![[Flag of
Laguna, SC (Brazil)]](../images/b/br-sc-lg.gif)
image by Ivan Sache,
4 November 2021 
Last modified: 2021-12-11 by ian macdonald
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image by Ivan Sache,
4 November 2021
The municipality of Laguna (44,982 inhabitants in 2016; 33,640 ha) is located
120 km south of Florianópolis.
Laguna was founded on 29 July 1676 by the
pioneer Domingos de Brito Peixoto, as Santo Antônio dos Anjos de Laguna; the
founder erected a small chapel but the area remained hardly populated for the
next decades.
According to historian Antônio Carlos Marega, Laguna was
actually settled in two steps. Colonists coming from the Azores settled the
coastal area around 1740, in search of fish and fertile soil. In the second half
of the 19th century, "continental" Portuguese boosted the town's economic
development and founded the lineages that would subsequently rule the town.
The municipality of Laguna was established by Provincial Law no. 239 promulgated
on 15 April 1847.
Once Santa Catarina's 4th most populated municipality
and a main coal-exporting port, Laguna declined after the Second World War due
to the establishment of the port of Imbituba and failed attempts of
industrialization; the inauguration of road BR-101 and of the Cabeçuda bridge
moved the economical center of south Laguna to other places, for instance,
Tubarão.
Laguna was the capital of the short-lived separatist Catarinense
/ Julian Republic, established during the Ragamuffin War after the imperial
troops had regained control of the ports and rivers of Rio Grande do Sul. The
rebels, led by David Canabarro and Teixeira Nunes and supported by Giuseppe
Garibaldi, seized the town, where the Municipal Chamber proclaimed the
secessionist republic on 29 July 1839.
On 4 November 1839, a naval battle was
fought in Imbituba between the rebels and the imperial troops. On 9 November,
pushed by Canabarro, Garibaldi attacked the neighboring town of Imaruí; the
episode is known as the Sack of Imaruí, since the rebelled soldiers, suffering
from cold and hunger, robbed clothes and food from the town's inhabitants.
On
15 November 1839, the rebels were defeated during this naval battle of Barra de
Laguna and had to evacuate Laguna.
Laguna is the proud birth town of Anna
Maria de Jesus Ribeiro (1821-1849), subsequently Anita Garibaldi. Anna, aged 18,
met the famous Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, aged 32, on 20 July
1839 in Laguna.
Anita fought in the first line during the naval battle of
Imbituba fought on 4 November. In January 1840, Anita was captured in
Curitibanos, near river Marombas. Colonel Alburquerque allowed her to survey the
battlefield to find Garibaldi's body; convinced that he had not been killed,
Anita escaped and joined Garibaldi withdrawing to Mostardas, Rio Grande do Sul.
When the town was attacked by the imperial troops in September 1840, Garibaldi
left; Anita followed him, riding a horse and holding in her arms her newborn
son. In 1841, they move to Uruguay to defend, along with Italian immigrants, the
country invaded by the Argentine dictator Juan Manuel Rosas. Giuseppe and Anita
married on 26 March 1842.
Anita moved to Italy in 1848 with her four children
to support the campaign for Italian unification. She stayed at her mother-in-law
house in Nice. Giuseppe Garibaldi and 60 "red shirts" from Uruguay offered in
June their support to Charles-Albert, the king of Piedmont-Sardinia he had
attempted to overthrow in 1834 and who had sentenced him to death. Anita joined
her husband in Florence and Rieti, returning to Nice only because of an illness.
In June 1849, while expecting her fifth child, she crossed the territory under
Austrian control to join the troops of Garibaldi that defended the Roman
Republic besieged by the French.
After the surrender of Rome, Garibaldi
headed to Venice to carry on the fight. Anita followed him, dressed like a man.
On 1 August, they boarded on a boat in Cesenatica, chased by an Austrian fleet.
They eventually landed on a desert beach; two days later, Anita died, probably
from malaria, in a farm located in the village of Mandriole, near Ravenna.
Chased by the Austrians, Giuseppe could not attend Anita's funeral.
Giuseppe
and Anita's elder son, Domenico Menotti Garibaldi (1840-1903) was a main pusher
of the Italian unification; with his brother Ricciotti, he was part of the
Expedition of the Thousand (indeed 1,089 soldiers), which conquered the Kingdom
of the Two Sicilies and completed the Italian unification.
Laguna was
proclaimed the National Capital of Fishing Dolphins by Federal Law No. 13,816
promulgated in 2015. Half of the resident dolphin population (25 out of 50
individuals) have developed a cooperative fishing system with human fiwhers,
encircling mullet schools and giving to fishers a signal for net throwing. While
the dolphin species (Tursiops truncatus, the common bottlenose dolphin)
is present all along the Brazilian coasts, cooperative behavior has not been
observed elsewhere than in Laguna.
https://www.laguna.sc.gov.br/
Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 4 November 2021
The flag of Laguna was originally prescribed by Municipal Law No. 1
promulgated on 17 March 1971.
Article 1.
§1. The flag shall have the
following characteristics.
Dimensions 2.00 m x 1.40 m, in three horizontal
stripes, the upper, green of 0.50 m in width, the central, of 0.40 m in width,
white, and the lower, yellow, of 0.50 m in width. On the central stripe in a
semi-circular pattern the motto "Ad Meridiul Brasilian Duxi".
https://leismunicipais.com.br/a/sc/l/laguna/lei-ordinaria/1971/1/1/lei-ordinaria-n-1-1971-dispoe-sobre-os-simbolos-do-municipio
Leis Municipais database
The flag was modified by Municipal Law No. 33
promulgated on 2 September 1975.
Article 1.
§1. The flag shall have
the following characteristics.
Dimensions 2.00 m x 1.40 m, in three
horizontal stripes, the upper, green of 0.50 m in width, the central, of 0.40 m
in width, white, and the lower, yellow, of 0.50 m in width. On the central
stripe on the two sides of the flag are featured the official arms of the
municipality approved by Resolution No. 44 issued on 14 May 1932.
https://leismunicipais.com.br/a/sc/l/laguna/lei-ordinaria/1975/3/33/lei-ordinaria-n-33-1975-altera-o-1-da-lei-n-01-71-de-17-de-marco-de-1971
Leis Municipais database
The description was rephrased and detailed by
Municipal Law No. 18 promulgated on 2 June 1977.
Article 1.
§1. The
flag of the municipality of Laguna shall have the following specifications and
dimensions.
Dimensions: 11 units in length on 8 units in width.
Specifications: Three horizontal stripes, the upper, green, the central, white,
and the lower, yellow.
Center: Coat of arms, 2.2 units from the lower
horizontal edge to the scroll and 2.2 units from the central tower. The
supporters, dexter and sinister, 3.5 units from the vertical edges.
https://leismunicipais.com.br/a/sc/l/laguna/lei-ordinaria/1977/1/18/lei-ordinaria-n-18-1977-altera-o-artigo-1-da-lei-n-33-75
Leis Municipais database
Whatever the text say, flags in actual use have
the central whita stripe slightly wider than the two other ones.
Photos
https://agoralaguna.com.br/2021/07/soacho-chora-nao-coleguinha/
https://portal.tjsc.jus.br/web/sala-de-imprensa/-/comarca-de-laguna-comemorou-de-forma-intensa-a-passagem-de-seu-160º-aniversario
https://www.facebook.com/PrefeituraLaguna/photos/4121434014592852
The
coat of arms of Laguna is prescribed by Resolution No. 44 promulgated on 14 May
1932.
The arms of the municipality of Laguna shall be composed a
rounded-off Portuguese shield, tierced per fess and surmounted by the mural
crown proper to municipalities.
In the chief third, on a blue field, two
white angels ["anjoas"] on blue water holding a medallion featuring an image of
St. Anthony, which makes the arms canting - for Santo Antônio dos Anjos de
Laguna.
In the central third, on a red field, the old Portuguese heraldic
attributes of names Brito, Magalhães and Bandeira, that is, a tower for Brito, a
cross flory for Magalhães, and a golden banner ["bandeira"] charged with a blue
lion for Bandeira. This recalls the audacious pioneers who founded the nucleus
of Laguna: Domingos de Brito Peixoto and his sons, Francisco de Brito Peixoto
and Sebastião de Brito Peixoto, and his son, João de Magalhães, and the noted
role played by Laguna-born Rafael Pinto Bandeira in the incorporation of Rio
Grande do Sul to Brazil.
In the lower third, the coat of arms of the Julian
Republic with the motto "Libertade, Igualdade, Humanidade" (Liberry, Equality,
Humanity) adopted by the "Ragamuffins".
As supporters, dexter a São Paulo
pioneer clad with the traditional hunting jacket, and sinister a soldier from
the glorious Santa Catarinense Barriga-Verdes (Green Bellies) regiment. On the
scroll the motto recalling the contribution of Laguna to national expansion, "AD
MERIDIEM BRASILIAM DUXI" (Latin, I raised Brazil in the south).
These
arms were offered to the municipality of Laguna by Afonso d'Escragnolle Taunay
(1876-1958). Known as "the São Paulo historian" for his numerous contributions,
the monumental "História geral das bandeiras paulistas" (11 volumes, 1924-1950)
and "História do café no Brasil" (15 volumes, 1939-1943), Afonso de Taunay was
born in Nostra Senhora de Desterro (today, Florianópolis) from Viscount de
Taunay (1843-1899), then President of the Santa Catarina province. He designed
the arms of several municipalities in São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro
and Bania, and of four Santa Catarina municipalities: Blumenau, Joinville,
Laguna and São Francisco do Sul.
Afonso de Taunay explained the design of the
arms of Laguna in an article published in 1936 in "Anais do Museo Paulista".
"The 'canting arms' of the town recall the acts of the great pioneers, founders
of Laguna and conquerors of Rio Grande do Sul and the significant episode of the
Julian Republic, proclaimed by the Riograndense Ragamuffins in June 1839. This
caused on 15 November 1839 a bloody fighting during which the imperial land and
naval forces, led by Captain of the Sea and of War Mariath and Brigadier Gama
Lobo, defeated David Canabarro and Garibaldi's Ragamuffins, suppressing the
local republican government led by Colonel Neves and Vica Cordeiro.
[...]
For the design of the shield, we relied on the excellent iconographical
collections of our illustrious peers, the Boiteux brothers, scholars and
passionate defenders of the Santa Catarina traditionalism. Admiral Henrique
Boiteux, author of the ultimate monograph on the Julian Republic, forwarded us
a reproduction of the separatist coat of arms. Commander Lucas A. Boiteux
offered a unique reproduction of the uniform of the Green Bellies, which had
been drawn after an actual uniform. The image of St. Anthony carried by the
angels is based on the statue of the saint brought to Laguna by the first
colonists."
The coats of arms designed by Afonso de Taunay were far from
being compliant with norms of heraldry. In articles published in 1931 and 1932
in the Journal de Commércio (Rio de Janeiro), the historian admitted that he
really enjoyed designing arms but that his heraldic knowledge was extremely
limited and that he would not care increasing it. His designs often include too
many quarters and escutcheons arbitrarily arranged, break the tincture rule and
use inappropriate outer ornaments. The blazons use inappropriate or erroneous
heraldic terms, mix heraldic description and symbolic meaning; it was also
pointed out that the description of family arms is sometimes incomplete or
fanciful.
The new Constitution promulgated on 10 November 1937 in the
aftermath of the 1930 Revolution abolished the coat of arms of the Brazilian
states and municipalities. The next Constitution, promulgated in September 1946
re-established them. Oddly enough, Laguna kept using the arms designed by Afonso
de Taunay and officially re-adopted them only in 1971 by the aforementioned Law
No. 1 that prescribes the flag.
Article 2.
The coat of arms shall be
the one adopted by Resolution No. 44 issued on 14 May 1932.
https://agora.emnuvens.com.br/ra/article/view/34
Edison Mueller. 1986. Afonso
de Tunay e a heráldica municipal catarinense. Conclusão do numéro anterior.
ÁGORA: Arquivologia Em Debate, 2(4), 10-23
Ivan Sache, 4 November 2021
