located at the bow are those of the national flag.
• Fasces consulares: Insignia of the consuls of Rome, symbol of authority and dignity.
• Axe: (Segur) Large ax that was part of one of the fasces of the Roman lictors.
• Golden Sun: It means gold, importance for our first settlers, it is in the center, with the signs of the zodiac.
• Zodiac signs: Gemini and Cancer on the left, Aries and Taurus on the right.

March revolution
The signs of Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer correspond to the months in which the so-called Marcist Revolution took place.

This revolution was the reaction of the people of Guayaquil against the outrages and abuses of Gral. Juan José Flores -in power since 1828-, who by means of the Slavery Charter of 1843 governed the country with almost dictatorial powers and with the possibility of being enthroned in Power indefinitely, reports the Encyclopedia of Ecuador by Efrén Avilés Pino.

This circumstance was aggravated by the fact that Ecuador began to experience its first great economic crisis. In addition, among other points, the revolution served to reject foreign militarism.

The discontent of the citizens for the actions of the Flores government was felt in the main cities of the country, a situation that forced the Venezuelan to act with a strong hand to repress the revolutionary attempts, a mission that General Juan Otamendi was in charge of.

In this way, to put an end to all the evils that afflicted the country, a solution was sought in Guayaquil.

The patriots organized themselves and on March 6, 1845, a revolutionary movement with civic characteristics broke out in Guayaquil. Under the military leadership of Generals Antonio Elizalde and Fernando Ayarza -who were seconded by other soldiers- the youth of Guayaquil rose up in arms and took over the Artillery Barracks, defended by General Tomás Carlos Wright.

That same day, Governor Manuel Espantoso resigned his duties and convened a Po[CENSORED]r Assembly led by José Joaquín Olmedo and Pablo Merino Ortega in the Town Hall (where the Municipal Palace is today), the same one that, after meeting and analyze the complaints against the Florean government, ignored it and wrote a document that was called the Guayaquil Po[CENSORED]r Pronouncement.

 

Among other things, the pronouncement indicated the following:
Art. 1.- The legitimacy and authority of the current State Government is unknown, and all acts, decrees and laws that have been published after the day the current President legally ceased to be in command and ended are declared null and void. the period that was prescribed, except for the modifications that the Governing Board may provisionally dictate, until the first legislature meets.

Art. 2.- To support this statement, a Provisional Government of Ecuador is appointed, made up of three individuals, one for each of the three former departments of Quito, Cuenca and Guayaquil. This assembly will also appoint the individuals who must subrogate those who cannot at the moment be appointed by the incommunicado departments and will last until the owners appear.

Art. 3.- The laws dictated by the congresses prior to the Quito Convention will be observed; but they will be observed in everything that does not oppose the new regime required by the extraordinary circumstances in which this province is going to be placed.

 

Po[CENSORED]r insurrection
The civic fervor of the people of Guayaquil exploded in a po[CENSORED]r insurrection, and the Cabildo and the entire town _echoing the action of arms_ ignored the Flores government and named a Provisional Government made up of José Joaquín Olmedo, Vicente Ramón Roca and Diego Noboa, in representation of the former departments of Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca, respectively.

The triumvirate of Olmedo, Roca and Noboa was maintained until the National Convention met (October 1845), in charge of reorganizing the Republic.

The Provisional Government then appointed General Antonio Elizalde as General in Chief of the Army and, under the inspiration of Olmedo, imposed the new national symbols -shield and flag- with the light blue and white colors of Guayaquil.

The first step that the Governing Board carried out was to spread the revolutionary movement along the entire coast, to then continue towards the mountains.

Flores arranged for Otamendi to take charge of ending the revolt. However, the government's actions were useless, because the people of Guayaquil went to the barracks to participate in the fight.

Otamendi and his forces advanced to the La Elvira hacienda, owned by Flores, in Babahoyo. On May 3, the Guayaquil forces commanded by General Elizalde also arrived in that area, besieging the government supporters entrenched there by land and water.

Flores himself was present at his hacienda to confront the revolutionaries. However, by then General Juan Illingworth and his men had already joined the revolutionary cause. Thus, riots also broke out in Alausí, Loja, Cuenca, Cayambe, Tabacundo and Machachi in favor of the process, with which Flores's communications with Quito were cut off.

The Encyclopedia of Ecuador details that on May 16, José María Urbina, already promoted to General, left Portoviejo in command of the II Division of the Army made up of 1,200 chosen men, making his triumphant entry into Guayaquil on the 27th of the same month. His presence in Guayaquil decided the military fate of the civil war.

Then the revolutionary forces were placed under the command of General Fernando Ayarza, who applied all his military experience _acquired during the struggles for independence_ to finally achieve, after fierce fighting, the capitulation of the government forces.

Before his surrender, Flores demanded that a treaty also be signed through which benefits are provided for him and all his followers. This is how the so-called Treaty of La Virginia arose, which was signed on June 17 and 18 at the Olmedo hacienda, in Babahoyo.

With this document, Florean domination ended and the 'Marcista' period began.

The National Convention meeting in Cuenca, under the presidency of Pablo Merino, who also presented a design of this same shield on October 30, 1845, a work attributed to Olmedo, established the following regarding the coat of arms through the decree issued on 6 November of that same year.

The document begins with the following: "The arms of Ecuador will be an oval shield that contains inside, in the upper part, the Sun with those portions of the elliptical in which the signs corresponding to the memorable months of March, April, May and June".

In this way these historical events were immortalized on the shield, through the zodiac signs of Aries (March), Taurus (April), Gemini (May) and Cancer (June).

 

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/ecuador/por-que-hay-signos-zodiacales-en-el-escudo-nacional-del-ecuador-nota/